Page 39 of The Mafia's Property

I shook my head, and he immediately waved the bartender away. Poor boy, I thought. “I want to ask something. A girl used to work here. Last year or a couple of years ago. Zoe Sanders. Know anything about her?”

“You mean the girl who died? She worked here. He replaced her after she… you know. What did you want to know about her?”

“How was she? Who were her friends?” What happened to her?

“Uh,” he folded his arms across his chest and cast his gaze to the ceiling. “She was a good worker, as far as that was concerned. Never complained. Never late. Had no friends except her roommate. A girl named… Man, what was her name? She had one of those Viking myth names. I can’t place it.”

“Freya?”

Joey clicked his fingers. “That’s it. They were together a lot and even though Freya didn’t work here, she was here all the time and even tried to score a job here. As far as Zoe goes, a quiet girl. Kept her head down. Nice. What’s this about?”

“Interesting.”

“Is there some recent development in her case or something?” He leaned forward conspiratorially.

“Something.”

He nodded and drew back, realizing he wasn’t going to get more than that out of me. “Do you know if she was involved romantically with anyone?”

“Oh yeah. Her and Garcia, he used to work here, had a thing for each other. They were usually on and off, but most people saw them as a couple, you know.”

“Garcia as in Derreck Garcia?”

“That would be the one. Is there something the police are looking into? Because if Zoe died of foul play like I think she did, he’s my number one suspect. Never liked the guy.”

“Really? Why?”

“Possessive. Controlling. And that drug overdose story, come on. Zoe was the driest bartender I’ve ever encountered. Never drank. Never did drugs. For a minute I thought she was a recovering addict, but nope. Just never touched the stuff. Clean as a whistle.”

Her file said the same thing. “So you think—”

“Derreck killed her? One hundred percent. Well, he would be my first suspect, at least. He was the one suggesting she was doing drugs, even though none of us saw the evidence. Then she dies of an overdose? Pretty convenient, don’t you think?”

Very convenient. And it would line up with Nico disciplining Derreck. But if Nico knew Derreck killed Zoe, why not kill him? That would have been appropriate punishment instead of kicking him out of the Family. “What about Freya? What do you know about her?”

He shrugged. “Other than them being friends? Not much, really. She works in this town if you want to contact her. She’s a dancer at that Saccone club. “

Not anymore, she didn’t. She was working for me now.

“I could try to look for her number if I can.”

“It’s unnecessary,” I said, rising from my chair. Joey mirrored my movements. I gave him my hand. “You’ve been more than enough help.”

This was very interesting, I thought as I got out of the bar and back into the multicolored neon evening of the city. The sun was about to set a few hours from now, but all the establishments had turned on the flashing lights. Zoe definitely meant a lot to Freya if what Joey was saying was true. The two must have been really close and for her friend to die like that was horrible. If she wasn’t in on it. That’s the other side of this puzzle. Most likely, someone close to her killed Zoe. It was very possible that it wasn’t Derreck who had killed Zoe, but Freya. I couldn’t see Freya as the killing kind, but better people have done worse. Everyone is capable of dark deeds, father would say. Some of us are more honest than others. I wonder what Freya’s motivation for killing her friend would be. Jealousy. Money issues? Freya wasn’t an addict, so it couldn’t be drugs. The more I mauled over it, the more likely it was that this Derreck guy was the bad apple among them.

After leaving the Venom, I went around all the other establishments in the city, so my visit to the Venom wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary. Joey struck me as the chatty kind and if word got out that I was looking into Zoe’s death, whoever killed her might get wind of it and bail. It was well into the night by the time I went back to the apartment.

The place was quiet except for moaning sounds coming from the bedrooms. No, not the bedrooms. The moans were closer. And the sound of flesh against flesh. Fuck, my stupid dick was rising with each step.

“Someone’s coming,” she said in-between the throaty gasps.

Nico’s own strained with passion voice came soon after. “I don’t care. Let them watch.”

I went to the source of the action. There was no other way I was getting to my bed without passing them. They were in the living room. Freya had her body bend over the couch, skirt up, top down and getting pounded by Nico from behind. He held onto her by the hair and now and then he would caress her back as he drilled into her mercilessly. Nico and I have fucked in the same room and sometimes the same person at once and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this emotionally invested in the act like he was in that moment. He wanted her. That much I could tell. The way he was fucking her, you would think he was trying to leave a mark. An imprint.

“Rico.” Freya was facing the entrance to the living room, so she was the first to notice me.

“Let him watch. So he knows you’re mine,” Nico said, without turning to face me. His full concentration was on Freya. He drew her up by her hair, showing me her beautiful breasts. To tempt me? If it was any other woman, I would be unzipping my pants and thrusting my cock straight through those plump lips. But not her. Not when I made it more than clear that I didn’t want her. Even though I slept with her already. Even though I was her first.

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