Page 19 of Spiteful Heart

I trusted her. I believed in her, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I believed in her instincts. She might’ve had the worst upbringing ever, she might’ve lived through some God-awful stuff, but that didn’t automatically mean she had a working radar for other bad people. You’d be surprised how good some people were at hiding their true selves.

“You ordered a few?” Viper asked. “Where else have you put these?” He set the tiny thing back in the box, covering it up with the lid. Beside him, his brother said nothing, only staring at me with an unreadable expression.

“That’s none of your concern now, is it?” I asked, taking on a bit of a tone. It was on a need-to-know basis, and right now, these two didn’t need to know where else I’d put them. Let’s just say I would only use them as a last resort, because once I did, the cat would be out of the bag and there would be no more hiding it.

Viper took the box and slid it into his pocket, giving me a nod that told me he wouldn’t ask any more questions on the matter.

“Harvey starts his shift watching Newton at eight tonight.” It was like what Lola had said about Newton: I didn’t want Harvey taking a piss without knowing about it. “If either of you see anything… I want to know.” My voice dropped to a whisper, “It’s no surprise to either of you, I’m sure, but I don’t like Harvey. He’s hiding something. I know it.” I just didn’t know what that something was.

Viper nodded. “If he’s hiding anything, we’ll figure it out. Is that it?” When I gave him the affirmative, he turned and walked out of my office. His brother, though, remained.

Mike stood, a pensive look on his usually calm face. I could never truly tell what the guy was thinking; he was always the quiet one, the one who kept his emotions and his thoughts close to his chest. Even when he’d gotten shot by those DeLuca loyalists… he hadn’t exactly freaked out. The man was an immovable mountain.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked.

His brown eyebrows creased, and he said nothing right away. Viper had left the door ajar, and maybe that’s why he spoke so quietly when he did finally speak, “Do you really think we’re going to find him?”

“Why? Do you think our plan isn’t good enough?” I didn’t know what else we could do at this point. I had all eyes and ears on the pavement in this city, and our two biggest leads were going to be tailed from now on.

“It’s not that,” he said. “I just… I don’t think it’s Harvey, Sylvester, and I don’t think it’s Newton.” His hazel eyes dropped to the floor. “I think there’s something we’re not seeing. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Well, if you realize something we don’t, please share with the class, but until then, let’s continue with the plan we have,” I told him. I watched as he nodded. The man didn’t say another word as he turned and walked out.

Hmm. For Mike to go so far as to say that… it made me wonder. But if it wasn’t Harvey and it wasn’t Newton, who was it? Some nameless gutter rat? Some goon who used to work for Bianca DeLuca that was pissed at Lola for taking her place after killing her?

I sat there, for I didn’t know how long, thinking. I thought about everything, not just this killer we couldn’t find. I thought about how much of a turn my life had taken when Lola had killed her way into our lives. I thought about our father and how he was doing, living in the middle of nowhere after completely abandoning us. I thought about the future of this city, what it would be like if we all just walked away. Pulled all our money and moved, went somewhere where we were an unknown family, where no one knew Lola’s face or her mask.

Would we be happy if we did the same thing my father did, or would we miss this city and its complicated, murderous streets?

I’d grown up here. I’d become an heir to a fortune that should never have been mine. I’d been homeless, a street rat myself, but a man named Richard Luciano had seen something within me, a maturity a child should never have. I think I only had it because I’d been forced to grow up fast. Living on your own tended to do that to you.

Maddox and Mario had become my brothers. I’d been smack dab in between them, age-wise, and yet as we’d grown up, I’d continued to prove my maturity, whereas they hadn’t. Mario had kept fucking up to the point where our father had forced him to work with the cleaners and clean up messes. Maddox had flown under the radar, wanting to keep that frat boy lifestyle. So, in a way, I supposed it was natural for things to have fallen my way, long before Mario was killed by a beautiful blond bombshell.

Before I thought too much about it, I pulled out my phone and unlocked the screen. I went into my contacts and dialed my father’s number. Bringing the phone up to my ear, I waited, listening to it ring and ring.

It wasn’t the first time I’d called him. It probably wouldn’t be the last. Was he okay out there, on his own, or had he let himself spiral? All these years, I’d thought he’d been holding it together, but in reality, it’d been nothing but a lie. A lie he’d told just so my brothers and I could keep going after we lost our mother.

But now I knew he’d never really recovered after her death. He never let himself, and a man who could not find peace would not live a happy life.

The phone kept ringing, and then it went to voicemail. I hung up, not bothering to leave another message for him. Had he changed his number, or was he just avoiding any calls from me? You’d think, even if he wanted to throw everything away and leave it all behind, he’d still find time for his two living sons.

But if you thought that, apparently you’d be wrong.

I got up after a while, heading downstairs to find the guys and Lola on the couches in the living room, watching something on the TV. I suggested we go over to her place, that I’d order us dinner in a bit. Lola jumped at that, saying how she was starving, having not eaten lunch due to the body that was discovered earlier.

We went over to Lola’s house. I took my own car, while everybody else piled into Viper’s. Everybody wanted to be with Lola, though I couldn’t blame them. Once we were situated in her house, we discussed what everybody wanted to eat. Maddox wanted pizza, Lola wanted Chinese, while Viper wanted Italian. Big Mike said he’d eat whatever.

I chose Chinese, to which Maddox huffed under his breath, “Kiss ass.” Of course, he wasn’t wrong. If there was one ass I’d want to kiss, it was Lola’s.

The rest of the day passed by, uneventful. Mike went out once it got darker, closer to eight. He’d start tailing Harvey when Harvey was on Newton’s watch. Lola asked him where he was going, but all he did was grumble out an incoherent response before leaving.

I hoped we wouldn’t have to do this for long. I hoped, one way or another, we’d figure out who our mysterious serial killer was, and then we’d put him in the ground. Or, you know, the river, since that’s where all our bodies went.

Except the recent ones. The recent ones all were packed up and taken to a certain silver-fanged metal worker who had an incinerator of his own. Fang hadn’t been happy to get rid of the bodies for me, but after I explained to him the situation, and that the bodies had also been found on his brother’s turf, he shut up and let me use his services once again.

Later that night, after darkness had fallen, I was getting ready to leave. Maddox had already gone home, his car having been left at her place earlier in the day, while Viper had gone upstairs to shower and go to bed.

It was late. I’d gotten nothing on the Harvey or Newton front, not that I was expecting any news on the first night. I was in the kitchen, cleaning up the mess we’d made from dinner—it was both amazing and annoying how much of a mess you could make, even with takeout.

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