Page 36 of Possessive

"So we can kill him slowly and painfully," Gianni added. He sounded very much like he was looking forward to it.

"You might as well go in." Damon spoke behind me, making me startle violently. He gave me a glance before walking past and into the kitchen. Not laughing at me, nor apologetic. He didn't seem to care one way or another if I stayed out in the corridor or joined the conversation.

I was torn between wanting to keep my presence a secret and needing to see Daisy Lasalle for myself.

With the full knowledge my cousin Ric might also be present, I stepped into the kitchen.

Several people sat at the table, including Reuben. Gianni leaned against the island, a coffee mug in his hand with the logo of the Dusk Bay Demons ice hockey team on the side. From what I understood, Reuben's brother Caleb owned the team. Not because he cared about hockey, it was another front for the family.

Everyone turned to look at me as I entered the room. Ric looked at me with surprise, but it was Daisy who caught and held my eyes. She looked enough like her brother to give me chills, but she had the empathy he completely lacked.

She rose from her seat and came to put her arms around me. "If I had a clue what he was doing, I would have put a stop to it. You have to believe I never would have let you go through what he put you through. When I catch up to him, I'm going to kick his sorry ass."

I froze when she touched me, but gradually managed to relax enough to quickly hug her back before I pulled away again.

"I believe you." She wouldn't be here if Reuben didn't think she was sincere. Unless this was some kind of test. Presumably she passed or he wouldn't have allowed her anywhere near me.

"This is a surprise." Ric also stood, but made no move to step towards me. "You grew up, cousin."

"So did you." I wasn't close to him or his brother, but I'd seen him often enough to notice the difference. Only a couple of years older than me, he was barely more than a teenager himself the last time we met.

"Reuben tells me you don't want the rest of the family to know you're here," Ric said. Judging by the expression on his face, he was told something along the lines of, 'tell anyone and you're dead.'

I glanced over to Reuben, who watched everything with his usual measured interest.

"That's right," I said softly. "I'll tell them everything when I'm ready." I couldn't put it off forever, but I could put it off for now.

"They won't hear it from us," Daisy said. "Right, Ric?"

He sat back down and gave her an affectionate smile. "Daze already told me she'd kick me so hard in the balls they'd retreat back up into my body and stay there. Since I'm attached to their current location, I'll keep my mouth shut."

Daisy grinned. "I didn't actually need to threaten him. He already knows what I would have done." She sat back down beside him.

I slipped into a chair beside Reuben and nodded my thanks to Terry who placed coffee in front of me. "I heard you talking about Kurt."

The mood of the kitchen dipped.

"I had no idea the extent of the shit he was up to," Ric said. "As you know, I've been tracking missing shipments for a while now, but haven't been able to pin down who was behind them. I came to the conclusion it was an inside job, but he was good at covering his tracks. Now we know where to look, it should be a lot easier. So far, I've uncovered at least a dozen redirected shipments of gems spanning the last two to three years. Some of those were believed to be intercepted by the cops."

"You think he was behind all of that?" Damon asked. He stood with his shoulder against the wall, legs crossed at his ankles.

Ric looked up at him. "Some of it. A couple of those shipments were stolen on the way to the police lock-up. Others, I suspect never made it into police hands. We were told what happened, but clearly that was a load of bullshit."

"You looked into it?" Reuben asked.

Ric's gaze swivelled to him. "On your orders or those of Caleb, we did. Kurt and anyone working with him was considered a trusted source at the time. This happens once or twice and you can blame outside sources, but after a while it became obvious someone working with us was working against us."

He let out a frustrated breath and shook his head. "If we'd figured it out sooner…" He shot me an apologetic look.

"Kurt was smart enough to spread out these redirections," Damon said. "At least, at the beginning."

"He got cocky," Daisy said. "He got away with it enough times to think he could keep doing that. He must have realised it wouldn't go unnoticed."

"It's likely he got desperate," Damon said. "He knew, or at least sensed, that Ric was onto him. It was only a matter of time before we figured it all out. And we did. He was probably as active as he dared to be, in preparation for fucking off and hiding."

"So he could be anywhere in the world," I said. "With enough money to hide for the rest of his life."

"He could hide for the rest of his life from honest people," Reuben said. "We have resources they don't have."