Page 34 of Ruin

Devil might be crafty and downright evil, but he was also a creature of habit. He did his banking on the same day every month—the second Tuesday, for reasons he’d never bothered to explain to me—and though I’d known him for years, I’d never seen him go to the bank on a different day. He called it his Monthly Christmas, and it was a vital part of his routine. Maybe it was just that he liked the routine, or maybe it was that he liked the way the bank rolled out the red carpet for him when they knew he was coming. He always did enjoy it when people made him feel like he was more than he actually was.

Regardless of the reasoning, one day was consistently taking up with banking each month. Same day, every month.

And I knew what day that was—and how close we were to it.

Two days from now, he’d be coming into town and doing his banking. Gathering up his cash and taking it back home to put it in the safe where he kept it. Spending hours in the bank doing whatever it was he did there and coming out with an enormous grin on his face.

Most importantly, he’d be in that bank by himself. He always left his guards at home, in case they tried to rob him or something.

If I was at the bank when he showed up, I could get Devil alone. I’d tell him I was coming back of my own free will, that I’d had a change of heart or something, and that I was bored with Knight. I’d tell him I’d missed him and didn’t want to go on without him.

None of it was true, but I could play the part when I wanted to.

Yes, he’d probably see it as a ploy. But his ego was so big that he’d want to believe every word of it, and at the end of the day, I really only needed him to believe it for a little while. Just long enough for me to get him away from the crowds of town.

Just long enough to put the next step of my plan into action.

I could end Devil. I knew I could. And that was exactly what I was going to do. Because getting me back wouldn’t actually keep him from going after Knight again. It would just mean he had to find a different excuse. But if I could get close enough to kill him...

That would make it awfully hard for him to ever attack Knight again.

I wasn’t sure how I’d do it yet, but I figured there were a number of options. Find something sharp and stab him in the neck. Push him in front of a bus. Shoot him in the head, if I got close enough that I knew I couldn’t miss.

Make sure he was never coming back, one way or another.

I knew it would probably cost me my life. He wouldn’t have his guards with him at the bank, but they were always around, and someone was bound to see what happened and go running to them. Hell, they might actually catch me in the act of doing it and shoot me right there.

They might take longer to kill me.

But Devil would be gone, and Knight would be safe. And that would make my death worth it.

CHAPTER 19

KNIGHT

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” I asked, watching Saraya slide out of bed and move quickly toward the bathroom.

“Just ready to get up,” she said, her voice monotone.

I glanced at my phone and frowned. “It’s only 6:30. Do you have a pressing appointment or something?”

She paused, straightened her shoulders, and then turned to look back at me, giving me the ghost of a grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Then she was gone, slipping through the door to the bathroom and closing it behind her. I listened and heard the sound of the shower turning on, then her moving around in there, no doubt transferring the soap and shampoo Remy had bought her into the shower so she didn’t have to get out of the water to get them when she needed them.

It was the sort of practical thing she did without thinking about it, and the sort of thing I’d come to appreciate about her over the last couple of days. We’d been essentially living together, after all, and that had given us a chance to get to know each other better than we would have if we were just dating. I’d seen her at her sleepiest, first thing in the morning, and at her drunkest the night Remy managed to bring home champagne and wine. I’d seen her when she was hungry and thoughtful and frustrated.

I’d seen her when she was scared.

And that was how I knew that something was wrong. She’d been acting off since yesterday morning, like her mind was distracted with something else, and I couldn’t figure out what it might be. Nothing had happened around here since we’d been able to get a phone to Gem. Adams wasn’t making any progress with getting my guys and Mandy out of jail, and we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Devil’s guys. It had been slow and quiet and... well, boring, if I was being honest, but safe, at least.

So what the hell did Saraya have to think so hard about?

And why wasn’t she letting me on the secret?

Not that I was going to demand to know everything going on in her mind. I wasn’t that arrogant. I’d barely known the girl for a week, and I didn’t think I had a right to all her secrets. But we were trapped together in this house, at least for the time being, and I was confused—and somewhat upset—by her sudden change of attitude. I was worried about her, and I didn’t have the time or energy to worry about anything other than what was going on outside these walls.

Maybe, I thought, it was just the reality of the last couple of days sinking in. Tinker, Mandy, Gemini, the guys... It was a lot to take in, even for someone who’d been involved in the MC lifestyle for years. Maybe she was just trying to wrap her head around everything she’d seen and done and heard. Maybe, too, she was attempting to make sense of the fact that she’d most likely killed at least two of the three guys back at the clubhouse, that first night with Gemini.