Page 121 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
“But, did you…” Joe stared at Elio, stared at Percy, and back and forth until his eyes finally settled on his lover. “Did you commit a murder during our dinner at a fancy restaurant?”
“Yes, but I can explain?—”
“Did you… use me as an alibi?”
“Well, yes, sort of, but?—”
“But you didn’t tell me a thing, so… I wouldn’t even know… If anyone asked…”
“It wasn’t exactly?—”
“Percy, that’s brilliant!” Joe let off a surprised, relieved laugh, running a shaking hand through his ever-increasingmane of brown curls. The other hand, he stuck out at the corpse as if to demonstrate something, then only laughed again. “Oh, thank god.”
Percy watched in perplexity, smiling, tentatively at first, then with a little more confidence as he settled into the unexpected turn of events. “Then you’re not upset?”
“No.” Joe laughed. “I thought…” Another second, he looked at Percy. “I’m so sorry. I thought…” He hid his flushed face behind a hand, then when he was brave enough to look out again, he said faithfully, “I know you must have had a very good reason for doing this.”
Joe’s aspect was shifting into a different sort of wary as he reassessed the body and the situation. His worried but hopeful eyes fell on Percy, so, “The best,” Percy declared at once, putting the glossiest shine he could on the matter. “Elio here is actually a murderer by proxy.”
“I knew it,” said Joe, with a confident nod. Then to Percy’s questioning expression, “Or that it would be something good like that. Go on.”
Bolstered, Percy continued, “He hired me to murder his wife?—”
“Hired you?”
“Yes. He paid fifty thousand dollars?—”
Joe gasped. “To hire you for a murder?”
“Yes, but,” Percy deflected, “I double-crossed him, and did not murder his wife, who also happens to be the mother of his children, and a very nice woman, by the way?—”
“He sounds despicable,” Joe virtually spat, glaring down at the corpse.
“And that’s exactly why I murdered him.” Percy grinned. “But I did have to trick Luca, and so I may have lost us twenty-five of that fifty thousand.”
Softly, embarrassed, Joe said, “So that’s what the weirdness with Giordanowas about?”
“Yes.” Percy’s gaze softened to adoring. “It was only murder. Nothing terrible.”
Then, sheepishly, “But you made twenty-five thousand dollars in one day?”
“Yes.”
“And you actually forfeited twenty-five thousand dollars to protect his wife from her abusive husband?”
“Well…” How good it sounded when Joe put it that way. “Yes, that’s exactly what I did.”
“Percy…” Joe absolutely beamed up at him. “You’re amazing. You’re like… You’re like some kind of urban vigilante dishing out justice where no one else will.”
Percy had killed the man because it was easy money, and because it would weigh a little less heavily on his conscience, but he said, with a smile, “I suppose I am, in a way.”
“Fuck,” was all Joe could whisper. His eyes were hot on Percy now. He stepped over Elio, and he all but threw himself into the waiting arms, pressing his lips hard against Percy’s, as Percy wrapped him in his strong hold, and they stumbled back a few paces with the force of Joe’s ardour. “Is this really what you do?” asked Joe, kissing him over and over.
“It’s…” More kisses interfered with his speech, but that odd twist of guilt that only ever seemed to be inspired by Joe’s presence was acting up again, so he said, “Sometimes. Joe, listen…”
Joe’s eyes were so bright and so beautiful when he looked up. “Percy, I was devastated at the thought of you with someone else?—”
“I would never do that, but,” another kiss broke his speech until he lifted Joe’s chin with gentle fingers, “to see you that upset… I don’t ever want to make you feel like that again. Even by accident. So I don’t want to lie to you anymore. And you need to know, this,” and with a sigh, he pointed at the dead man who was still waiting to have his fingers chopped off, “this isonly part of what I do. There’s so much more. And I want to be honest with you about what the future holds, because… I can’t do this anymore. Not like this. Not without you.”
