It was as if the air was pushed out of his body, as Viktor pushed in, his ass already lubed thanks to magic, the usually tight muscles loosened by Viktor’s fingers. Viktor’s hands held Ant’s hips in a firm grip as the vampire eased in and then slammed home. The thrusts were hard and fast, Viktor’s grunts matching the slap of skin on skin. It wasn’t long, barely a minute or two, and Viktor yelled as he thrust hard one last time and froze.
His eyes closed, Ant smiled as he saw the swirl of colors in his mind – his energies and Viktor’s swirling, merging, and becoming one. Anything else Ant needed to think about could wait.
Chapter Eight
“Why the hell are we suddenly having anything to do with that sleazeball Carmine Doukas?” Bridget burst into Ant’s sunny kitchen just as Ant and Viktor were finishing breakfast.
Viktor, who was over by the kitchen counter pouring himself and Ant more coffee, quietly hid his grin. He’d already determined that there was a good chance Bridget wouldn’t be happy with Ant’s sudden desire to find the killer of a woman who’d been dead ten years – especially if the request came from Carmine. He quietly added an extra sugar to Ant’s coffee. He was probably going to need it.
“My office is absolutely filled with bunches of wretched flowers. You know how much I hate cut flowers.” Bridget slapped a large folder on the dining table. “And then this – let’s not forget this folder accompanied by a handwritten note from Carmine Doukas himself, addressed to me. A simple little note letting me know how thrilled he was to be working with the Channon family. What are you doing, Ant? What the hell are you bringing down on us now? Wasn’t one crime family enough for you?”
Ant straightened in his chair, pushed his empty plate aside, and reached for the coffee Viktor had carried over to him. “Carmine has a dead sister. She was apparently murdered ten years ago. He wanted me to help him find the killer. I said if he sent me the case file, I would read it over and consider doing a scene reading where her body was found, after he’d paid the account. I knew you wouldn’t want me working without being paid.”
“Damn right, I wouldn’t want you working for nothing. Your time is valuable, but this” - Bridget stabbed the folder with her fingernail - “why on earth did you agree to work on this particular case?”
Viktor could see Ant was confused, and there was a twinge of hurt that flickered on the edge of the bond they shared. “I’m sorry about the flowers,” Ant said at last. “Carmine wasn’t meant to do that.”
“That’s just Carmine being Carmine,” Bridget said as she slumped into a chair. “You can get me a coffee while you’re up, Viktor. Lord knows I need a pot of it this morning.”
Viktor went back to the coffee pot. He didn’t take offense at Bridget’s bossy tones. He quite liked a feisty Bridget. Not in the same way as he enjoyed a feisty Ant, of course, but Bridget, when she was all fired up and excited, could be fun to watch, particularly in the way she spoke to her brother.
“I read about this case when it happened,” Bridget said. “It was in every newspaper. You couldn’t turn on a television without seeing Carol Doukas’s face on the screen. What I’m failing to understand is why you agreed to find a killer who was found a year after Carol’s body was found.”
Viktor knew Carmine had been lying during their meeting, but he hadn’t realized the lies were that extensive. Ant looked shocked as well. “Why would Carmine tell me that he wanted me to find the killer if the killer’s already in jail?”
“The man’s not in jail.” Bridget poked Ant’s arm with her fingernail for emphasis. “The man deemed responsible by the police and the courts for the death of Carol Doukas was sent to jail for twenty years. He served all of one week before he was found hanging in his cell and couldn’t be revived.”
Viktor pushed Bridget’s coffee across the table at her, before taking his seat. “I did try to tell you, Ant,” he said quietly. He didn’t want to sound accusatory when Bridget was doing that enough for both of them. “Carmine’s a dedicated liar. He can’t lie straight in bed. I warned you he is simply trying to pull youinto his web of lies until you’re bound up so tight, you’re not even sure what the truth is anymore. I’ve seen it happen.”
