Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

DAMON

I frowned at my phone as I stepped past Mina's room. It was only a matter of time before Reuben or Gianni moved her into theirs, or stayed with her.

The idea set off a flare of anger inside me. Not just because she was a distraction, although she was.

The real reason… I wasn't ready to admit it to myself. My feelings for Reuben, Gianni and Mina were complicated.

I didn't do complicated. I didn't like complicated. I liked my life straightforward, carefully planned.

The message on my phone threatened to disrupt that planning.

A sound from inside her room did the same.

The door was ajar, as it often was. I presumed she didn't want to sleep in a fully enclosed space after what she'd been through.

I peered through the gap. A hint of light shone between the curtains, illuminating a single form on the middle of the bed, wrapped in blankets.

Also nothing new. She was fucked up. Who wouldn't be?

I shoved my phone into my pocket and pushed the door open.

"Mina?" I whispered. If she was asleep, I didn't want to wake her, but I sensed she was awake already. That was confirmed when she startled so violently she almost rolled off the bed onto the floor.

I lurched forward and grabbed her at the last moment.

She whimpered and flinched away, pushing the blankets off and retreating to the head of the bed, where she curled into a tiny ball. Her whole body shook, eyes wide, staring at me as if she'd never seen me before.

"Hey." I sat down far enough from her to give her some space. Close enough to… I didn't know what.

I considered calling for Reuben or Gianni, but couldn't bring myself to move. "Rough night?"

She'd had nightmares since we found her, some nights screaming in her sleep. Others crying out and thrashing before falling still. This felt like something else entirely.

"What happened?" If Reuben or Gianni did anything to her…

I mentally shook my head. If they did, it wasn't on purpose. They were both gone, as far as she was concerned. They'd cut their own throats before they lay a hand on her in a way she didn't want them to.

Who then? The twins weren't here and they wouldn't touch her either. Reuben wouldn't hesitate to put them both in a shallow grave. Blood ties only went so far.

Her face was as pale as the first time I saw her. In the light, her freckles would stand out. In the gloom, she looked like death.

"Bad dream," she said softly. "I was back in the cage."

"The thing about spending all my time around criminals and liars is that I can pick a liar from days away," I said slowly. "Something else happened. What was it?"

She slid a hand under the blanket near her foot. For a moment, I thought she was going to pull out a weapon.

My body tensed, ready to defend myself.

Instead, she pulled out a phone.

"The pass code is four, three, two, one." She handed me the phone.

I frowned at her, then at the phone. "Okay." I tapped on the screen and entered the pass code. An app was already open on the phone. One that contained photos and videos.

I felt the blood drain out of my face. "Fucking hell, where did you get this?"

She shook her head and curled up again, the blankets up to her chin.

I shook my head and looked down at photo after photo of her. She couldn't have been more than eighteen.

A few candid ones showed her smiling and laughing with her siblings.

After those, were at least twenty of her lying naked, eyes closed. The bars of the cage were around her, the strap on her ankle. She looked peaceful, unaware she was about to wake up in hell.

I found myself clicking on a video, and immediately wished I hadn't. She was still unconscious, but Kurt was laughing, opening her legs and climbing on top of her…

I closed the video and turned off the phone. No wonder she'd unravelled. This would have brought everything back to her like a blade in her heart. Tore open wounds that were finally starting to heal.

"How did you get this?" I asked again. "Did someone send it to you? Let me guess, Kurt." He'd do anything to mess with her mind. He knew all the buttons to push to drive her over the edge. "How long have you had this?"

She didn't answer. I wanted to shake it out of her, but that might be the thing that broke her completely. None of that mattered as much as what we needed to do next.

I tossed the phone onto the bedside table and scooted over closer to her. "I saw you kill a woman. I know you killed that attacker the other night, before they could get to Reuben. You shot those other assholes in the foot. You might be the shadow, but you're a badass. Those photos, that was the old you. You survived all of that. None of that is your life anymore. You're here now, with us."

I placed the tips of my fingers on her shoulder. She twitched, but didn't flinch away.

"Someone took those photos," she whispered. "That video. Someone took them and didn't stop him. They stood there with that phone filming him while he…" She swallowed audibly.

"Do you know who?" I asked. Whoever they were, they'd be missing every finger they used to hold that phone if I got a hold of them.

She shook her head slowly. "I remember one of the men. A friend of Kurt's. His name is Stefan Lowe."

"He won't be a problem anymore," I said. "I just got a message from one of my contacts that he was killed tonight. It seems like someone took a contract out with the Sparrow to end him. I don't suppose you sent the Sparrow after him?"

I was joking, but something about her demeanour shifted slightly. Something that drew both my attention and my suspicion.

"Mina?" I tightened my grip on her shoulder slightly.

