Page 16 of Ruin

Something wasn’t adding up here. I was missing something.

Then I saw a flash of movement on the other side of the tree, between the house and the bike. When I looked, I couldn’t catch it again. It was too dark out there for anything to register, and that made me incredibly nervous. I didn’t like that I couldn’t see whoever had been on the bike—or at least their body—and I didn’t like that something was moving.

I was trapped by myself in a house that might or might not contain one of my men, with a driveway that might or might not contain an enemy and a car full of guys with guns out there on the street. This was definitely not how I’d seen this night going.

The movement appeared in the driveway again, and I could see that it was the flash of the moon on someone’s... belt? Bracelet? Something metal, something that was catching the light when they were running. I stared hard, willing my night vision to become superhuman, and soon I could see more than just the metal. The flash of moonlight on teeth as the person breathed hard. The whites of their eyes, coming and going in the darkness.

The streak of white on their shirt.

If that was a guy, he was really, really short. But he might also have a gun, and I wasn’t going to be taken by surprise again. I slid around to the door, my gun already out of its holster and in my hand, and drew it open slowly. When I spotted those eyes again, I lifted my gun and aimed, finger on the trigger and breath caught in my throat.

I didn’t know who that was, but I knew that someone had been shooting at me. And as far as I knew, the person running right at me was one of the shooters. Hell, for all I knew, they were on their way in here to try to finish what their car-riding friends had started.

My finger twitched on the trigger, and I narrowed my eyes. Shit, if only I could get a better look at the guy. I wasn’t going to just fire into the dark without being able to aim; they’d know I had a gun and exactly where I was, and I might miss them entirely. That would just make me a target and give them the upper hand.

But I also didn’t want them getting all the way to the door. Better to finish this now so I could get inside and search for Brock.

My finger tightened on the trigger again, and I was just about to pull it, the darkness be damned, when a car came around the corner with their headlights blaring and lit the running person right up.

Saraya. That was Saraya.

I clicked the safety and shoved the gun back into its holster, then ran for her.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING here?” I gasped into her hair, my arms surrounding her and my fingers digging into her back in sheer, heady relief. Damn, I’d almost shot the girl because I hadn’t expected her to be here.

Devil’s guys had been chasing her, and she’d ridden in here like a bat out of hell, handling the bike like it was an extension of her body.

But I’d be impressed with that later. Right now, I just wanted to know that she was okay.

I dragged her up the stairs and into the house, where I turned on the flashlight of my phone and got my first good look at her. She looked like she’d had a rough night. Bruises and dirt covered her face, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her curls were a riot of knots and tangles, her shirt ripped.

But she was alive.

I couldn’t believe how happy that made me.

I put a hand to her face and stared at her for a moment longer... then got down to work. “What happened?” I asked.

She ran through the details quickly. The attack in the clubhouse and Gem’s decision that they had to escape on foot. The quick realization that he couldn’t make it with his wound, and her retrieval of the bike from that random garage.

“Good girl,” I breathed. “Where is he?”

“Not here,” she hiccupped. “I went back for him, and they’d found him. Beat him up and shot him again.”

All the elation at seeing her alive disappeared in that moment, and I felt my heart freeze in my chest. “What?”

“He was still alive,” she said quickly. “But I couldn’t get him up, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to hold him on the bike. He told me to come here and find you, then get back to him and help him. He said it was the only way.”

He was right. Gemini had to weigh twice as much as Saraya, and she’d never have been able to move him if he was in bad shape. That didn’t mean I liked the necessity of leaving him there again.

“Where is he?” I asked sharply.

“By the side of the road, about three miles from here,” she replied. “Knight, he might be dead by now. He was in bad shape, and they might have come back for him, and they were chasing me but that doesn’t mean—”

I sealed my lips over hers, shutting her up before she could get herself worked into a panic, and when I drew back, she was steadier, her eyes dark and intense.

“I don’t think they’d go back for him if they thought he was dead,” I said. “Can you show me where he is?”

She nodded quickly, and I took her hand and ran for the door. No, I hadn’t found Brock, but my instincts said he wasn’t in the house, and Gemini was out there in the darkness, alone and suffering.