Viola
When I enter the house later, Jude is still up. He’s drinking beer alone, watching boxing on the TV. I traipse over and dump the only piece of evidence I could take that wouldn’t look out of place in Jude’s hands.
Aurora’s scarf. It was in Carl Marques’s house at the end of her bed. I used it to stuff inside Carl’s mouth while I injected him with a unique blend of drugs strong enough to induce a heart attack, then I watched him suffocate to death.
“It’s done.” I drop the scarf on his lap.
He stares and picks it up, running it through his hands. His gaze darts to me. “This was Aurora’s.”
“I used it to gag your uncle while I killed him like you asked.”
He narrows his eyes.
“It’s clean. I ran it through a hot wash cycle to get rid of his DNA. I thought you might like it as a souvenir, although if anyone asks, it’s a token of your cousin who passed away that you took from her bedroom before you moved out.”
“Cece and I will get everything,” he says quietly.
“Just don’t forget to pay me. Triple is what you promised.”
I spendthe weekend avoiding Dino and the potential argument that’s brewing about my day job, and focus on stalking my prey. Jude, true to form, spends it giving me dark looks despite me taking out his uncle for him. Though when I do have to talk to him, he’s slightly more agreeable than he has been in a while, which is a relief.
I don’t see Lorcan, but on the third night of him being back, I crawl into bed at 2 a.m. Half an hour later, he slips in beside me. I tense. It’s been weeks since we shared a bed, but after a few minutes, he reaches for me and I settle in his arms. His cedar cologne is reassuring and within minutes, I’m drifting off.
In the morning, he’s still there. I wake up to his intense green eyes glaring at me. I have no social defences in the early hours. It’s like I’ve been stripped of all my masks. It takes effort to put one on that gives a fuck and can voice the question he’s been waiting all this time for me to ask.
“Okay enough. Are you going to tell me what the hell is wrong?”
“Why the fuck are you meeting with that psycho?”
I narrow my eyes. My first thought is which one? I know several. But I’m pretty sure there’s only one psycho we both know. “Dante?”
“Yes, sweetheart, who else would I be talking about?”
“Not you too,” I say, considering the best way to get out of bed. I’d rather not be in it while being interrogated. I need coffee and I need a cold shower before I can handle this. But Lorcan’s leg is over my bottom half, trapping me to the mattress.
He pushes me down by my shoulder as I try to get up. “Are you planning on screwing us over?” he asks, as a nasty light in his eyes, one that drew me to him in the first place, surfaces. Anger is an emotion I can read in facial expressions. There is no doubt, Lorcan is pissed.
My first instinct is to jab him in the throat and make him choke, but that might be an over-reaction. I settle for a petulant look instead. “Why the fuck would I?”
“Because you were happy to fuck your agency over when I offered you more cash,” he says, shrugging. “What’s to say you won’t do the same to me.”
“Is that what this is about? You’re afraid I’ll double-cross you?”
He gives me a sardonic look. “It crossed my mind.”
“Fuck you, Duke.” I exhale hard, pushing him to get off me. Unmovable, his eyes search mine, jaw tightening. “If you ever betray me—”
I’ve had enough.
This conversation is done.
I jab the tender part of his throat. I’m not strong enough to choke him fully from this angle but I can make it hurt. He grunts and jerks back, eyes watering, coughing savagely. “What...the…fuck…was that for?” he scowls.
“Get off me, or I’ll go for your eyes next time,” I hiss.
After a few seconds, he shifts enough for me to sit up, anger simmering behind these pretty green orbs. He still has a leg over me, but I’ll allow that.
“Don’t ever threaten me,” I say.