Barbarian (Jericho’s Boys #3)

20. Nico

Breaking and entering Frankie’s high-rise wasn’t quite as easy as opening a sliding glass door, but it wasn’t exactly Ocean’s Eleven either. Once Calliope established that Frankie was still at the gym—who worked out that much?—she’d called the front desk and, using some kind of voice-disguising app, told the main desk that Mal and Nico were expected. This proved to be unnecessary as the guard didn’t even look up at their arrival, intently focused on whatever he watched on his phone.

It was helpful that the building seemed to be a mirror of Jericho and Freckles’ place, expensive and pristine. There was marble everywhere and shiny gold accents with huge, expensive bouquets that, upon closer inspection, were actually fake. The interior of the elevators was entirely mirrors. Looking at a hundred versions of Mal was dizzying and gave Nico some very kinky ideas.

When they got off on the sixth floor, Nico inhaled deeply.

Mal looked at him with both confusion and amusement. “What are you doing?”

“It smells really good in these buildings. Like when you walk into a Bath & Body Works.”

Mal huffed out a quiet laugh as they located Frankie’s apartment. Calliope had the door code ready. Thank God for computerized locks and Calliope’s insane hacking skills. He watched as Mal typed in the code, fighting the urge to wildly scan their surroundings. That would look far more suspicious than two guys who knew Frankie’s door code.

Nico’s insides unclenched as the door swung open. They had barely managed to enter and close the door when a sharp noise, kind of like stepping on a squeaky toy, scared Nico enough to almost dive into Mal’s arms. It took him longer than it should to realize that the small ball of fur staring them down was not a toy but an actual living, breathing creature.

“What the hell is that?” Mal asked, looking spooked.

Nico crouched down, holding his hand out. “It’s a dog. What do you mean?”

The dog’s barking increased, its little body practically levitating with the effort. It was so…cute. But the yapping was jarring.

Mal clearly didn’t share Nico’s evaluation. He gazed at the puppy, lip curled as he slow-blinked like a lazy panther. “Why does it look like that?”

“Look like what?” Nico asked, exasperated. “It’s just a tiny, fluffy white dog.”

Mal narrowed his eyes, backing up a step. If he had a tail, it would be flicking with irritation. “Why’s it so small? Are you sure it’s not, like, a…robot or something?”

Nico snickered. “I guess cats and dogs really do hate each other.”

“Are you implying I’m a cat? I thought I was a bunny?” Mal muttered, not taking his eyes off the dog.

“You’re a cat-bunny. My little alien cat-bunny in a human suit,” Nico said.

“If anyone else said that to me, I would shoot them,” Mal said calmly.

Nico closed the distance between them, smacking a kiss on his lips. “Well, nobody else said it but me.”

Mal didn’t acknowledge the kiss. He seemed frozen in place, eyeing the puppy with the same wariness one might give a rabid Rottweiler. The puppy was looking at Mal the same way. Nico made a noise of exasperation, scooping the dog up and holding it toward Mal. Mal recoiled.

The dog began to snarl and growl, snapping its tiny teeth onto Nico’s fingers. He barely felt it, focused on his ridiculous boyfriend. “What is wrong with you? It’s not a cobra. It’s a teacup yorkie. A baby, by the looks of it.”

Its barking increased as it got closer to Mal. He hissed in retaliation, which only further agitated the ball of fluff. Nico shook his head at Mal. “You’re an idiot.”

Nico eyed two doors that stood side by side. They had to be a coat closet and a bathroom. Nico figured either was good enough to keep the dog safe while they explored. As he walked to the farthest door on the left side of the hall, he noticed the dog’s rhinestone collar had a small heart-shaped tag with his name inscribed on it.

Nico laughed softly.

Mal frowned at him. “What’s so funny?”

“This little demon’s name is Venom,” he said as he opened what turned out to be a bathroom door, setting the small ball of fur in the bathtub before closing it again.

“Like from Marvel?” Mal asked.

“Yeah, probably. Fitting, I suppose.” Nico said. “Should we split up again?”

Mal nodded. “I’ll take this side, you take that one?”

Nico nodded, then headed down the hall to the open door at the end. It proved to be the bedroom. He started in the en suite bathroom, taking only a minute to marvel at the enormous tub. It was orgy-sized. He opened the medicine cabinet, but there was nothing super shocking. The usual pain relievers, an almost full bottle of Ambien, two types of cold medicine, and a small brown vial filled with tiny blue pills that could have been anything or nothing.

