Page 55 of Possessive

This whole night was a lot to process. Was Kurt nearby, watching us? I sensed that he wasn't, but no more than that. Without doubt, he'd engineered all of this, but whether things went to plan or not, I had no idea.

I couldn't discount the idea he hoped Reuben and Damon would step into the house with Gianni and me. If that was the case, why not set off the explosion before we left? He would have caught at least two of us if he had.

Although, he'd had five years to kill me if he wanted to. He hadn't. He preferred to toy with me. If that was his plan, then he'd try something else to get to me. If we didn't get to him first.

"We're being followed," Damon said, breaking through my thoughts.

Gianni and I both swivelled around in our seats and looked out the back window. The traffic was light, and the dark vehicle made no attempt to hide the fact they were tailing us.

When Damon turned down a side street, they turned too. When he steered the SUV back onto the main road, they stayed right with us.

They made no attempt to get closer to us until a couple of streets from home. There, they manoeuvred themselves so close the front of their car almost touched the rear of the SUV.

"Hang on," Damon said. He slowed the SUV right down, before pressing his foot hard on the accelerator and jumping forward. He took a bend so fast I thought the tyres on the right-hand side of the car might lift off the road.

I grabbed hold of the handle above the door beside me and held on tight.

Gianni had his gun out, but made no attempt to use it. "Bullet-proof glass," he explained. "Works both ways."

Damon slowed the car down again, and Gianni lowered the window beside him. He stuck his hand out and got off a couple of shots in the direction of the sedan. One hit the side of the windscreen and left a crack, but the sedan didn't slow.

Gianni pulled his hand back in and closed the window. "Fuckers have bullet-proof glass too. I guess they mean business."

"We're not usually followed by people who don't mean business," Reuben said. He sounded as though this happened regularly.

I glanced forward to see him quickly shooting off a text message. A few moments later, his phone flashed with a return message.

"Keep driving," he said. "The twins can be here in three minutes. They're still in the area."

"Got it, boss," Damon said. He resumed driving at a normal speed, weaving through traffic.

I didn't know Sydney well enough anymore to know where we were going, but the traffic and houses gradually thinned, leaving us in a more industrial part of the city. Somewhere less likely to contain crowds or innocent people. Somewhere with less chance of collateral damage. Or, maybe, more places for us to hide.

Reuben's phone lit up again. "The twins are on their tail." For a moment I thought he might leave this to them, but then he said, "Find somewhere to pull over."

"Got it, boss," Damon said again. He didn't question the orders, just drove past a handful of cars and into an empty parking lot in front of a tyre shop.

The car that was tailing us followed us in, another dark sedan right behind them. They must have realised the twins were there, because they turned a tight circle and drove right out of the car park, past the twin's car.

"That was anticlimactic," Gianni remarked.

"You spoke too soon," Damon said.

The sedan stopped sideways across the exit leading out of the car park. The doors opened and several figures stepped out.

"Looks like party time after all," Gianni said. He turned to me. "Is there any chance we can convince you to stay in the car?"

I smiled slightly and pulled out my knives. "Nope."

He sighed dramatically. "That was what I thought. Boss?"

"Keep her safe," was all Reuben said before he opened his own door and stepped out of the SUV.

I slipped out but stayed near the car, using the vehicle as a shield. Just because I'd spent five years living out of the world, didn't mean I was oblivious to the futility of having knives at a gunfight. If I had an opportunity to use them, I would. Otherwise, I'd stay out of the way.

Reuben stayed beside me, Damon and Gianni on either side of us, guns trained on the approaching figures.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the twins get out of their vehicle, guns in their hands.

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