Page 30 of Possessive

Damon had his gun out, aiming at her. The twins had theirs trained on her too.

"Did you know about the basement?" Reuben asked, an underlying warning in his tone. Warning of what, I wasn't sure. If she knew about the basement, she was dead. If she didn't…

I couldn't guess what he'd order to be done with her.

She looked confused. "What basement? All I know is that I went to one address to keep him updated with the operation here. Benny went too, at different times." She jerked her head towards another man, his hair cropped close to his scalp.

"You never went down into the basement?" Gianni asked. "I thought that was where Kurt kept all the weapons?" He spoke lightly, like maybe Kurt kept pinball machines down there or something.

"We were never allowed down there," Benny said.

All the guns were now pointed at him.

"Oh, you knew about the basement," Gianni said with a smile. "Did he tell you why you weren't allowed down there?"

Benny's eyes shifted back and forth. He swallowed physically.

Hunter cocked his gun. "Answer the question."

"He once said something about keeping someone down there," Benny said, his voice high. "He didn't say that to me, I overheard him talking to someone else. He laughed about it. I thought maybe…maybe he was trafficking women and kept them down there. It was none of my business."

"You never thought to check, in case there was something else going on?" Damon asked. "He might have had his mother down there."

"Like I said, it was none of my business." Benny raised his chin defiantly. "I wasn't paid to stick my nose into his personal business. If a guy wants to keep his mother in the basement, that's up to him."

I flinched at the sound of a gunshot and a spray of blood and brains. The back half of Benny's head was gone before he slumped down onto the floor.

"Oops," Hunter said. "My finger slipped."

"If yours hadn't, mine would have," Parker said. "What sort of asshole doesn't care if another asshole has his mother in the basement?"

"A dead one," Damon said. He looked around at the remaining prisoners, most of whom were cowering together. "Anyone else want to supply some useful information?" He raised his eyebrow at the woman who seemed to know more than the rest.

While silence fell, my eyes went to Benny. His eyes were open, staring. I should have been horrified, but I'd seen enough death that it hadn't bothered me, not for a long time. If anything, the idea of someone who might have been able to help me, but didn't, lying dead near my feet was arousing. Almost as much as if I'd done it myself.

I looked back up and locked eyes with the other woman. She tried to look away, but not before I saw something in her expression.

"You knew, didn't you?" I said softly. I was vaguely aware of everyone turning to me. "I don't just recognise your voice from hearing it above me. I heard it before that. When I was drugged and taken down there. People carried me and you were giving them orders to do it."

"Orders on Kurt's behalf," she said calmly.

"You still followed them," I said. I took a step towards her. "You knew I was there the whole time and you did nothing. You knew what he was doing to me."

"I had an idea," she said. She offered no further explanation.

"Fucking hell," someone whispered. I thought it might have been Parker.

"Damon—" Reuben started.

I put up my hand towards him. "No. Gianni." I held out my other hand until he placed a knife across my fingers. I curled my hand around the hilt, feeling the familiar, cool steel.

I took a step forward towards the woman.

The twins took steps back, but their guns remained trained on her head. They didn't need to. The woman didn't flinch as I sliced open her throat.

CHAPTER 12

REUBEN