Under the sink, he found a heating pad and a first aid kit that rivaled Freckles’. It had everything from Band-Aids to something that would keep someone from bleeding out if they were shot. He was freakishly prepared for a lunatic.

In the bedroom, there was a closet full of expensive clothes, no less than twenty pairs of designer sneakers, and two suitcases perched on the top shelf. Nico pulled the first one down. Its weightlessness told him it was empty. He checked anyway but only found a baggage claim ticket. He put it back and pulled the second one.

This one was much heavier.

His breath ticked up in anticipation, pulse fluttering. Was it drugs? Guns? Money? Gold bars? He grimaced. A dead body? He really didn’t want it to be a dead body. He took a deep breath, then thumbed open the two locks, flinging the top back before he could chicken out.

Nico wasn’t proud of his reaction. His hand flew to his chest, clutching his metaphorical pearls. Of all the things he’d expected to see, this definitely wasn’t on his list. Nestled in the oversized container was what appeared to be a mobile sex shop. It wasn’t a suitcase so much as a toy box. Custom made by the looks of it.

He was honestly impressed.

There were little elastic bands that kept Frankie’s collars, cuffs, plugs, and paddles secure and organized. There were also two fleshlights, four boxes of condoms, anal beads, cat ears, a butt plug with a tail, and an entirely unnecessary amount of lube.

“Find anything?”

Nico gasped like Mal had caught him doing something scandalous. When Mal hooked up one very judgmental brow, Nico said, “Uh, maybe?”

Mal peered over his shoulder. “Wow, that’s a pretty sweet set-up. Wonder where he got it?”

“I know, right?” Nico said. “That was my first thought, too. I bet it’s custom. Rich people blow their money on all kinds of crazy shit. You should see his bathtub.”

“That’s…a lot of lube,” Mal noted.

“Right? Like what does one person need all that lube for? Unless he was planning on using it to coat a slip-n-slide, there’s no way one person could possibly need all that.”

Nico was just about to close the suitcase when he saw it. “Check it out.”

He held up the vial for Mal to see. His brows went up in surprise. “Poppers?”

“What would a straight guy be doing with poppers?” Nico wondered out loud.

Mal shrugged. “Maybe he doesn’t discriminate?”

“We love a bisexual icon, but I have a lot of questions, none of which have to do with Amy. I don’t think.”

Nico snapped a couple of pics, then let Mal carefully put the suitcase back before closing the closet. The two searched the drawers and found designer underwear, overpriced workout gear, a few jockstraps, and a lot of knee-high socks. Nothing that screamed psychopath.

“Did you find anything?” Nico asked once they’d returned to the living room.

Mal shook his head. “Nothing. While this place definitely looks more lived in, there’s nothing suspicious that I could find. Even his bills were a snooze.”

“This sucks,” Nico muttered. “Why are these dudes so boring? Like I wasn’t expecting to find Amy tied up in the closet or anything, but something? Anything? What the fuck? Maybe she really did just disappear into thin air.”

Mal’s phone rang. He frowned. “Calliope.” He swiped to answer and put it on speaker. “What’s up?”

“Incoming. Get out of there unless you want to have an awkward conversation with Frankie,” she warned.

“ETA?” Mal asked.

“Five minutes, at most. I would have warned you sooner but I had an emergency.”

“What kind of emergency?” Mal asked, concern leaching into his voice. “Is Casey okay?”

“Oh, yeah. It was a chicken emergency,” she said.

Nico could feel his own frown intensifying. “What the hell is a chicken emergency?”

What was his life that he even had to ask questions like that?

“Bang Chan stole an avocado,” she said.

“Oh,” Mal replied, like that made perfect sense.

It probably did make sense to Mal and his big brain, but Nico couldn’t for the life of him imagine how a chicken with an avocado was an emergency. Or even how a chicken could steal an avocado in the first place. They didn’t even have opposable thumbs.

“Was the avocado important to you?” Nico asked.

Calliope tsked. “No, sweetie. Avocados are toxic to chickens.”

Huh. Who knew?

Nico gave Mal a curious look. “What if we did want to have an awkward conversation?”

Mal frowned. “Huh?”

“Searching their places was a bust. We talked to Jason. Let’s just talk to Frankie and find out what his deal was with Amy. There’s no way the pig and the ox were anyone other than Jason and Frankie, right? And Jason’s apartment was boring enough to make the Amish weep. The pig has to be Frankie. Right now, we have the element of surprise. Well, unless Jason gave him a heads up, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. The Dai Lo said we could talk to them. And, honestly, we’re running out of options.”

