Page 18 of Creatures in the Night

“Manziel,” Trevor answered. “And…and I don’t know what kind of last name that is.”

“I believe it’s Scottish,” Cathal remarked. “So, if it is, there’s no alliance there, either.”

“Where are the rest of you hiding out?” Declan asked, calming down a bit.

“There’s an abandoned house on Camel Road,” Matvey said. “It’s near the West Virginia border.”

“Motherfucker,” Tearney muttered. “We should have checked the borders.”

“Is that where Klive’s at?” Declan asked, ignoring Tearney’s obvious statement.

Trevor shook his head. “Klive and Louie move around from week to week. If he wants to meet, he sends a message.”

“So, you have a contact number for him?” I asked.

Both men shook their heads as Trevor said, “No, we don’t. Louie is the only one that knows how to contact him directly. If he has a message for us, he’ll leave a note in the mailbox of the abandoned house, then we meet him where it says.”

“What were you two doing at the Hallow Ground tonight?” Declan asked.

When they didn’t answer right away, Cathal put his scalpel to use again, going for the back of Matvey’s ankles. His screams vibrated throughout the entire room, and I knew that we were going to lose them soon. Though they both looked fit enough, strength and stamina were pointless when left to bleed to death, and Cathal wasn’t wasting any time tonight.

“We were there to case it,” Trevor confessed.

“Why?” I asked.

“It was supposed to be a distraction,” he answered.

“Keep givin’ me half-answers an’ I’ll tear yer eyes from der sockets, then make ye choke on ‘em,” Declan threatened.

“We…we were casing it to rob it later,” Matvey sobbed painfully. “We were going to rob it in a few days as a distraction.”

“For fucking what?” I bit out.

“We don’t know!” Trevor cried.

“Wrong answer, lad,” Cathal said before slicing Trevor’s other ear off.

“It has something to do with the Sartoris and the Kotovs!” Matvey yelled, finally confessing something that we could use. “It was supposed to look like the Sartoris did it.”

“Why the Sartoris?” Declan asked.

“Because…because then it would force you to have to…to get in bed with the Kotovs to avenge the attack on your territory,” Matvey answered as Trevor kept howling in pain.

“Klive wants to start a war between us,” I surmised. “But why? He’s still too small-time to make any strides in Maryland. No matter who won, your numbers are too small to go up against whoever was left standing.”

“That’s all…all we know,” Trevor whimpered. “I swear.”

I looked over at Declan. “Keavy was right. This is personal. It’s too big of a risk for it not to be.”

“I’ll call Sartori when we leave here to set up a meeting,” Declan replied, the wheels in his head already turning. “We’ll need to invite Kotov as well.”

“I don’t like this,” I muttered quietly. “We’ve been underestimating them, and I don’t fucking like it.”

“Join the club,” Declan huffed.

After a few seconds, I said, “I know you have other shit to do, so I can stay here.”

Declan’s head reared back in surprise. “It’s your wedding night.”

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