Page 53 of A Love So Deadly
“Yes. She asked me?—”
Elliot steps back, shaking her head. “I quit.”
My gaze snaps down to her. “What?”
“I quit.” Then she takes off down the sidewalk, her blonde curls bouncing like some fucking fairy tale princess running off into the rainy night.
Chapter
Seventeen
Elliot
This time of year blows. Rain and muggy warmth.
Part of me expected Lucian to chase after me that night or try to contact me after.
He hasn’t.
It’s foolish of me to think he cared for me at all, but I still hoped…
Stupid.
Nell’s words run through my head. I’d be lying if I should I wasn’t a bit jealous that she got to spend so much time with Lucian. As lovers and then as friends. But that’s stupid of me to think, too.
She had told me about her final request, the one where she wanted Lucian to end her life.
That isn’t why I ran.
The thought of him drinking her blood didn’t even turn my stomach. On a base level, I understand it. I get what he is. What his nature dictates he is. It was her dying wish, one he chose toburdened himself with it to relieve her. It clearly hurt him to do it.
But no, none of that is why I ran.
I ran because I needed to separate myself from Lucian. It’s the only way I can do what I do best. Be a pain in the ass and investigate.
Being at VMR, being with Lucian, is too distracting. My head is too hazed, my focus on Kayla and how he makes me feel, but it was time to switch directions.
It took some time and a lot of prying, but I got what I needed. I found Vinnie’s headquarters, a god-awful, sleezy nightclub located in a not-so-great part of the city. And tonight, I’m doing some undercover research.
The club Vinnie the snakes owns matches his aesthetic perfectly. Oily, shadowy, and doused in too much cologne.
I don’t know what business VMR have with Vinnie or Benicio, if it’s clean or criminal, but the fact that Lucian turned down Benicio who effectively murdered his ‘gran,’ makes me lean toward the illegal kind. No one’s going to off someone simply because of a lost business deal.
What I learned about Vinnie is mostly typical weaselly criminal kind of stuff. He’s trying to fill the pockets of others so he can stay out of prison, and he’s in a deadly amount of debt.
But Vinnie fucked up recently because, in his lust to drive up the price, the deal between Benicio and Lucian went south—I was there at the party for that—and he had already passed along information about Nell to Benicio.
She was only meant to be a threat, but Benicio took it too far. He hadn’t expected Lucian to turn down his offer and took the rejection personally.
Since Nell’s death, Lucian hasn’t bothered coming after Vinnie. He must know about Vinnie’s part in this, but accordingto a bartender who gets to hear all of Vinnie’s drunken rants, he thinks he’s been let off, scot-free. He stopped making payments.
The man’s an oily fool.
I don’t have to be a vampire to know he’s scared of his own shadow. Even time someone walks through the door, he jumps up from his corner table, like he’s about to run. The only thing that’s been keeping him from crawling out of his own skin is the shots he keeps downing.
But there’s more. And this, I don’t think Lucian knows yet, otherwise there’s be no doubt in my mind that this place would’ve been painted with Vinnie’s blood already.
According to a former waitress that I met with last night, Vinnie owed Benicio. Big time. So Benicio called in a favor, one that would erase his debts and make them square.
