Lying In Ruins

by Jami Gray

  Charity shifted her weight to the side and peered around Ruin. ‘Because my talents are better used to go after the one who set the Raiders after the kids, than providing protection for the journey home.’

  ‘She wants you to hunt Reznik.’ Havoc’s voice rumbled through the room.

  Charity looked over her shoulder and gave the big man a nod. ‘Yes, sir, she wants me to hunt.’

  Ruin wondered if he was the only one who picked up that she didn’t use Reznik’s name. A deliberate amendment or simple agreement?

  ‘And you follow her orders without question.’ Reaper’s comment cut through Ruin’s musings and brought Charity’s attention back around.

  For the briefest moment Ruin felt for her, trying to wade through the firing squad of questions.

  ‘Not always.’ Charity surprised them all with her answer, but she wasn’t done. ‘However in this particular instance, yeah, I’m going to follow orders.’

  Vex straightened in her chair, an expectant vibe coming to life. ‘Got an appetite for revenge, Blondie?’

  Turning from Reaper, she met Vex’s gaze. ‘This isn’t about revenge. This is all about vengeance.’

  Vex smiled, more a bearing of teeth. ‘There’s a difference?’

  Charity held up two fingers barely separated by the tiniest of distances. ‘It’s small, very small.’

  ‘Revenge is to exact punishment for a wrong done to another.’ Ruin decided to join the conversation.

  Charity’s gaze went to his and held. ‘Vengeance is to inflict hurt and humiliation on one who has harmed another. Which do you think I prefer for Tabby?’

  ‘Ohh, ohh, I know,’ Vex interrupted as she got to her feet, her arm darting up in the air with an impatient dance as she came up to Charity’s other side. She threw an arm around Charity’s shoulders. ‘Sweet, bloody vengeance.’

  Meeting Vex’s crazed grin, Charity bumped her hip against Vex’s even as her face shifted to match his sister’s manic smile. ‘Sweet, bloody, everlasting vengeance actually.’

  Reaper watched them both, arms folded across his chest. ‘You two done with your girly bonding moment?’

  Ruin dropped his gaze to the floor trying to hide his wince at the bigger man’s massive misstep. You’d think after all these years, Reaper would know better.

  Sure enough, Vex’s voice turned syrup sweet, and Ruin didn’t have to raise his head to know what was happening. Her scuffed boots left Charity’s side and moved to stop toe to toe to Reaper’s. ‘Aww, Reapy-baby, are you mad that we’re not properly cowed by your manly display of temper and alphaholeness?’

  ‘Shit, Vex,’ Ruin muttered, not all surprised when she ignored his muttered warning and continued needling Reaper.

  ‘Don’t worry, we promise to clasp our hands in proper feminine amazement once you pull your head ou—’

  Not wanting to become an only child, Ruin wrapped one arm around his sister’s waist and slapped his other hand over her mouth, cutting off the rest of her sentence. ‘Enough, Vex,’ he hissed next to her ear as he dragged her back to her chair and forcibly put her in it. Pointing a finger at her, almost touching her nose, he snapped, ‘Stay put.’

  Familiar amber eyes fired, and her mouth opened.

  ‘Shut it, sis.’ God, her constant need to push drove him nuts. Didn’t matter that he understood the whys, she was a grown-ass woman who knew better. ‘Not the right place. Not the right time.’ He held her furious gaze, waiting her out. It didn’t take long. Her mouth closed, her lips pressed into a mutinous line. Then her attention went behind him to Reaper. Ruin caught the flicker of remorse as her gaze met their leader’s, then dropped away. Convinced Vex would zip it, he turned back to Reaper and Charity aware of the uncomfortable quiet settling in.

  ‘Vex, girl, your mouth is going to get you killed.’ The low whip of Reaper’s voice snapped the tense quiet.

  ‘Likes to tempt death.’ Havoc added his pithy wisdom.

  Vex turned and stuck her tongue out, but stayed silent.

  Reaper ignored the byplay and focused once more on Charity, resetting the conversation. ‘Lilith trusts you enough to send you out after her kid. Says something, since she doesn’t trust anyone.’

  That got a genuine smile from Charity, who raised her right hand, palm up. ‘I swear on all that’s holy, I am not any blood relation to Lilith.’

