Chapter 18
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
JASPER
“Morning bitches!” Garrett throws open the front door of Sylas’ house.
We’re all sitting at his kitchen table, hungover.
“Would you shut up?” I snap, the pounding in my head mimicking the beating of a drum.
“Aww, is my bestie-babe a little hungover?” He chuckles, tossing a bag of donuts onto the table before placing a tray of coffees down. “Don’t be mean to me. I brought gifts."
“Fuck yes,” Sylas groans, grabbing the bag and pulling out a powered fill donut and one of the coffees. “I could fuck you right now.”
“Isn’t the saying ‘I could kiss you right now’?” Garrett asks him with amusement.
“No,” Sylas snorts. “Kissing is too intimate. I don’t see you like that, man.”
“So, let me get this straight–” Garrett is full-on grinning now. “You’ll fuck me, but you won’t kiss me? I’m pretty sure sticking your dick inside me is far more intimate than a peck on the lips.”
“Why the hell are we talking about you two fucking?” I slide the bag over to me, pulling out a random donut flavor.
“Are you trying to tell us something?” Wesley smirks.
“Like what?” Sylas mumbles around a mouthful of his donut.
Wesley leans in closer to Sylas. “You gay?”
Sylas nearly chokes. “What?” he rasps. “Fuck no. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But I don’t swing that way. I like pussy, thanks. Pussy and tits.”
“You literally just said you could fuck him right now,” I sigh heavily, closing my eyes, willing my head to stop pounding. It’s too early for their crap.
“It’s a figure of speech!” Sylas argues.
“It’s ‘I could kiss you right now’” Garrett chuckles. “But even so, I’d have to turn you down for both. Sorry. My heart and dick only belong to one person.”
Sylas narrows his eyes. “Stay the fuck away from my sister.”
“No can do, man. She’s the light of my life, my heart and soul.” Garrett is mostly saying this to get a rise out of Sylas, but he does have it bad for Callie.
“I’ll chop off your dick and feed it to you,” he threatens, rising to his feet and leaning over the table. “Watch it.”
“If I don’t have my dick, how will I rock Callie’s world?” Garrett bursts out laughing as Sylas launches himself over the table at him. Garrett jumps back and takes off while laughing hysterically.
“I’m going to kill you!” Sylas yells as he chases after him.
“It’s times like this I’m glad Sylas handed over his company to be run by someone else. Who the fuck thought we’d be the best people to give that kind of responsibility to?” Wesley muses, closing his eyes as he leans back in his chair, letting his head fall back.
“Don’t include me in that. I am perfectly qualified to run my father’s company. You two, on the other hand… it’s best to leave it to the professionals.”
Wesley lifts his hand, flipping me off.
I roll my eyes, taking a sip of my coffee as the shouts of the two assholes outside continue.
“What the fuck!?” someone shouts, putting me on high alert.
Wesley’s eyes snap open, locking on mine.
We’re both up out of our seats and rushing out of the house in seconds.
“Sylas?” I shout. “Garrett?”
“Over here!” Garrett calls back.
“What is it?” I demand as we round the side of the house.
“Soooo, did you know there's a dead body just chilling on the side of your house?” Garrett asks, turning to face me. He steps to the side, revealing that there is indeed a dead body lying on the ground.
“What the fuck?” Sylas rushes around the corner from the back side of the house. “What is that?” he asks, pointing to the body.
“From the looks of it, a body,” Garrett answers, not so helpfully.
“No shit, asshole,” Sylas mutters as I take a step closer. “But why is it here?”
“It’s a she,” Garrett corrects.
“What?”
“The body. It’s a she, not an it.”
“Shut up.” I swing my furious gaze towards him. “This is serious.”
“Sorry.” He rubs the back of his neck.
Wesley steps up behind me, peaking over my shoulder. “Huh.”
“What?” I ask.
“I know her.”
“You do.” I spin around to face him. “Did you kill her?”
Wesley raises a brow. “Yes, I killed her. Then I just left her body there for anyone to find, ” he replies sarcastically.
