Page 16 of Spiteful Heart

Viper drove to the Luciano mansion, and we went in to find Sylvester was already back. He was in the kitchen, making himself a coffee—something very unlike him, given the time it was. Early afternoon; the man never drank coffee after twelve. That meeting must’ve gone on longer than he thought it would.

Or it’d been more miserable.

He watched us walk around the corner, setting his mug down. “I was just about to return your text. What’s this about the Gilded Rose?” His blue eyes were on me, but they did flick to Maddox, who, I assumed, was the one who texted him in the first place. It sure wasn’t me.

As I stepped forward, I watched him loosen his tie, a dark red color. The color of the devil himself. “First, tell us about your meeting. You were gone a long time.”

“I met with Vance Hawkins. He’s got big plans, as many men do. He wants to be mayor, and he knows if he has any hope of winning, he needs to get on my good side.” Sylvester had never really explained this before to me, mostly because I’d never asked. Didn’t really care to. “He can do a lot for us, and we can do a lot for him, if we want him to win—but none of that matters right now. Tell me what happened, Lola.”

“The… I got a call from Newton earlier, so we went over to the Gilded Rose. One of the workers found a body when he came in this morning,” I said. “All of the cameras conveniently cut out before they see anything, but we know the killer didn’t break in. And the body…” I let out a slow sigh. “She was killed there. He cut her face this time before she died.”

“There was a lot of blood,” Viper said. “A lot. It’s not going to be a quick clean-up for Newton’s men.”

Sylvester’s blond brows creased as he listened to us. “Did you talk to the employee who found the body?”

“I did,” I told him. “And I don’t think he’s the one who did it. My gut’s pointing me in a different direction.” I looked between him and his brother, then at Viper and Mike. “We need to put a man on the Gilded Rose, and I want someone tailing Newton at all times.”

Sylvester’s back straightened. “You think it could be Newton? Really?”

“We know whoever it is knows how we work. He knows I’m the Night Slayer. Newton knows all of that. He’s as power-hungry as anyone else in this city.” Honestly, we probably should’ve been watching him closely this whole time.

“Why would he leave a body in the Gilded Rose?” Sylvester asked.

“Because he knows he’s got the perfect defense against suspicion—it’s the last thing anyone would think, if they knew the kind of person he is. Because he wanted to see my reaction first-hand when I saw the body. Because everyone knows a killer wouldn’t leave a corpse in a place that links them to it—but a smart killer would also know that. Newton’s not above playing dirty to get what he wants.”

“So what would be his reason for killing these girls, then? Why taunt you? Why not just kill you?” Sylvester threw out question after question, not giving me time to answer any of them before saying the next. “Newton’s the kind of guy who gets shit done when shit needs to be done, not someone who beats around the bush.”

I shrugged. “He could be angry that I rose up so quickly. He obviously has a thing for power. He knows I was played by Tony and Bianca, and he knows I took her out not long afterward. He saw that I inherited her fortune, her fucking house, the entire DeLuca name. Tell me that’s not reason enough for him to get so pissed he starts a murder spree.”

He let out a sigh and ran his hand down the side of his face. “I’m not saying I think you’re wrong. I just don’t know if it’s him. If he wanted you dead, I think he’d have his men bring you to him, and he’d kill you without fanfare and games.” He shoved a finger to the counter, beside his coffee cup. “That’s what this is to the killer, Lola: a game. This is all a game, and Newton isn’t the type to play games.”

“I didn’t think so, either, but the more I think about it, the more I start to wonder,” I admitted. “And I’m not saying we stop looking for the killer and put all our eggs into Newton’s basket, but I want him watched at all hours of the day and night. I don’t want him taking a piss without knowing about it.”

Sylvester glanced at the guys, and it was like they had a wordless conversation. “I’ll put Roman and Carter on him. They’ll take eight-hour shifts.”

“Good,” I said, before realizing that eight plus eight was not twenty-four. I blinked. “What about the other eight hours of the day?”

“I think we give those eight hours to someone who can’t seem to leave you alone. Kill two birds with one stone,” Sylvester muttered, frowning. “Harvey will take the other eight. At least it’ll get him out of our hair.”

I had no problem with the guy in my hair. Sheesh. Sylvester really didn’t like Harvey, did he? “So, what I’m hearing is, you’re bugged that Harvey hangs around all the time, so bugged that you’d be willing to throw him at a possible killer. You don’t even know how his stalking skills are. What if he’s bad at it? I don’t want Newton knowing.” I wasn’t worried about Roman and Carter; those two could definitely take care of themselves.

But Harvey?

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Sylvester said, not sounding too sure.

“You trust him enough to send him after Newton?” Maddox asked. “Personally, I don’t trust the asshole as far as I can throw him—” He paused, glancing around the room. “—which might be farther than some of you could, but that don’t mean shit.”

“I think how he does will tell us whether or not he’s fit to continue working for Lola,” Sylvester said, glancing at me. “I trust him about as much as I trust Newton, which is to say, not much at all. I think something’s fishy with Newton, yes, but I don’t want to blind ourselves to the possibility that the killer could be someone else.”

Yes, that went along with my eggs in a basket comment. We were all on the same page, pretty much. We knew the killer was still out there, taunting me, wanting me to know he was still killing.

“Can Jimmy get us a list of missing persons?” I asked. “Maybe if we try to match a name to the body, we’ll be able to figure out where he took her. We’ve had eyes on the clubs the last two weeks, and we haven’t seen anything. He had to have grabbed her somewhere else.”

“Good idea. I’ll give him a call and ask for a list,” Sylvester said, grabbing his phone. “I’ll get him to narrow down the pool of missing persons to females between… what? Eighteen and twenty-five?”

“Do fifteen and thirty,” I said. Some of those girls, though dead, had makeup on. Makeup was a fancy little tool young girls used to look older, and older gals used to look younger. Magical indeed.

Sylvester nodded and walked away, presumably to call Jimmy, our cop buddy, and also Roman and Carter. I got out my phone and texted Harvey, telling him to expect some new work. I wasn’t going to break the news to him. I’d leave that not-so-fun job for my lover.

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