Page 30 of Cruel Devil

“That’s a twenty-year-old—“ Vito starts, and then cuts off with a prissy, “Never mind.” He goes back to the kitchen and fetches the bottle, sloshing some into Nyx’s glass as he sits down again.

“Family, supposedly,” I tell Nyx. I don’t consider anything confirmed until I’ve heard it from Andy’s mouth herself.

The woman scowls. “Like you would have believed me.”

“You had a gun on us,” Vito says. “We’d at least have listened.”

“Damn, girl.” Nyx gives me a wide eyed stare when I glance at her. “What? Credit where credit’s due.” Nyx points at her, then at me. “He’ll argue with you if you tell him the sky’s blue.”

I smile at my wife. It’s not a pleasant one, I can tell from the way she draws back like she’s wondering if I’m going to lunge at her. Then I turn that smile on Andy, and she withers like a daffodil under a blowtorch.

“So what changed? When I left, your name was Jane and you were prepared to die on that hill.”

Her eyes cut briefly to Vito, her eyebrows drawing down in sudden unease. “Your cousin can be…persuasive.”

Not even going to consider unpacking that.

“Vito said Gomez had a job for you?”

“Do we really have to go through all of this?—”

I lace my fingers together, hands dangling between my spread legs. “I need to hear it from you.”

Andy gives me a long suffering look. “Yes. Gomez had a job for me.”

“A job your mother set up?”

Andy rolls her eyes. “Yes.”

“Her mother?” Nyx asks. I hold up a finger in her direction without taking my eyes off Andy.

“But when you got to his house, he was already dead.”

“Jesus, who died?” Nyx glances at Vito, who’s busy warming his glass in his hands.

Andy side-eyes Nyx. “More like slaughtered. Him and his whole family.” She smiles grimly. “Although I guess it doesn’t matter to you people.”

My eyebrows shoot up to my fucking hairline. “You people?”

“Cartel scum like you,” Andy says sweetly through her teeth.

Nyx slurps appreciatively at her whiskey. “Preach, sister.”

“Jesus, tell us what you really think,” Vito mutters.

Andy shoots Vito a glare. “You want to know what I really think? I think it’s a blessing if anyone associated with a cartel is killed, because that’s Darwinism at its finest.”

She gives Nyx a wary look when my wife starts cackling.

“Bit hypocritical,” I tell Andy. “Or does your mother not count as someone ‘associated’ with the cartel?”

Andy looks away and mutters, “God.”

“Aw, come on. Someone tell me what’s going on? This is like watching Days of our Lives in Spanish with the subtitles turned off.” My wife turns to Vito, since I’m too busy staring at Andy, trying to catch the slightest hint that she’s lying.

Vito sits back. “You know Doc?”

“Nope.”

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