Page 14 of The Gambler

He walked into his kitchen, feeling the twins trailing after him. A fluff of pink and purple hair stuck up above the kitchen counter, an oasis of color amongst the stainless steel. At least she was standing tall instead of on a chair.

“What’s with the yelling, Tess? Encountered some bugs or rodents? I thought you were tougher than this.”

Her skin was a chalky white. “Well, excuse me for having a fit when a corpse falls on top of me.”

He followed her gaze onto the floor. There she was. Grace, as dead as a doornail.

“Shit. That’s Grace, my former PA.”

“Yeah, she’s a goner,” Angel remarked beside him, keeping his fair distance from the woman in the bloodied dress littering his kitchen floor.

How the hell had Grace ended up here? And without him noticing? He was supposed to have a top-notch security system.

Damon had a more hands-on approach, kneeling next to the body. “She was planted here.”

“No shit.” Luca raked his fingers through his hair. Having to deal with another problem, without having solved his prior ones, sucked.

Tess spun around, her eyes still wide. “I think I’m going to leave now. We’ll discuss our deal later.”

Judging by her face, she meant a lot later, as in, probably never. He couldn’t blame her. Ripping him a new one for not exactly holding up his end of the deal was a whole different matter than being involved in a murder.

“Not so fast.” Damon got up, a crease between his eyes. He cursed and went to look through the window blinds. “This woman was planted here. Which means someone set this up. As far as we know, this staged scene could have been filmed. It could all be on tape now, from us coming through those doors to right fucking now. Meaning, they could have eyes on this place. A place we now have our DNA all over.”

“Not me.” Tess stepped back quickly, putting her hands behind her back, as if that made any difference. “I don’t know this woman. I don’t know any of you guys, really. I didn’t hear or see anything. So, I’m going to go now.”

The twins boxed her in, effectively cutting her off from her route of escape.

Damon gave him a look. “She’s a possible witness. Putting you at the place of a dead, obviously murdered, woman.”

Luca knew exactly where he was going with this. Well, fuck.

“And more importantly,” Damon added, “possibly putting us at the time and place of the murder. This place could be bugged, for all we know. Even if we’d be able to erase all our prints and DNA from your condo, it could still come back to bite us in the ass one day.” Another look from Damon. “The girl is a liability.”

“No, I’m not,” Tess argued, a panicked look entering her eyes. “Didn’t you just hear me say that I didn’t hear and see anything? You know, like those three monkeys. Surely, you know the story. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil? Ringing any bells?”

Angel was sizing her up. Luca was afraid he knew exactly why his friend was measuring her height and width. “She’s a tiny little thing, isn’t she?”

“I’m not tiny.”

“You look tiny to me,” Angel said, looking down his nose. Fucking Narcissus himself couldn’t be more full of himself at times than his friend. Luca should’ve warned Tess not to get into a discussion with Angel when he was in this ornery mood. He would bury her. Quite literally.

Curious as to where this conversation would go, he kept his mouth shut. After all, the days of him being a damsel’s knight in shining armor were over.

Tess gave Angel a once-over. “You must be one of those men who actually believe that bigger is better. I could erase your entire life with the flick of my tiny fingers.” She waved all ten fingers in his face, in a challenging gesture.

He was beginning to suspect that she had a bit of a Napoleon complex.

Damon gave her a sad look. “We know exactly who you are. You didn’t actually think you could threaten Kristoff and go on unnoticed, did you? Still, this isn’t anything personal. I just can’t let you risk my brother’s life.”

That was the Damon he knew. For all his crazy viciousness, Luca understood his loyalty toward his brother. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for him. Even the slightest hint of a threat got eradicated, root and all.

Shit, this wasn’t going to end well.

He lifted a protesting Tess by her butt and stuffed her inside the pantry. She didn’t need to hear this. He knew what that look on Damon’s face meant, though he hoped he was wrong.

“Take her out, Luca. You know we can’t leave her here.”

“Dammit, Damon. She’s innocent. What are you going to do? Feed her to your alligator?”

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