"People like Stefan make lots of enemies," she said, her voice empty. "He got what he deserved."

I frowned. "You didn't tell me how you got that phone. No one has been in or out of the house all night. I'd know if they had. They would have set off the alarm. Unless they turned it off. Was it Gianni?" He was known to slip out every now and again, for reasons of his own. Reuben was aware of his movements, so I never questioned it.

"Was it you?" I asked. "You went somewhere in the middle of the night?"

She didn't answer, but I knew I was right. "Where did you go? Did you kill Stefan? That's where the phone came from." I was missing something, but I couldn't figure out what.

"You can't tell Reuben," she whispered.

"The hell I can't." I started to stand.

She grabbed my wrist and held on with a grip that was surprisingly firm. "You don't understand."

I lowered myself back down, pulled my wrist away from her and crossed my arms. "Then make me understand. What the fuck were you doing leaving the house in the middle of the night by yourself? Did you kill Stefan?"

She closed her eyes. "Yes. I remembered him from before and tracked him down. I thought he might know where Kurt was. He gave me the name of someone who used to work for Kurt. Leon Graves. Then I killed him." She told me about the locked room and finding the phone in the box under the bed.

"I don't understand why you thought you needed to do that alone," I said, while still trying to process everything. "We would have gone with you. You're the one who calls this a family, but you felt like you needed to do that by yourself?"

Her tongue darted over her lips. "I wanted to face him myself. I wanted to look him in the eye and know he was another piece of the past I was putting behind me."

"You could have done that with us there," I insisted. I ran through the conversation in my mind and sat back.

Realisation struck me like a hammer.

"I should have seen it," I said, trying to maintain my composure. "Now I think about it, it's fucking obvious. You were gone for five years. So was the Sparrow."

If realisation was a hammer, it hit right on the head of the nail. She didn't move. Didn't breathe.

"You didn't need to hire an assassin to kill Stefan Lowe," I concluded. "You are one. Or you were."

"I still am," she said softly.

I couldn't understand why the hell that was hot, but it fucking was. Mina DiMarco was the Sparrow. Of all people in the fucking world. She was right here, in Reuben's house, where I also lived. Lying on a bed wrapped in blankets, cracked but not broken.

No wonder she survived all those years. She would have learned a variety of techniques to control her emotions, all of which she would have used, possibly daily.

"You're the fucking Sparrow," I said. My brain spun. "You know Reuben has to know. Gianni too. We can't keep this from them. If you don't tell them, I will."

"Or I could kill you to keep you from saying anything, and make it look like an accident," she said. Her expression was so mild, I wondered what else she got away with.

She might be the best actor I ever met. Sweet on the outside, deadly on the inside.

The perfect woman. Fuck, apparently Reuben and Gianni weren't the only ones who were gone.

"You wouldn't do that," I said.

She cocked her head at me. "Wouldn't I?"

"No, you wouldn't," I said. "First of all, you would devastate Reuben and Gianni. Secondly, you still need me to find Kurt. Third, I know you have a thing for me. Just like you do for them."

She straightened her head and hummed, before replying to each point, one at a time. "They'd get over it. That's an assumption, and that's also an assumption."

I lowered my hands to my thighs and smirked. "No they wouldn't, and both of those are correct. Right now, you're thinking of kissing me."

I'd kiss her if I hadn't found her in a huddle of blankets. Those photos would set her back. Freaking her out would do even worse.

Fuck Kurt fucking Lasalle. And fuck Stefan Lowe for keeping that phone. And fuck him harder for taking that video in the first place. They were both sick. She was right, Stefan got what he deserved. I just wished I'd been there to see it.

"How do you fit that ego inside this house?" she asked.

"It's not ego, it's fact," I said. "I'm actually very humble."

She snorted softly. "You're full of shit."

"You wouldn't be the first to say that," I replied. "Probably not the last either. None of that means I'm wrong."

"You're right," she whispered. She wasn't talking about her attraction to me. "You would have gone with me. If you had, I wouldn't have seen those photos. Not if one of you found that phone first."

"No fucking way we'd let you look," I agreed. I wanted to bleach my eyeballs after seeing the video of Kurt. All of this must be a million times worse for her.

"He doesn't get to win," she said in a shaky voice. "I won't let him."

" We won't let him," I corrected. "Family, remember? Even if we are dysfunctional." That was an understatement.

"Right." She raised a hand tentatively and pressed the tips of her fingers against my lips.

I kissed her soft, warm skin. A jolt of electricity passed all the way through me, but I made no move toward her. This intimacy was enough, for now.

"You're still a distraction," I teased.

She managed a faint smile. "You're still an asshole."

"Absolutely correct," I said. "I hear Terry in the kitchen. Reuben and Gianni will be up soon, if they're not already. If you're not down in the kitchen for breakfast, I'll tell them without you."