Mal narrowed his eyes like he was considering. “He said we could talk to them, not break into their houses.”

“Tomato, tomahto,” Nico said, waving his hand. “Let’s just ask Frankie whether he had a thing for her or not. Someone’s got to give us a fucking hint ‘cause I’m baffled.”

Mal snorted. “You think he’ll just tell us?”

Nico pulled his gun. “Given the right motivation?”

They’d both decided to carry just to be safe. It hadn’t proved necessary for Jason, which was good because Nico wasn’t keen on brandishing a weapon in public. But if Frankie was about to walk through that door any second, being armed seemed like a good idea.

“We’ll call you back if we need you,” Mal told Calliope.

“Good luck. Don’t get dead.”

With that, she was gone. Mal also pulled his gun, and the two of them stood behind the apartment door. They stood there just long enough to feel kind of silly before they finally heard the sound of someone entering the door code.

Frankie was whistling as he entered, seemingly without a care in the world. When he closed the door and found two men with guns facing him, he stopped whistling but stared at them with dead eyes.

“Who are you?” he asked, looking them both up and down. “Where’s my dog?”

“In the bathtub,” Nico said, not sure why he felt the need to put the man’s mind at ease.

Not that he looked uneasy.

He looked…bored or irritated, like they were Jehovah’s Witnesses going door to door, not two men with guns pointed at his head.

Nico wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but Frankie looked surprisingly normal. He was dressed casually in well-fitting black joggers and a zip-front hoodie that probably cost a small fortune. He had a Lululemon gym bag on his shoulder and designer sneakers on his feet. He wasn’t conventionally attractive by society’s impossible standards, but he was fit and his clothes and grooming habits screamed money, which would be a big draw for some people.

“We’re looking for Amy,” Nico said, keeping his weapon trained on the man.

“Who?” Frankie said without any inflection, his nearly black eyes studying them both in a way that made Nico want to squirm beneath his scrutiny.

“Don’t play stupid. We know you had a thing for her,” Nico pressed.

Frankie continued to stare for another thirty seconds before asking, “For…Amy?” He shook his head like he was baffled. Maybe he was. “Wait, you mean the baat poh who makes the purses? The one that has Leo and my brother frothing at the mouth? I didn’t know that was her name.”

“ Baat poh ?” Nico asked at the same time Mal said, “Frothing at the mouth?”

Frankie looked at Nico. “Gossip. She was always running her mouth.” He then looked at Mal. “Yeah, frothing at the mouth. He went on and on about her skills. Now, Leo keeps saying that without her, their operation will crash and burn.”

“You know all that about her but didn’t even know her name?” Nico asked.

Frankie scoffed. “Do you know how many of those gai work the stalls? You think I have time to keep them all in my head? That’s not my territory.”

Mal and Nico exchanged glances, but before they could ask anymore questions, Frankie walked farther into his apartment. He dropped his bag on the floor then collapsed onto the sofa, clearly unbothered by their presence.

When he noticed them staring at him, he snorted out a laugh. “You can put your guns down. I’ll answer your questions. But I don’t really know exactly what it is you expect to learn from me. I barely knew her.”

“That’s not what we heard,” Nico said, which wasn’t entirely true but he didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, his amusement evident.

Nico and Mal entered the living room and sat in chairs opposite the man. Nico lowered his gun, letting his arm hang between his knees so the barrel pointed at the floor. Mal followed suit.

“We heard you had a problem with her a few months ago,” Nico said. “A problem big enough that Leo had to intervene. Rumor has it you don’t know how to take no for an answer.”

Frankie tilted his head, giving them the same smirk his brother had given them less than an hour ago. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but I mean just what I said. I don’t know her. I have nothing to do with the counterfeit stuff. I deal with real money.”

Mal frowned. “Real money meaning…”

“Our gambling facilities. My brother deals with his silly little handbags. I bring in the real cash.”

“You guys are running underground casinos, too?” Nico asked.

Frankie laughed. “Don’t look so scandalized. My brother’s purses can bring in decent money but they take time. You can’t mass produce that kind of a product with the detail needed to fool experts. Sure, one bag can bring in a few grand—hell, maybe even several thousand—but the casino can make that in hours.”

Nico glanced at Mal.

He studied Frankie, expressionless. After a moment, he said, “Okay, but just because you don’t work with her doesn’t mean you weren’t harassing her. Someone was assaulting her.”

Frankie frowned, his confusion obvious. “Me? Assaulting her? Are you crazy?”

