Page 141 of The Slayer
“Yeah.” Chuito sighed, sounding concerned. “I think he was hoping for the heat.”
Chuito pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked to the front of the house. When he opened the door, the light from outside illuminated Tino leaning against the wall near the front door, his gun still in his hand as he looked at the ceiling.
“Hey,” Chuito said as he pushed the door open farther and looked out to the driveway. “Where’s your car?”
“I took a cab from the airport.” Nova Moretti stepped in, wearing a three-piece black suit as if he had just walked out of a high-powered business meeting.
“You caught a flight this late?” Chuito asked as he closed the door and locked it.
“I had to charter a plane.” Nova’s face lit up in the darkness when he turned on his phone. “Are there rats in this house?”
“Probably.” Tino huffed. “I wouldn’t rule it out.”
“This is really special, Valentino.” Nova let out a broken laugh. “I cannotwaitto hear this. I’m just dying for it.”
“Told you we should’ve called him,” Chuito said in annoyance.
“How’d you find us?” Tino asked his brother. “My phone was off.”
“But Alaine’s wasn’t.”
“How did you figure out her password?” Tino growled, now sounding completely furious. “How do you do that?”
“That’s for me to know, and you to never find out.” Nova walked into the kitchen and shone his phone on her. “Hi, Alaine. I like the picture you sent Jules.Cute.”
“Tino took it.” Alaine shrugged. “At least she knows we’re okay.”
“I think that’s questionable,” Nova argued, shining the light on the stuffed animal and frowning at it. “Nothing about this seems okay.”
“It’s not a rat,” Alaine offered. “I found that out the hard way.”
Nova winced and then looked back to Chuito and Tino, who followed him into the kitchen. “Why are we here?”
Tino, Chuito, and Alaine exchanged shadowed looks under the lights of three cell phones.
“Okay.” Nova shone his phone on Tino, lighting up his face. “Should I go first? I’ll tell you what I know, and at any point one of you can jump in and correct me.”
The three of them just exchanged muted looks of misery.
“No one minds if I smoke?” Nova asked as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his suit jacket. “’Cause I have a feeling I’m gonna need a fucking cigarette for this shit.” He leaned down, lighting a cigarette with something shiny and silver. Then he pulled back and blew out the smoke. “So, according to my sources, yesterday Tino and Chuito got arrested for fighting with each other. Then, after they were released without being charged, they apparently decided the best way to make up was sharing, because we all know sharing is caring. So you two”—he gestured to Alaine and Chuito with his cigarette—“showed up at Tino’s place last night, for what, I can only assume, was a very interesting evening of debauchery.”
“What?” Chuito growled as he looked at Nova like he was insane. “Who told you that?”
“Wow, that happened much faster than I anticipated.” Nova laughed as he took another drag off his cigarette. “You haven’t heard this yet, Chuito?”
“Heard what?” Chuito looked completely horrified.
“Apparently, Alaine is going through a thing.” Nova looked to Alaine for confirmation.
“A complicated thing,” Alaine supplied. “Very complicated.”
“Obviously,” Nova agreed as he glanced around the kitchen again, staring at the dirty floor with a look of distaste. “So you’re into threesomes. Which, okay, whatever. I certainly can’t throw any fucking stones. I know my brother’s done some fucked-up shit in his time,” he said as he gestured to Tino. “The first problem I had with the story was you.” Nova shone his phone on Chuito. “You don’t strike me as a threesome kinda guy, Chuito.”
Chuito laughed in disbelief. “What the fuck?”
“Yeah,” Nova agreed and took another drag of his cigarette. “But let’s say, for argument’s sake, you let my brother fuck your woman.”
“Did you touch her?” Chuito growled at Tino. “You said you didn’t—”