  ‘Thank god,’ Reaper growled. ‘Sit.’ He waved her to a chair as he turned away, and ran a hand through his hair. He crossed to one of the cushioned chairs and dropped into it as Charity found her way to another chair.

  Ruin moved back and sat on one of the tables, keeping his spot between the two. He knew what it silently stated, but he didn’t give a damn. Reaper had his damn loyalty, but whether she admitted it or not, Charity needed someone on her side. Since she saved Simon, he owed her. Hell, all the Vultures owed her for that.

  Reaper laid his arms along the armrests, the fingers on one hand drumming absently. The tick of a battered clock filled the quiet. Wasn’t long before he broke the quiet with a growled, ‘You ready to put your cards on the table, ‘Hound?’

  Warily, Charity nodded. Ruin didn’t blame her cautious attitude, Reaper wasn’t one to step softly and he didn’t waste time. ‘Good.’ The big man curled his hand into a fist and dropped it to his knee. ‘First, did Lilith send you to take out Crane?’

  ‘No.’ Her answer was granite, but based on the tiny frown lines in her forehead and the stutter tap of a finger against her knee, her brain was spinning with something.

  Ever observant, Reaper didn’t miss the signs either. ‘Give me a reason to believe you.’

  The finger stilled and she drew in a deep breath. ‘Lilith wouldn’t want to lose Crane because he was feeding her information on the recent goings on in Michael’s territory.’

  ‘Doesn’t mean much,’ Reaper said. ‘Crane could just as easily been feeding Michael the same on her.’

  Charity was shaking her head before he finished. ‘Not this time.’ She leant forward, bracing her arms on her knees. ‘You know about the argument Crane and Michael got into about a year back?’

  From his position at the table, Ruin braced. How the hell did she know about that?

  Reaper’s expression remained studiously blank.

  Charity smirked, not fooled one bit by their deliberate non-reaction. ‘Right. While the details remain sketchy, whatever went down put a chink in their friendship.’

  ‘Working relationship,’ Reaper clarified.

  ‘Working relationship,’ Charity repeated without breaking eye contact. ‘When Lilith caught wind, she decided to see if Crane was amenable to a new working relationship.’

  ‘And he agreed.’ It was hard to tell if Reaper, the cagey bastard, was asking or telling.

  Charity nodded. ‘Yeah, so when Lilith got screwed in a weapons transaction six months ago after a seller tried to pass off junk as the real deal, she reached out to Crane with questions. Him being a new partner and all.’

  Sounded legit. Crane oversaw the majority of the major trade arrangements. A transaction with Lilith definitely counted as major. A screw-up in that type of deal would garner some serious questions.

  ‘Unfortunately, Crane was unaware of the sale. Nor had he heard of anyone interested in acquiring those weapons. After a little judicious questioning, the seller admitted another unknown party contacted him, offered double and left with the weapons meant for Lilith.’

  ‘Bet that pissed her off,’ Ruin said.

  Charity grimaced. ‘Just a bit. Wasn’t much left of the seller when she was done. Kind of a waste though, because a couple months later it happened again. This time with a medical shipment.’

  Reaper shrugged. ‘Shit happens.’

  ‘Maybe, but Lilith’s not one to wait for coincidence to make an appearance.’

  ‘So she sent you out to find out if this was just bad timing or something altogether else?’ Reaper pressed.

  She nodded.

  His gaze narro
wed. ‘You went looking at Crane.’

  ‘He was the newest factor in the whole situation.’ She rubbed her chin. ‘So yeah, initially I took a serious look. But when I found a string of similar situations ranging from the Rockies all the way down to Houston, I went to him to see if he was encountering the same problem.’ She held Reaper’s gaze. ‘He was.’

  ‘The raids on the routes,’ Vex chimed in, sharing a look with Ruin. ‘The same thing that drew Simon and Crane out.’

  Ruin considered the string of botched deliveries that sent the Vultures out on the road in the first place. ‘Bet that was the first move.’

  Reaper ignored them and stayed focused on Charity. ‘When you realised Crane was dealing with the same shit as Lilith, you crossed him off your list?’

  She sat back, squirming a bit. ‘Actually I crossed him off fairly early on when I realised the targeted shipments shared a common trait.’

