Page 25 of Possessive

"Breakfast will be served soon," he said. "If you're up to eating."

He looked indifferent to the idea of food, as though he only ate because he had to, not because he cared about cuisine. What did he care about, apart from books and his family?

If the twins were open books, Reuben was one whose pages were shut tight and locked, the key hidden from the world. What would it take to break that lock? Why did I want to? He intrigued me. Many people found him intimidating, but I never had. To me, I saw a complicated man behind a stony façade. A mystery to be solved.

There was more to him than just a callous mobster, although he was undeniably that too. He'd have people killed without a second thought, but he's always looked at me like I was also a puzzle he wanted to figure out.

I hadn't realised until now that we were so alike.

"I am," I agreed. "I won't be long." Especially now I realised the smell of bacon was wafting through the house. It was good enough to make my mouth water, even as my stomach twinged in warning.

He sat back in his chair and nodded. "I'll wait for you in the kitchen in about ten minutes."

I nodded quickly and turned to make my way back up the stairs, one careful step at a time.

CHAPTER 10

REUBEN

If I was ever going to slam my fist down onto a tabletop, it would be now.

Inside, my blood was boiling. I kept it contained, kept my exterior calm, if tense.

"Even if Kurt Lasalle was dead, we should be able to find him," I said. "No one disappears off the face of the fucking planet unless we have a hand in it."

"It's possible Samuel Bell or someone else dealt with him," Damon said.

"If Bell did, he'd leave tracks in the sand deeper than his asshole," Gianni said.

I grimaced at that analogy. Bell didn't have the finesse we did, but the last place I wanted my thoughts to go was his asshole.

"Is there any chance he convinced his sister to harbour him?" I asked.

I didn’t want to have to deal with Daisy, or Mina's cousin Ric, but if they were hiding Kurt, I'd have no choice. I suspected if they were, Mina wouldn't want me to be gentle with her cousin either. Not if he was complicit in what happened to her. It wouldn't matter if he was her cousin or a complete stranger. She'd want his head in a bag beside Kurt's.

Her comment about finding his disembodied head instead of clothes made my blood surge and my balls take notice.

There was something incredibly arousing about women who liked revenge. She was completely serious about wanting to see him dead in front of her. She wouldn't have flinched. At least, she wouldn't regret it if he was dead.

Seeing a part of him, without warning, may have served as a trigger. One that no one in this room would have blamed her for. No, we'd hold her close while Kurt's blood seeped into a puddle on the hardwood floor.

Damon shook his head. "I spoke to Caleb this morning. He said there's no way in hell Daisy would protect her brother. She was pissed when she found out what he did."

Caleb was probably pissed at getting a call from Damon instead of me. The second oldest in the family, my brother tended to believe in his own importance. He was useful, or he wouldn't have the responsibilities he did, but sometimes he came too close to overstepping.

I nodded slowly in response. "We have contracts out on Kurt?" I knew the answer, but I asked the question anyway.

"Every mercenary, hitman and assassin," Damon said. "All vying for a substantial amount of money." He'd questioned the need to offer that much, but I insisted. I would have offered double if it meant Kurt was found faster. Triple. I'd stipulated that he was to be brought in alive. His death was a last resort.

"I bet the Sparrow would have found him," Gianni drawled. "If anyone could, they could."

I grunted my agreement. When they were active, the Sparrow was one of the most skilled and feared assassins in the business. No one knew who they were, including me, which still irritated me after so long. No one knew why they'd gone inactive either.

They took a job a few years back, completed it and disappeared. Speculation was rife, as was to be expected. Maybe the Sparrow was dead. Maybe they made enough money to retire and were living quietly in a house beside a forest, where there were no people around for days.

If that was the case, I envied them. I owned a house like that, but didn't go there nearly enough. Maybe now I would, since I had more reason to spend time there. I could show Mina the place. I had a feeling she'd love the calm, the nature, the roaring fire in the massive fireplace. It was the perfect place to stop, think and just be.

"Given we don't have help from the Sparrow, we'll have to rely on what resources we do have," I said.