Page 80 of Queen of Ruin

I stand over his body, staring down into glazed, dry eyes. Did he see Diego? Did he see who did this and what happened to Diego after? Or was he already like this when Diego was here?

“Val?” Bradley’s voice softens, and suddenly, he’s next to me, taking up a surprisingly small amount of space given his bulk. “Is this Tech?”

I nod wordlessly, frozen.

What if Diego’s in the same way?

Dead somewhere in an alley or worse?

What if this is the last time I’ll ever have contact with Diego or someone from his life?

“This could mean nothing,” Ruslan says quietly. “The cell tower ping wasn’t here exactly, so we don’t even know that Diego came here.”

“Yes, we do,” I croak. “You’re trying to make me feel better and I get it. I do. But Diego… Mindy is gone. Tech is dead. I don’t know anyone else from his life except the people from the bar, but what use is it now?” Tears flood my eyes as I lift my gaze, but I refuse to let them fall. “He’s dead, isn’t he? I didn’t give him the time he needed from me, and now he’s dead!”

“Val!” Bradley suddenly sweeps me into an all-consuming, tight embrace and he holds me so close that I’m frozen in shock by the heat radiating from him. More than that, it’s familiar enough to shock my grief out of its spiral and the tears remain unshed.

“Hello?” Ruslan answers his phone a moment later, then Raven’s tones fill the air.

“We got a hit on the bounty on Diego’s head.”

I immediately draw away from Bradley. “A sighting?”

“No,” comes Cassian’s calm voice. “A payment. They handed him over and got paid a little under an hour ago. It’s only just been put through the site.”

“An hour ago,” I repeat, hastily wiping my cheeks as tears fall when I blink. “So… so he might still be alive?!”

“It’s possible,” Cassian says.

“The hunter,” Bradley cuts in. “Do we know him?”

“Yes,” Raven replies. “And we know where he is.”

The twenty minutes it takes to drive through the city to the bar where the bounty hunter who claimed the money on Diego went is the longest twenty minutes of my life. My heart beats slowly but powerfully, as if it’s trying to chip away at my ribcage and free me from the agony growing in my gut.

Diego was taken.

God knows what’s happening to him.

This is all my fault.

I should have stopped and listened to him.

I should have taken him with me.

I should have done more.

My leg doesn’t stop bouncing for the entire ride and as soon as Frank pulls up outside the bar, I’m out of the car like a whirlwind to the echo of both Ruslan and Bradley calling my name. I saw what the bounty hunter looked like when Raven gave Ruslan all the information and I hold that face in my head as I storm through the doors and blow off the bouncer at the door.

A sea of people greets me, heaving back and forth with chants as a birthday is celebrated in one corner and a group of men cheers for a spot in another. All of it fades into the background when I spot him.

That bastard bounty hunter.

He sits at the bar nursing a glass of something expensive, judging by the bottle sitting next to his hand on the bar, an expense likely paid by handing Diego over to whoever the fuck has been chasing us all over the city.

“Hey!” I bark loudly, and several people glance my way.

The bounty hunter doesn’t even look up.