Page 144 of Vicious Knight

“Start talking, motherfucker.” I slap his face with the back of my gun, making him shout out again.

“The man with the scar is called Salvatore. I don’t know where he is, but I last saw him at the Grunge Club. He knows the owner. It’s possible he’s staying there.”

“How the fuck did he know I was looking for him?”

“The Hand gets an alert when people start digging around for them. It could have been something as simple as a Google search notification. They know even if you have firewalls up.”

So, they knew from the moment Lucian and I started searching, but it would have been easy to narrow things down because they would have known about me. Maybe they always had their eye on me.

“How many men does our scar-faced friend have with him?”

“I don’t know information like that.”

“How do you contact him?”

“I don’t. He contacts me when he needs me.” He coughs.

“Where does he think you are now?”

“My hotel. I told him I was going to be there all night.”

“Perfect, so he doesn’t know you’re here.” I raise a brow, and the man stares back at me, his eyes pleading.

“No… he doesn’t.”

“All the better.” I flip my gun and shoot him between his eyes just as he’s taking a breath. Now he will never take another. I never promised to spare his life. If I'd let him go he’d only raise the alarm again.

“We can get a head start without the scar-face knowing now.” I stand straighter and wipe blood off me.

“The Hand are not people to mess with, young one,” Kai warns, looking from me to the dead man in the chair.

“Neither am I.” I shove my gun back in my pocket. “Keep your eyes open for me and I'll make sure you get whatever you want. This is a big deal.”

“Of course.”

I pray I’ve bought us some time. Anything is better than not knowing where to turn next. Now we have a lead.

Or not…

The Grunge Club is closed and cleared out by the time we get there. Someone must have been watching our dead friend back at Kai’s.

I can tell people must have left in a hurry. There are half-empty beer bottles and half-eaten food on the tables in the restaurant section.

I head back to my apartment with a heavy heart. Thankfully, Ivy is still asleep and sleeps through the night.

I wake up before her the next morning and make her breakfast. When she walks into the kitchen wearing my miles-too-big shirt, she looks like a little forest creature. She has that doe-eyed look when she stares at me that makes her appear more vulnerable.

She smiles at me and the color returns to her cheeks when she notices the food on the table.

“Oh, wow. This looks delicious.”

“I hope it tastes as good as it looks.” I pull her into my arms and kiss her. “How are you feeling?”

“Just… I’m still shaken. I slept through the night, though, so I guess your tea must have worked.”

“Good. Get something to eat and I’ll take you out. I thought we could drive into the city and go for a walk in the park.” I’m trying to take her mind off the situation, but truthfully, I need the distraction, too.

I’m supposed to be in a computer science class in an hour but there’s no way I can deal with seeing Aiden today. Since I removed myself as his competition in the company he hasn’t bothered me, but he still reminds me of the messy situation with my uncle.

---