Page 66 of Reaper & Ruin
We’d been driving for at least forty minutes, maybe an hour. The dark forest around us had given way to stretches of barren fields and lonely stretches of road. The occasional streetlight cast fleeting illumination through the car windows, catching the tense lines of Atlas’ jaw, the faint gleam of Danika’s calculating eyes, and the vague outline of my own reflection, looking as grim as I felt.
Danika was calm, eerily so. She drove as if this were just another casual errand—a quick run to the store insteadof transporting two prisoners to some unknown location. Her demeanor made my skin crawl.
She reminded me of Atlas, but not in the way I thought she would. It was more like I could see every facet of their matching souls, and the parts that he had worked to save. To turn around and use for good, not evil.
I could see just how hard he’d worked to make himself some semblance of a human after his escape from The Company’s torrid clutches.
My thoughts churned, replaying the conversation that had passed between her and Atlas earlier. Where she had explained in great detail just how much my father had paid to have her come and slaughter me and those I cared for. She’d said it so casually, like it was no big deal.
She said I was lucky that she had come for me. That it wasshewho accepted the contract. Not a faceless Company merc. Because she had been nice enough to let me have one last summer.
Lucky.
The word felt like a slap in the face. Lucky would’ve been not having my own father hire a team of monsters to track me down and put a bullet in my head. Lucky would have meant not being born into a family that thrived on power, violence, and betrayal.
Instead, I got Giorgio De Luca—a man who saw his children not as people to love or protect, but as pawns to manipulate, weapons to wield, or liabilities to dispose of.
The anger in my chest burned hotter with every passing mile. I stared at my bound hands, the frayed edges of the rope tight enough that I couldn’t escape. I clenched my fists, trying to channel the rage somewhere, anywhere, other than the tight space of the car.
I felt like this was my fault. It was my choice to ask Atlas not to kill my father. My choice to ask him to try things slowly. Sure,I’d done it out of love. I hadn’t wanted my siblings or mama to get caught in the crosshairs and pay for if we slipped up. But now… now it was almost too late.
Heather was alone in the wilderness. I was tied in the back of a hitwoman’s car, one who not only had a wage to kill me, but hated Atlas.
I knew what a sadist looked like, and I had no doubts Danika was one. The only question was to what end.
Atlas shifted beside me, his focus unwavering as he continued to stare down Danika through the mirror. His silence was heavy, but I could feel the storm brewing beneath it. I knew he would be thinking a thousand different thoughts, and eventually land on something that would fix our situation.
But me? I didn’t have that kind of patience when I was filled with regret and frustration at not letting him do what he did best all those months ago that he first asked.
I gritted my teeth, my gaze shifting to the passing scenery outside the window, wondering where the hell she was taking us. To some safehouse? A warehouse? Somewhere my father would show up, smug and cruel, ready to finish what he started when he hired Danika? Or would she not want to tell him I wasn’t dead? What was her plan now?
Did she even have one? Or was this just a fun thing that she made up on the spot?
My stomach twisted at the thought of facing him again. The man who should’ve been my protector, my guide, my role model. Instead, he’d been the source of nearly every wound, every scar, every moment of doubt that had shaped me into the person I was.
And now, here I was, tied up in the backseat of a car, being transported like cargo because he decided I wasn’t worth keeping alive anymore.
I wanted to gouge his eyes out. Tear his blackened heart from his chest. Maybe twist a blade in his gut until he squealed like a pig.
I wanted to treat him like he had Missy. A bullet in his head. Left to rot.
My jaw tightened, the anger giving way to a bitter sense of resignation. This was the hand I’d been dealt, wasn’t it? The great Giovanni De Luca, eldest son of his family line, first in line to inherit a legacy I’d never wanted. A legacy I’d tried to leave behind the moment Heather kidnapped me and dragged me out of that world.
Heather.
The thought of her sent another pang of something sharp through my chest. She was safe. At least, I hoped she was. Danika had said she wasn’t interested in her, but could I really trust that? Could I trust anything that came out of this woman’s mouth? Especially when she had said it was because Heather was beautiful, and sweet, and had morals unlike Atlas.
All things I either wondered how she knew, didn’t think was reason enough.
But Atlas said she was a woman of her word, and that our girl was fine. I trusted him. But what if he was wrong? What if Danika had changed since he knew her?
I glanced at him, searching his face for some hint of what he was thinking. But he was unreadable, his icy eyes still locked on Danika. A part of me envied that focus, that certainty. Most of me was glad I didn’t know the bitch who suddenly turned to face me.
If she’d been my friend once, it probably would have hurt worse that she was here.
“You’re quiet back there, De Luca. Has a kitty got your tongue?” Her voice broke through the silence, sharp and mocking.
I didn’t answer, and not just because Atlas delicately shook his head, telling me not to say a word.
