Page 61 of The Vampire Kingpin
He gulped, but didn’t back down. “Yeah. The bitch told me it had all been lost in some big bet that they didn’t pull off.”
He seemed outraged that Lark might’ve held out on him, even though it was clear he would’ve relieved her of any money in the blink of an eye if he could’ve.
I considered him, contemplating whether squeezing any more info out of him was worth the effort. The man wouldn’t know the truth if it morphed into a Rottweiler and bit him on his bony ass. He was playing me, flipping his tale every time it left his mouth.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t a kernel of reality buried somewhere in there. But I could get that from Lark or Troll.
He shifted uneasily. “Are we done here?”
“Yeah,” I said and punched the blade into him, angling it upward so it went deep into his heart. “That’s for jerking me around.” I gave the dagger a twist. “And that’s for treating Lark like a fucking slave.”
His mouth opened in shock. He grasped the handle, tugging weakly, but he couldn’t dislodge it. “You stupid bastard,” he grated, blood bubbling from the corner of his lips. “She’s worth money, I tell ya.”
“I don’t need her money.”
“Yeah? Well, you don’t know who you’re dealin’ wi—” His eyes rolled up in his head and his breath rattled out. He groaned and, mercifully, went silent.
“Yeah?” I jerked the blade from his chest and wiped it on his leisure suit. “From where I’m standing, you forgot who you’re dealing with. Because you seem to think I’m a weak-ass alpha—like you.”
I stepped back, watching as he staggered sideways, then stumbled into the wall and slid to the tunnel floor, his body smoking. A few seconds later, his chest burst into dark flames, consuming him from the inside out. The tunnel filled with the rank smell of charred flesh.
I turned to Jacko, who’d been doing his best to keep Velma from jumping to her feet to help me. “Velma okay to move?”
She answered me herself. “Please,” she said with a look of disgust at Grimclaw’s disintegrating body. “Get me outta here.”
Together, we helped my injured lieutenant to her feet and to the Cavern door. Inside, I took over, guiding her to a couch with an arm around her waist.
“I’ll clean her wound,” Jacko volunteered, striding to the kitchen for supplies.
“You sure you’re alright?” I asked Velma. “Because I need to talk to Lark.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s just a scratch. But come here.” She beckoned me closer, and when I bent down, she hissed, “Chill, big man. Before you do anything, ask Lark why she met up with those two asses.”
My mouth turned down. “I know why. She’s his cousin. I’m the dude who’s paying her to have sex with me. Guess who’s side she’s on?”
“She likes it here, you idiot. There’s something we don’t know.”
“Maybe,” I said.
The conditions Lark had been living in flashed into my mind, piercing the rage and disappointment that had been driving me ever since finding her with her cousin and his lieutenant. Why would any sane person pick Grimclaw over me? Added to that cryptic comment Grimclaw had made about Lark being worth money and Velma was right.
Something was very off. I’d known all along Lark was keeping secrets. I’d even suspected she was on the run from whoever had staked her parents.
Well, she wasn’t getting out of that cell until she told me everything. Like it or not, she was under my protection now, and if her secrets had landed her sexy ass in danger, that was unacceptable on every fucking level.
I crouched next to Velma, running a practiced eye over her injured arm. It had stopped bleeding, but the silver blade had left a nasty gash. “You sure you’re okay?”
She leaned back against a cushion. “What, am I some fragile flower? Go to her already.”
I picked up her hand. “If you promise you won’t get up the second my back’s turned.”
She wrinkled her nose at me, but I could tell she was touched that I cared. “Fine. I promise, alright?”
“Good.” I squeezed her fingers and strode off.
By then, word must’ve gotten out about the attack because most of the lair had gathered in the Cavern’s great room. But as I made my way through the small crowd, not a single person tried to stop me.
16
