Chapter 10 Chopped Up #2
He rounded the corner from the connected hallway into the kitchen, aiming down the barrel of a pistol fitted with a silencer.
I was wearing a Kevlar vest underneath my black long-sleeve shirt, but being shot was not on my bingo card tonight.
I held both hands up with my phone still gripped in my left.
He didn’t even have a face cover before barging in here. Such a rookie move.
“Frank is a little… indisposed,” I tried not to laugh at my own joke. “To be fair, he had it coming to him.”
His sharp stare lingered on me a moment longer than was comfortable, before it swept the rest of the kitchen more thoroughly. The gun was still trained on me. Or it was until Taylor came from the foyer and stopped in the other doorway.
“Wow, you really fucked ‘em up this time.” Taylor had his hands jammed in his pockets, a habit he picked up to keep from touching anything and leaving prints at the scene. He was totally unfazed by the gun, so he probably had his own Kevlar strapped on. Belatedly, Taylor turned his head to take in Grant, still posted up on the other side of the kitchen. “Hope you’re a good aim with that, if you don’t feckin’ kill me, you will regret it. ”
I wished I wasn’t wearing the mask so Taylor could see my ‘shut the fuck up’ face.
“Vixen, I presume.” It wasn’t a question, and Grant’s voice was so cold I would have thought a robot spoke if I hadn’t been staring at him when he spoke.
I gave a little shrug. “Guilty as charged. You here to pick him up?” My thumb jerked to the limp body of former Frank DeNiro slumped halfway into the deep sink.
“Oops. Maybe reschedule your meeting for never.” With a little hop I pushed myself off of the countertop and took three measured steps, until I was within reach to snatch the gun from Grant's hands.
His grip indicated he wasn't a total newbie to handling it, but I was confident I could disarm him if I needed to.
“Obviously,” he bit out. “You seem to get around. Here I thought you were just a camgirl.” He lowered the handgun a little, still glaring daggers at me.
“Don’t be mad,” I pinched his cheek with my bloody glove.
He jerked away with an annoyed hiss but didn’t move to wipe the mess off his face.
“I’m sure your boss’s boss will understand you couldn’t haul me off for his fucked up little flesh auction.
Which, by the way, tell him the Riot's gonna fuck him up the next time he or his little cronies try to set up shop in Vegas. Andrea’s in deep shit this time. ”
Honestly, Andrea thinking he was so fucking clever sending this guy in to work under Frank was insulting.
If Mr. Grant Black didn’t look and smell like a snack, he’d be taking a long nap buried in the desert.
As it was, I was intrigued to see what that idiot from Chicago was planning.
He seemed startled by my bold threat, his brow lowering over those calculating brown eyes.
“Is he dead?” Taylor asked, hands shoved into his pockets as he leaned casually against the doorframe.
I wandered over to Frank’s body. My fingers snatched up a nice, pointy knife from the butcher’s block conveniently located right next to it.
With a vicious stab to the back of his neck, I severed the spinal cord and lopped his head right off the rest of him.
We all watched as the rest of his corpse fell to the floor like a limp stuffy and his head thudded heavily into the sink basin. “Now he is.”
Grant was trying to look unaffected, but I could see the ‘oh shit’ moment flicker in his eyes when he realized what kind of message he would be taking to said boss. Or that I’d already figured out who he really worked for. “He will be… disappointed with the news.”
I scoffed. “Well, I’m disappointed I can’t chop his dick off and turn it into a doorknob. But that’s how life goes, am I right?”
Taylor snorted a sardonic laugh. “I did not need that mental image.”
“No worries, I’ll be sure to share that comeback with your girlfriend. Sasha will get a kick from it.”
“Please don’t. She doesn’t need any more kinky ideas,” he had pulled his phone out and began tapping out a message on the screen.
“Cleaners are on their way. You ready to head out? The girls are already on their way to get checked out.” Taylor’s eyes shifted toward Grant with distrust. He wasn’t going to mention the victims’ location in front of him.
Grant looked like he had something to say about that.
“I don’t give two shits if you tell Andrea I did this, by the way,” I told him point-blank. His brow lowered even deeper in his scowl, as if annoyed I beat him to the topic. “He should have been keeping a tighter leash on his dog here. This is his second strike.”
“Right, I’ll just tell him to call you if he’s got a problem,” Grant replied dryly. “Except I have no damn clue who you are, do I?”
“Is he going to be a problem?” Taylor asked in Irish. Ever the protective brother, even though he’s younger, Taylor was just as likely to drag Grant out back and bust his kneecaps out of jealousy. “I don’t like the way he’s eyeing you.”
I laughed from my belly, throwing my head back with the force of it. “Play nice. He could be your future brother-in-law. I kind of like the spicy temper.”
The look of pure disgust wrinkling his nose made me laugh even harder. “Surely you could do better than this ass kisser?”
Grant watched our back and forth like a tennis match, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Discussing how you plan to eighty-six me?” He didn’t sound like he was too concerned, with that sassy tone he used.
“Nope,” I popped the ‘p.’ “I’ll text ya later, though. I have other work to do tonight.”
“You mean your cam work?”
Grant’s snide tone in those five words flipped a switch in me.
One second, I was carefree and amicable, and the next, his head was palmed in my hand with his face smashed against the pantry door.
