Page 23 of Cruel Devil

“You don’t know him. You’ve never spoken to him. But you say he had a job for you. So how the fuck did you?—“

“My mother.” Jane has a bad habit of interrupting people when they’re speaking.

“Your mother.”

Jane’s mouth tightens into an almost sulky pout. “She…She was trying to get me a job.”

“Your mother?”

She hangs her head and mutters a soft, “God.”

I wait, taking another sip of whisky as Jane works through whatever shit is happening in her head, her face screwing up with irritation.

“The suspense is killing me,” I tell her dryly.

“My name is Andy.” Her pale green eyes fix on me reluctantly. “I’m Viviana’s daughter.”

Chapter 8

Nyx

When Liam Brennan opens his apartment door and sees me, a smile springs onto the ginger’s freckled face. But as soon as he realizes I’m not alone, that smile fades into confusion, then panic. His pale blue eyes can’t seem to decide where they want to land, me or my husband.

Why Brennan looks so surprised is anyone’s guess. He should be used to seeing me on his doorstep. It’s not the first time I’ve come barging into his apartment like this. In all the years we’ve been friends, I’ve often needed a place to crash when I couldn’t go home drunk, high, or still bleeding after one of Donny’s not-so-quick-and-easy jobs.

“What are you—?” He barely gets out three words before I shove past him into the apartment.

“We need to talk.” I hike my thumb over my shoulder, pointing at Savage. “And since Pablo Escobar over here insists I stay off grid, it’ll have to be in person.”

Liam throws my husband a startled look, backing up when Savage ambles into his house. “Should get your gate fixed.”

It only took one focused blow with his knife jammed in just the right spot, and we walked right in. Didn’t even wake the homeless guy cozied up under his tattered tent nearby.

Liam has barely shut the door before I bark out, “Where’s Donny?”

His face shuts down. He walks past me with those long legs of his, moving effortlessly around the cluster of furniture between him and the open-plan kitchen a few feet away.

“Beer?”

“No, Liam, I don’t want a fucking beer. I want to speak to Donny.”

My husband is staring around like he’s landed on an alien planet. Liam’s apartment might be too small for all the stuff he has in here, but at least it’s clean. There’s a computer game paused on the flat screen television, something violent if the massive weapon in the player’s hands is anything to go by.

“Where is he?”

“Nyx, look—” Liam cuts off, throwing his hands up as I charge into the kitchen to stab a finger into his chest.

“Don’t you Nyx look me. I know you found him. He’s got to know where my sisters are. How are we still standing here like it’s a normal fucking day?”

Liam watches me with such chilling calm, my body goes cold.

He’s hiding something from me.

I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry. I kind of do both, letting out a strangled sob-chuckle that sounds so fucking weird I clap a hand over my mouth.

“What the fuck is going on?” I mumble behind my hand. When he stays still, it becomes a yell. “What the fuck is going on, Liam?”

He turns and gets three beers out of the fridge, handing me one.

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