Page 33 of Corrupted

We all knew that was unlikely. People like her knew how to disappear without a trace. At this point, she didn't matter all that much. What mattered was, what was Kurt up to while we were looking in a different direction?

CHAPTER 12

MINA

Damon directed Enzo and Angelina to a room in the house, where they promptly disappeared, closing the door behind them. Bianca, with several rolls of her eyes, disappeared into a room on the other side of the corridor.

She muttered something that sounded like, "Far enough away that I don't have to listen to them fuck."

Damon grimaced and headed back down the stairs.

I followed him, watching the tension in his shoulder and back. He looked stiffer than a column of stone. Hard, but not brittle. Nothing about him was fragile, in spite of Enzo pushing his patience to its limits.

We reached the lower level as the twins returned.

"Just as you said, there's no sign of Martina," Hunter said. "The entire house was empty."

"Personally, I'm impressed at how quickly she cleaned the place out," Parker said. "It couldn't have been more than a handful of hours."

"She had help." Reuben stood with his hip against the kitchen island, a glass of whiskey in his hand.

"Probably lots of it," Gianni agreed. "The question is, from whom?"

Reuben shook his head. "It doesn't matter now. I'll have Caleb keep an eye on the chatter about her. She'll turn up sooner or later."

"People like her always do," Hunter said. "Like a proverbial bad smell."

"Like you two?" Gianni teased.

"Exactly," Hunter said, not rising to the bait. "They can't keep people like us down. Right, Park?"

"Right," Parker agreed. "On a scale of one to a hundred, how much did you piss of the Vipers?"

"Nothing we can't handle." Reuben took a sip of his drink. "They know we could squash them if we wanted to. Or cut them off from our supply of goods."

The second one would hurt them worse than the first. They could fight off an attack, but not being able to get shipments would bring them to their knees within weeks, if not days.

Reuben could sell contraband elsewhere, but if no one would sell to the Vipers, they were fucked.

"I'm sorry I missed all the fun," Hunter said. "Did you really throw a knife at Carlos Jones?"

"Yes, I did," I said. "And I'd do it again. I will if he keeps trying to sell his sister."

"He's probably going to claim you tried to kill him, but missed," Gianni said.

"Of course he is." I shrugged. A man like him wasn't going to let the truth get in the way of his…manly reputation. He'd lie to save face.

No doubt everyone there, those who worked for him, would agree with his claim.

I didn't give a shit, we knew the truth. If his ego couldn't deal with that, that was his problem. I knew the extent of my abilities.

"If Mina wanted to kill him, he'd be dead," Reuben said. "If that needs to happen in the future, then it will. It might be a good idea to consider replacing him with someone we can continue to work with. I don't need anyone with an ego his size creating trouble for us."

"I'll look into who might potentially replace him," Damon said.

Reuben nodded. "Do it."

Hunter lounged against the island, on the opposite side from Reuben. "Parker and I have been talking to some people. Casually mentioning Kurt keeping a woman in his basement, like you asked us to."