“I’m not sure,” Ant said slowly. “Is it possible that Carmine thinks the man who confessed didn’t do it?” He looked up and Viktor caught his eye. “If you think about it logically, the first time you saw me was when I was in court, testifying that a certain Mr. Duncan was not responsible for the death of Mr. Fallows in Gully Park. A crime Mr. Duncan had already confessed to, probably because he was being paid by Tony Manzano to do so.”
Leaning back in his chair, Viktor rubbed the scruff on his chin as he nodded. “That’s true. Tony actually paid off Duncan’s mother just before the court case – giving her a hefty chunk of money to keep her family solvent while Duncan served his time.”
“Mr. Duncan didn’t go to jail for murder because I testified that he didn’t do it,” Ant said. “I didn’t investigate the original case of Carol Doukas, so I have no idea if the man who confessed murdered her or not. Isn’t that possible – that he didn’t do it?”
“Yes, brother dear,” Bridget said, with a touch of snark. “Of course, it’s possible the man who confessed to murdering her didn’t actually do it. But whether he did or not, that doesn’t answer the question as to why Carmine would be asking you to look for the killer when, for all intents and purposes, he was probably the one who arranged the death of the confessed killer in jail.”
“That’s going to make things difficult.” Ant looked pained. The moment he opened his mouth, Viktor realized why. “I doubt very much I can read a crime scene in a prison,” he said. “There are just far too many energies there, far too many bad things have gone on within those walls. It would be extremely difficult...”
“You’re not going into the prison to try and read a scene on a man who’s been dead for years!” Viktor slapped his hand on the table, causing Able, who’d been snoozing by the door, to bark. “Sorry, Able, but half the people in prison right now are probably there because of you, Ant. I know you’re an independent adult. I know you can make decisions for yourself, and normally, I would support you absolutely in doing anything you want to do.
“But can’t you take this for the warning that it is? Carmine is playing you, testing you out, seeing how far he can push you. He sent flowers to your sister, for fuck’s sake. The same sister you warned him from going near just yesterday.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Ant said, his chin stuck out at such an angle Viktor knew he was about to be stubborn. “Seeing as you and Bridget are so keen to espouse rash theories, none of which have any basis in fact, perhaps I should do the same thing. Isn’t it possible that Carmine had the man in prison killed because hewasn’this sister’s murderer? Perhaps Carmine was annoyed that the man confessed to the crime for whatever reason, thereby stopping the police investigation that had already dragged on for too long?”
“That’s possible. Unlikely, but possible,” Viktor said slowly. He wouldn’t put it past Carmine to kill someone because the man had gotten in his way. “But for Carmine to know definitively the man wasn’t the killer, he would have to know who did kill his sister, again negating the need for you to work for him at all.”
“It’s no more of a wild theory than the ones you and Bridget are coming up with,” Ant said hotly. “You are both angry at me when I’m just trying to find justice for a dead woman. It’s what I do. I thought of all the people in the world, you two would know that about me.”
Viktor glanced at Bridget, and she gave him a look that could only be described as commiserating. “Ant, dear,” Bridget said in a voice similar to one Viktor had heard used by a mother speaking to an errant toddler. “I understand that sometimes human psychology and the way people think is confusing to you, but I don’t understand why we’re having anything to do with Carmine Doukas.
“His sister was killed. That was very tragic. But the police did their job, and the killer was found. There had to be evidence. A confession isn’t enough to put someone away, so there had to be something concrete tying the man to the murder. He then died in prison – at Carmine’s hand, on Carmine’s orders, or through sheer bad luck, but that man is now dead, too. There is nothing more to learn about this case.”
“There is if the man who died in jail wasn’t the actual killer,” Ant insisted. “I can do a scene reading, not in the prison, but where Carol’s body was found. Is that acceptable?”
Oops.Viktor got the distinct impression he was in the shit, seeing as the question was directed at him. “You don’t need my permission,” he said slowly. “I’d just urge you to be cautious, that’s all…”
“Good, then. I clearly have your permission.” Ant glared at his sister. “Did you send Carmine my invoice, charging him for a scene reading?”