  It didn’t take long for Reaper to put the pieces together. ‘They were coming from Michael’s territory,’ he drawled, scorn edging his words. ‘Let me guess, Lilith blamed Michael for her troubles.’ The surety behind his words made Ruin wonder about Reaper’s experiences with Lilith.

  ‘Right.’ A pained expression twisted Charity’s face. ‘There’s no love lossed between Lilith and Michael.’

  That brought a harsh bark of laughter from Reaper. ‘There is no-one on this earth that Lilith hates more than Michael.’

  Charity winced at his brutal honesty, then gallantly ploughed on. ‘She asked me to reach out to Crane to figure out if the one behind the trouble was Michael or if he was facing the same thing.’

  Obviously catching something in her expression that Ruin missed, Reaper pushed. ‘Was he?’

  She shrugged. ‘Don’t know. Before I could hit the road, two things happened.’ She shot Ruin a quick glance before continuing. ‘Lilith got an urgent message from Istaqa. He sent a picture of Katori with a request to send word if he was spotted. Then Tabby was taken.’ Ruin almost missed his spark of relief when she obviously heeded his advice to give Reaper everything.

  ‘Istaqa prefers keeping his business within his borders.’ Havoc’s distinctive rumble filled the spaces left behind Charity’s answer. ‘Why is he reaching out to Lilith?’

  ‘A parent with a missing child?’ She rubbed her arm, just below the bandage, a small frown furrowed on her forehead. ‘I think he was desperate.’

  A pensive shadow crossed Havoc’s harsh features, but he stayed silent.

  Charity took it as a cue to keep going. ‘I wasn’t expecting to find him here. Hell, I wasn’t expecting to find a trail of missing kids, either. But Lilith felt that Tabby’s disappearance hitting so close on the heels of the delivery mess was too big to be a coincidence. She just couldn’t figure out why. But her biggest concern was Tabby, and that became my primary focus. When Tabby’s trail went north, it seemed best to combine both hunts. I was hoping to touch base with Crane, see if he heard anything about Tabby’s kidnapping, but we all know how that turned out.’

  Recalling her initial dismissive take on Reznik’s ability to marshal the necessary resources to pull off a coup, Ruin decided to re-test her conviction. ‘The kids’ kidnappings, the Raiders’ attack on Crane and the shipments. You’re thinking they’re all part of the same grand plan?’

  Colour rode high along her cheeks, but she kept her voice level. ‘Either Reznik is working on his own, or he’s being played by someone we don’t even know about. His aren’t the only greedy hands looking to take what isn’t theirs.’

  Hearing her say it out loud loosened something coiled tight in Ruin’s chest.

  Reaper didn’t take his eyes off Charity, but there was no doubt his mental wheels were spinning. Eventually, he spoke. ‘If I send you after the Raiders with Ruin, you going to be focused on vengeance or power games?’

  ‘Vengeance.’

  He shook his head with obvious disbelief. ‘You admit to being Lilith’s ‘Hound. A dog can’t serve two masters.’

  As close as he was to Charity, Ruin didn’t miss her minuscule jerk as Reaper’s scorn hit her head on. Was Reaper trying to provoke Charity to go for his throat? Granted he had no concept of tact, but that was harsher than his normal approach. Ruin went to say something, only to stop at Vex’s sharp shake of her head. Holding his tongue wasn’t easy.

  Instead of snarling back, Charity gave an inelegant snort. ‘Seriously? That’s the best you can do? Like I haven’t heard that one before.’ She tilted her head to the side. ‘Guess I should be grateful you refrained from calling me a bitch.’

  Ruin silently applauded her response.

  Reaper’s lips curled up. Hard to tell if it was a smile or a sneer. ‘Give it time, I’m sure I’ll get to it.’

  ‘Probably,’ she muttered.

  All faint traces of humour disappeared. ‘What guarantee do I have you won’t stab my man in the back or sell his ass out if it got you closer to the information Lilith wants?’

  ‘You don’t, but if I had plans to go after you or yours, there were plenty of opportunities to cut his—’ she jerked a thumb in Ruin’s direction, ‘—throat or ensure Simon never made it back down the mountain.’

  Slightly affronted, Ruin muttered, ‘As if you could.’

  It earned him a sidelong glare before Charity went back to Reaper. ‘My focus is making the bastards who hurt Tabby pay. Whatever political or power games are being played can wait.’