He didn’t even have time to react when I had my knife pulled from its thigh holster and pressed dangerously close to his jugular.
“Listen, puppy,” I matched his sarcastic energy.
“Sex work is work, and I do it because I enjoy it and it pays well. So I’ll be feckin’ damned if you turn your nose up at it when it’s my choice.
” He had me so worked up that my Irish brogue was coming out despite the voice modulator.
It was worth the look of fear that flickered across his face briefly before he clenched his jaw.
At least he was smart enough not to thrash.
“Next time you decide to dunk on my profession, I’ll cut you inta bite-sized chunks and feed ya to the street cats. Do I make m’self clear?”
“Crystal,” he bit out.
And just like that, the dark mood dissipated like fog beneath the hot sun. “Peachy!” My hand flicked the knife away and spun the blade down to slam back into its holster. "T, let the cleaning crew know they can scrub the whole place down. And get Jerel to take care of Frank's body."
Taylor whistled as I turned to leave. “Man, you almost got a close shave,” he teased Grant. I jerked my head in a silent ‘let’s go’ gesture as I walked by the door frame he leaned against.
Just as I made it to the front door, another crew swept in carrying all manner of tarps and hacksaws, and other accoutrements to dispose of bodies and clean crime scenes.
The last trailed behind with a plastic bucket filled with cleaning supplies.
Every one of them dipped their heads as they passed by, some murmuring quick greetings as they filed on through the foyer to the kitchen.
All of their faces were covered from the nose down in the black masks with red-stitched smiles.
I caught the edge of the door with my boot to keep from having to grab the doorknob with my bloody gloves.
More low voices came from the kitchen as Taylor gave his instructions, but nothing else seemed to come from Grant. I’m sure he slinked out through the back door. He should count his fucking blessings I let him off easy.
“Ready?” Taylor rounded the corner, jiggling the car keys in his slacks’ pocket. “I’m starved. Wanna swing by that burger place you showed me last week? I’ve been craving one like mad!”
“Didn’t you just eat like, two hours ago?” I held the door open further with my booted foot, letting it swing wide enough on its hinges for Taylor to dart through as I followed behind. “You got a hollow leg or what?”
He clapped a hand on my shoulder and pulled me in for a one-armed hug as we ambled down the stairs to the driveway. He didn’t need to see my face to know I was pouting. “Ah, don’t let that little pox bend ya out of shape, sis. He doesn’t know enough about ya for his opinion to matter.”
Then he rubbed his head on the top of my head, displacing the black beanie hiding my hair coiled beneath it, and that’s what brought the small smile back to my face. “You’re right, you’re right.”
He scoffed. “I’m always right. You’re just stubborn as a mule.”
Taylor’s blacked-out Escalade waited at the end of the walkway, and he reached out with his free hand to open the door for me.
But before I tucked myself into the safety of the car, I pulled him in for a tight hug and squashed my face to his chest. “Thanks, T. You’re seriously the best brother a girl could ask for. ”
“‘Course I am! We’re family, and that’s what family is for. Now, you want a burger or what? I’m about ta gnaw my arm off over ‘ere.”
With another quiet chuckle, I hunched lower into the plush leather seat of his SUV and kept my eyes solidly turned from Frank’s house.
Just because I had some squishy feelings for him, didn’t mean I was just going to roll over and let Grant walk all over me.
“What about the girls?” With the dark windows between me and the rest of the world, I finally pulled the mask off and tossed it into the back seat.
Taylor leaned forward to glance either way before turning left out of the driveway. “Sent them to the club with the other half of the crew. They looked… pretty roughed up.”
“Did you call Doc Leroy?”
He snorted and threw me a ‘duh’ look. “Of course I did. You think I’m just the brawn or what?”
“I’ll refrain from making judgment,” I snickered, jabbing him in his muscled biceps. “Thanks for coming and picking them up. I feel like shit it took so long to find them.”
“Lore…” He had that disproving tone in his voice I hated. “You can’t save every girl. You know that, right? Sometimes bad shit happens to good people. And you don’t know how long they were down there for. You helped them as soon as you could.”
“It wasn’t soon enough, Taylor.” I didn’t yell or even raise my voice, but he flinched from the emotionless tone. “I need to do better at keeping innocent women safe here. We need to increase patrols and put more eyes on clubs, schools, large shopping centers, anywhere—“
Somehow, Taylor managed to pack ten years’ worth of pity into one word. “Lore.”
I kept my arms crossed tightly to my chest and glared out the window. “Don’t, Taylor. I don’t wanna feckin’ hear it from you again.”
“You can’t do this forever,” he kept on, like I hadn’t spoken.
“You can’t keep beating yourself up over something you couldn’t predict would happen.
What Ryan did was…” Taylor huffed a sigh, the sound of a weary soldier after a long battle.
“I just don’t wanna lose you again, sis. Either to them, or to yourself.”
“At risk of sounding like a bitch, the girl you grew up with is dead. Do what the fuck I say and get more feet in the streets.” My tone brokered no further discussion, a message Taylor thankfully got as we sat the rest of the ride in silence.
Over my dead body would I knowingly let even one more woman experience the nightmares I still lived with. Even at the risk of my own life.