I narrow my eyes. “Who is she?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Some girl I hooked up with last night. I don’t care to get names. It holds no relevance when she’s gagging on my cock.”
Sylas crouches down, looking her over. “Looks like someone slit her throat.”
“What the hell is on her lips?” Garrett asks, leaning in to get a better look.
Sylas picks it off and holds it up.
“Is that a butterfly?”
I have no idea what is going on. I don’t know who this girl is or why she’s dead on one of our properties.
The fact that someone was able to do all of this under our noses has liquid fury burning through my veins.
Who’s even stupid enough to do such a thing?
“I think so.” Sylas examines it before holding it out to me.
“I’m not touching that,” I grunt.
Wesley takes it. “It’s kind of cool,” he mutters, inspecting it.
“What’s that?” Garrett asks, pointing at something sticking out of her shirt.
Sylas pulls it out to look at it, and I watch as his eyes widen. “Uhhh.”
“Give me that.” I lean down and snatch the photo out of his hand. I look it over, brows furrowed.
“Well, that’s not creepy as fuck or anything,” Wesley mutters over my shoulder.
It’s a photo of the girl on the ground. Based on the lifeless look in her eyes, she’s dead in the picture as well. But she’s not alone. It’s some kind of sick selfie of her and some guy in a mask.
What the hell? Who would do this? And why?
“Looks like a killer's calling card,” Garrett suggests. “Oh shit!” he laughs. “Does New Orleans have itself a killer on the loose? We haven’t had one since The Storyville Slayer, if I’m remembering correctly.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” Wesley asks dryly.
Garrett shrugs. “I know things.”
“They better not turn into a fucking serial killer,” I snarl. “That’s the last thing we need on our plate right now. Some wackjob running around, leaving bodies behind. It’s our job to keep New Orleans under control. If people start showing up dead, people are going to ask questions.”
“What do we do with her?” Sylas asks. “Because I’m guessing we’re not going to call the cops.”
“No, we’re not calling the fucking cops,” I bark.
“We’re going to deal with this ourselves.
We’ll take her to the morgue and get rid of her body there.
” And then I’ll be making some phone calls to my informant at the NOPD and see if anything like this has happened before, or if this just so happened to be the first kill.
Hopefully, it’s this psychopath’s only kill.
What I can’t wrap my head around is… why this girl? Why leave her on our property? Was the murderer a guest at the party last night? Did we have a killer amongst us that whole time and not know it?
“Your sister is never having another fucking party at any of our houses again,” I snap at Sylas.
“This isn’t Callie’s fault,” Sylas argues, getting to his feet. “She had nothing to do with this girl and her death. It was probably some crazy boyfriend who found out his girlfriend was cheating on him, so he put a stop to it and her.”
“I would believe that… if they didn’t leave this behind.” I hold up the photo. “And whatever the hell that is.” I look at the bug in Wesley’s hand.
“It’s a butterfly.” He blinks at me.
“I fucking know that,” I snap, glaring at him.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but we should probably do something about her,” Garrett adds. “It’s broad daylight, and people could possibly see.”
“I vote we stash her body in the garden shed, and get rid of it when it’s dark,” Sylas suggests.
Running my tongue along my teeth, I try to keep it together. I’m at a loss right now.
“Fine.” I hand the photo back over to Sylas. “You three move her. I have some phone calls to make.”
Leaving the three of them to deal with the body, I head back inside the house to grab my cell phone.
“Hey,” Mike White, my informant at the NOPD, answers the phone.
“I need some information.” I head into the living room, taking a seat on the couch.
“What do you need?”
“Has there been any deaths as of late?”
“Gonna have to be more specific,” he grunts. “People die every day.”
“Women. Young ones. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five?”
“Give me a few.” He puts me on hold for a few minutes. “Alright. I’m back.”
“So?”
“There have been a few deaths of young women over the past few months. A lot of them are overdoses, domestic violence, and robbery."
“That's it? Nothing that would seem out of the ordinary.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Why? Is there something you want to tell me?”