  Reaper rubbed his jaw. ‘And if I decided you weren’t going with Ruin, you’d just go out on your own.’

  ‘Not to brag, but tracking is my specialty.’ She waited a heartbeat, then two. ‘Look, I’m not sure how I prove I’m not trying to pick you off. Honestly, that’s not my type of thing anyway. If Lilith wanted any of you out of the picture, she has other, better options than me for the job.’

  Reaper’s dark gaze sharpened. ‘Is that job on her roster?’

  Charity frowned. ‘Not as far as I know, but I’m no mind reader.’

  Chapter 13

  After her pow-wow with the Vultures, Charity was escorted back to Mandy’s by Ruin since she promised Tabby she would return. She ended up spending most of the night fighting back the girl’s demons. Charity held off saying anything about leaving until she had no choice. When the time came, it didn’t go over well. Once Tabby realised tears wouldn’t change Charity’s mind, the girl switched to silent, mutinous anger, and refused to say anything. As much as Charity hated to leave under those circumstances, her need for retribution was stronger.

  When Ruin rode up to Mandy’s house on his bike in the wee hours before sunrise, Charity’s saddlebags were packed, and her weapons loaded and stashed. He didn’t bother turning his bike off, simply waited, silent and grim-faced, for her to fire up her bike. Once her butt was in the seat, he tugged his bandana up over his nose, and without saying a word, hit the road. Hours passed as he led her west.

  One thing the long, arduous bike ride gave her was time to think. She mulled over all the pieces in play, trying to decide if it was just Reznik they faced, or someone bigger. As the sun inched higher her suspicion that Reznik wasn’t working on his own solidified. Whether Ruin or the Vultures agreed, she couldn’t shake her belief someone was hiding behind the huge ass target Reznik presented. Hell, as arrogant as he was, Reznik was probably convinced it was all his idea which would put him in the perfect fall guy position. Which left the question—who was pulling his strings?

  While Charity knew the last thing Lilith would ever do was make a move that put Tabby in the middle, arguing that point with stone-faced Reaper was akin to hitting her head against a wall. If things weren’t such a mess right now, Charity would consider that kind of stubborn refusal to listen as an invitation to go digging into secrets probably best left alone. Maybe after this mess she might, if she was still breathing. An iffy outcome at best since Lilith was convinced it was Michael.

  Charity wasn’t sold on that explanation either. Not that she knew Michael or
anything, but Lilith’s depth of abhorrence for the west coast leader was a well-known fact. So much so, she worried that Lilith was blinded by whatever fuelled her hatred, enough it could be used against her with lethal repercussions. While humanities numbers might be a fraction of what they were, so long as more than one person breathed the same air, it was a guarantee that someone would constantly be plotting for more power. Michael and Lilith weren’t the only big players sharing this land, it was simply, that on this side of the Mississippi, they were the easiest targets.

  Even Katori’s father, Istaqa, played an influential role. The Southwest tribes, who called themselves the Free People, held the water rights that kept the desert livable. Strangely, the Free People managed to garner the respect of Lilith, Crane, and the Mexican Cartels. An admirable feat, since all three groups needed the water the tribes held to make their territories viable. To have the children of two strong personalities disappear, then show up together, raised every red flag Charity owned.

  The answer of who was playing mastermind was up for grabs. The Vultures made their opinions quite clear, as far as they were concerned it was either Michael or Lilith, and they didn’t care which so long as they were left out of the game. Still, by sending Ruin after the Raiders, the Vultures, who claimed to not want to play in this emerging power game, took their turn at the board and rolled the dice, and they didn’t give a shit who they might be playing against. It was an in-your-face, ballsy move, and it made her antsy. Especially when she preferred a more stealthy approach. Not like she had a choice or a say in the matter—thank you, Lilith—as she was basically ordered to find out who instigated the kidnapping and ‘take care of it’ by whatever means necessary.

  Thanks to her position as a ‘Hound, her worldview was much broader than most, and that perspective warned her not to ignore the unknown possibilities. Unfortunately, there were inherent problems with working with unknowns, which left her mind clicking over all the bits and pieces she had as mile after mile disappeared under her tires. When her brain began to beat itself bloody against her skull, she finally gave up on solving the puzzle that still had too many missing pieces.