“We have a witness,” Nico bluffed.

Frankie was still for a beat, then he started to laugh…hard. So hard tears began to form. “Well, they’re lying. I would never assault anyone, but her?” he managed through gales of laughter. “Honey, no. She’s not my type.”

His laughter died, and he gave them a pointed look, like he was waiting for them to connect the dots.

“So, you’re not bi, you’re gay. Like…gay-gay,” Nico said stupidly.

“Gayer than RuPaul’s closet,” he confirmed drolly. “So, I don’t know where you’re getting your information from, but they either lied to you or deliberately misled you. Someone might have had a problem with that girl, but it wasn’t me.”

“Did you ever hear anything or notice anything unusual?” Mal asked. “It’s important that we find her.”

Frankie looked irritated but appeared to think about it. After a minute, he said, “I do remember Leo saying she was off-limits, but he wasn’t talking to me.”

“Could it have been Leo who had a thing for her?” Nico asked.

Frankie scoffed. “Leo? Maybe, but I doubt it.”

“Why?” Mal asked.

“He has a fiancé back home. While it’s definitely an arranged marriage, she takes fidelity very seriously. And she has a temper. If he was stupid enough to cheat on her, she would chop off his balls and wear them for earrings. And then she’d tell his father.”

“Who else could he have been warning? Someone has to know what happened to her.”

Frankie sighed, his expression conflicted.

“Do you know something you’re not telling us?” Nico pressed.

“I don’t know anything,” Frankie assured them. “But…he could have been talking to Jason. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Nico’s breath hitched. “What do you mean?”

“My brother has a nasty habit of…in China, we call it gōngsī bù fēn. You guys say it differently. Dipping your pen in company ink?”

“You think your brother could have had a thing for Amy?” Nico asked.

Dipping his pen. More like a power imbalance. Was he the pig?

Frankie shrugged. “I have no idea. If he did, he wouldn’t tell me. We’re not close.”

Nico looked to Mal, hoping his big brain was putting the pieces together faster than he was. Something wasn’t right. Someone was clearly lying.

“You’re not?” Mal asked.

“No. He’s not a fan of my ‘lifestyle,’” he air-quoted, eyes rolling.

Well, that would explain his quip back at the restaurant. Homophobic douchebag.

“But we heard that the only reason you’re even here is because Jason refused to leave without you. That you were a package deal.”

Frankie gave another humorless laugh. “Is that what he’s telling people? I’m not surprised. But that’s not the case…at all.”

“Then what is the case? Why did you come here if it wasn’t at Jason’s request?” Mal asked. “Especially if you don’t get along.”

“Because my mother was terrified of what Jason might do if left on his own,” Frankie said.

“Left on his own?” Nico’s heart dropped into his stomach at Frankie’s casual statement. “What do you mean?”

The man sighed. “He…has a temper.”

“ He has a temper?” Nico asked.

Frankie looked at Mal, giving him a flat stare. “Is he just going to repeat everything I say back to me?”

Nico huffed, glaring at Frankie. “Look, we’re just confused. Our source said you were a psychopath. Their word, not ours. And when we talked to Jason less than an hour ago, he said you have a bad temper and a whole stable full of women just lining up to be your next punching bag.”

“You met with Jason?” Frankie asked, lips quirking up in a barely-there smile.

Mal nodded. “Yeah, we talked to him at the restaurant.”

Frankie looked back and forth between the two of them. “I know you don’t know us well, but after talking with each of us, who seems like the liar?”

“This might seem like a weird question, but do you know who or why someone might refer to you and Jason as the ox and the pig?” Nico asked.

He expected a blank stare or, at the very least, an odd look, but instead, Frankie said, “Because we are?”

“I’m sorry?” Nico asked.

“The Chinese zodiac? I was born in the year of the ox, Jason in the year of the pig,” Frankie said. “Why?”

Nico didn’t answer. Jason was the pig. Jason, not Frankie. “Was Leo born in the year of the rat by any chance?” he asked.

Frankie looked surprised. “How did you know?”

Just like that, that final piece clicked into place. Nico looked at Mal. “The charges.”

Mal quirked his head at him. “The what?”

“The charges. The charges on his credit card. The lingerie, the couture… Jason’s the one bribing girls into overlooking his temper.”

Frankie inclined his head in a nod. “Now, you’re catching on.”

“Why does everyone think you’re the problem?” Nico prompted, staring at Frankie expectantly.

“Because my brother is crazy…and a pathological liar.”