Page 19 of Destroyer

I sit back as Nico enters backwards, a large tray in his hands.

"Gladys is training me, so useful I can be." Nico bangs into the wall, his tray stuck halfway through the door.

I don't know how useful he is, I have an overwhelming urge to rush to his aid.

"Not does the door open wide enough." Nico clanks the tray on the last part of the handle. "Bugger be the door."

"Can we help you with something?" Knox questions sternly, not taking kindly to the loud interruption.

"No. Gladys tells me to bring you lunch. I did help with the muffins. My numbers are good." He grins at Knox and sets the tray down in the middle of the desk. "Not did she tell me what now. Shall I leave tray and go?"

"Nico, what do you know about Piotr?" Knox takes a plate of sandwiches and I follow suit.

"Ah. He is son of the big boss man of Bratva near here. He gives hand in hair when the bad poker hand is given. Little twiddle of short bits." Nico demonstrates the man's tell as best he can with his longer locks.

"Thank you." Knox praises the irrelevant piece of information about Poker. We already knew he was the heir to the Russian mafia.

"He is also a bad kind of child liker. I haven't met him, only watched in video, Gavriil says he is not allowed near little children."

"Bad kind of child liker? Do you mean a paedophile?" The hairs on my neck stand up at the idea of my boy being anywhere near that man, even though it sounds like Gavriil may have actually looked out for Nico there.

"No, that is person who touches, and Piotr has never touched. He may like but he never touch."

“Thank you, Nico, that is all. If you see Gregory, please keep him busy until Caeo and I are done here.”

Nico nods at Knox's order and slips out a lot easier than he entered.

“This all makes Piotr's club on Westminster Avenue seem more logical," Knox declares. "He runs Little nights."

Watching guys crawl around pretending to be babies is the closest this guy gets to actual kids. Maybe this man just likes littles, rather than real kids, and when it comes to men enjoying emotionally younger men, I have no objections.

“I bet Nico could pull off being a Little.”

“What are you thinking? Pop along to his club and see if Nico can understand anything?” Knox jumps at the idea, spilling more of his tea than Nico did getting in.

That wasn't what I was thinking at all. Nico has flexible personality traits, which is how everyone loves him. For Knox, he is loud and bratty. For me he is quiet and vulnerable. Gavriil understood this and benefited for years. But he knew that Nico could mould to be everything Piotr wanted, and I doubt Gavriil could refuse Piotr if he decided he wanted him. Keeping them separate was as much for Gavriil's benefit as it was for Nico. The fact they've never seen each other might come in handy now as Knox starts scheming.

Chapter thirteen

Nico

WhenKnoxtoldGregoryto keep me distracted, I thought it was a way to get Gregory out of the house office. Caeo is Knox's best man, Gregory will realise he is much better suited at the security here, and I'm happy to guide both men in my own way.

I didn't realise Gregory planned to keep me distracted from my reading with a mobile phone. He decided, on his way back from disposing of Paul's body, that I needed a mobile phone loaded with the numbers for my dad, my grandfather, my uncle, and my two half-brothers.

"Next time you creep out to kill someone, we can just call you to ask where you are."

"And I can tell you to piss off because I'm busy?"

"Yeah, but at least Caeo wouldn't be worried." Gregory gives me a shrug and a hopeful smile.

"Next time I go missing, not go tell Caeo I am gone," I instruct. "Then look at your phone and imagine I say piss off because I am busy."

"What if you need help disposing of a body?"

"Not have I needed help in six years with disposing of bodies. But what are you saying to people when they ask where Paul Newman has gone?"

"Alright clever clogs. What were you going to do with the body?"

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