Page 72 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

“Uh… Arsenic?” she tried.

“With an antidote, I said,” Percy muttered.

“Um… Mercury?”

“Mercury? Why the fuck would I give him mercury?”

“Well, I don’t know,” she shouted. “Cyanide, death cap mushrooms, puffer fish?”

“You’re terrible at this,” he shouted back. “Why did I hire you?”

“Sorry, am I hired? Is this me being hired?”

“Not with that attitude.”

Leo, all the while quietly withdrawn, said, “Heroin.” Eyes on the floor, voice thin, “You can start slow, and just add more until he starts showing signs of an overdose, then we hit him with the Narcan. That’ll fix him. And it’s a one-time thing. It won’t leave a trace.”

Althea searched their serious faces for any sign of jest. “You’re mad. You can’t give him heroin.”

Percy addressed only Leo. “Will he know he’s dying?”

“Yeah,” Leo mumbled. “He’ll know.”

“Right. Heroin and Narcan. Have it to me within the hour.” Percy moved for the bedroom door, but felt his arm caught in Leo’s hand.

Leo retracted it the moment he turned, asking softly, “Could you? I don’t think it’s good… for me…”

Percy touched a hand to his shoulder, keeping him both physically and emotionally at arm’s length. “If the neighbours come looking for their man, I need to be here. You understand that?”

“Yeah, it’s just?—”

“One hour and it’s done.” Percy tilted his head towards the stairs. “Go. Quickly.”

Leo didn’t speak to or glance at Percy again. He hunched his shoulders against the cold, pulled his collar up around his cheeks, and left.

Althea wasn’t so withdrawn. She brought her face to within an inch of Percy’s, cutting into him with unflinching eyes. “You’re a real prick, you know that?”

Percy watched her bolt after Leo, heard the door slam, and muttered, “So everyone keeps telling me.”

He staggered down the stairs behind them, carpet seeming to shift beneath his feet, walls swaying with sickness, keeping a safe distance. When he got outside, Althea was disappearing around the corner at the bottom of the street.

He turned his back on her and made for the vacant lot next door.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO SUPPLY CLASS A DRUGS

By the time Althea caught up with Leo, his cheeks were wet, his eyes were red, and she had to grab his coat to pull herself onto the almost-empty train before the doors closed on her. “Where are we going?”

He had thought he was alone. At the sound of her voice, he wiped his face over with the sleeve of his sweater and coughed some firmness into his tone. “‘We’ aren’t going anywhere. Stay on until St. John’s Wood, and I’ll come meet you later.”

Althea let out a sharp huff of incredulity. “I’m not going to let you do this by yourself.”

“Al…” He shook his head, staring into the black of a tunnel. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Yes, it is. He’s such an asshole.”

A tic of anger clocked across Leo’s jaw. “Don’t talk about him like that.”

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