“If there was, I would have said something. Now, answer the question,” I growl.
He lets out a heavy sigh. “There was only one. An odd case, really. But we haven’t seen anything else like it since, so we’re thinking it’s some fucked up prank.”
“What was odd about it?”
“There wasn’t any actual body left behind, just a photo of some creepy guy in a mask with a missing girl. There was a butterfly taped to the photo. The girl is still missing, no one can seem to find her. But like I said, no one found a body, so not technically a death.”
My brows furrow. Nobody, but the same items were left behind. If the same person who caused that girl to go missing is the same person who killed the girl last night, then why leave the body this time but not last time? It doesn’t make sense.
“And that's it? No other woman?”
“No. But if we find anything else, we’ll let you know.”
“You better,” I huff, hanging up the phone.
“Okay, she’s folded up like a pretzel in the wheelbarrow,” Sylas announces as he walks back into the house, the other two following behind him.
“Callie could hear you,” I chastise him.
“No, she can’t,” Garrett counters. “She’s over at Nola’s for a sleepover.”
“And how do you know that?” Sylas demands.
Garrett shrugs and, with a smirk, says, “I just know things.”
“Are you stalking my sister?” he growls.
“No idea what you’re talking about.” Garrett shrugs again, that smirk still on his face.
“Leave her the fuck alone. I swear to god, I’ll kill you. Nothing is going to happen between the two of you.”
“You really need to get over this hatred for our relationship,” Garrett sighs. “How do you think Callie would feel on our wedding day, knowing her big brother hates her husband?”
Wesley wraps an arm around Sylas’ chest, pulling him back as he attempts to launch himself at Garrett.
Garret jumps back, cackling.
“Enough!” I shout, getting to my feet. “I just got off the phone with Mike.”
“And?” Wesley asks, pushing his glasses up his nose as he lets Sylas go. He shoves his hand in his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes.
“Not in here,” I growl.
He just raises a brow, placing one of the cancer sticks between his lips. “What did he say?” Wesley asks.
I narrow my eyes at him but answer, “He said that no other bodies have shown up, but they found a photo with a butterfly like the one we found of another girl. They have her listed as a missing person because there's no actual body to be found. He says it could be a prank of sorts.”
“Some prank,” Sylas mutters. “They took this one a little too far.”
“Could the girl who’s missing and the one we found possibly know each other?” Garrett asks.
“I have no clue.”
“Did you get a name?” Wesley asks, and my back stiffens. Fuck! His lips curl at the side. “You didn’t, did you?” He shakes his head. “Daddy Jasper is off his game this morning. It’s okay, just blame the hangover.”
I knew drinking was a bad fucking idea. I just needed to get out of my head and stop obsessing over the fact that Nola was here.
Ever since Callie took her under her wing and made Nola her new best friend, she’s been everywhere.
We’ve been avoiding the two of them, needing to put some space between Nola and us. But it’s hard to do that when Callie is always with her.
Callie thinks we’re being stupid, that it’s obvious we feel something for her. She says, and I quote, ‘Get your head out of your ass and see how amazing Nola is before someone else does’.
It’s not going to happen because Nola isn’t going to be with another man. Not while we’re breathing.
But it also doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon the reason why we’ve given up on the idea of ever making Nola ours.
Callie doesn’t understand just how messed up and dangerous our lives are. Not just our lives, but our sexual preferences.
Being around Nola has just proven even more to us why she will never be ours. She can’t look at us without blushing, can’t talk without stuttering, or even make eye contact for more than a few seconds.
To a normal guy, they might find that cute or endearing. To men like us, it’s just proof that she’s too sweet, too pure, too innocent for our world.
And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
“I’m going home to shower and change. I’ll be back tonight, and we can take her body to the morgue. Whatever happened last night, I have a feeling it’s just the beginning.”
“Do you think it’s someone who might be out to get us?” Sylas ponders.
“I don’t know,” I growl low. “But I plan on finding out.”
And when I do, and if it is someone who’s trying to harm me, my brothers, or the Brotherhood, then I will put them down like a fucking dog.