Chapter 2
HARLOW
"Hey," Cass greeted as I stepped through the door into the office. His brow creased.
"What is it?" I asked, looking down at the laptop open in front of him.
"I was looking into Hans Getzoff," he said. His eyes flicked toward the screen.
"The detective who's looking into the death of Solomon Danforth and Granger Fairfield. What did you find?"
"Nothing new," he said with a shrug.
"But?" I prompted.
Reluctantly he continued, "They seem to have connected a few deaths with one killer. Some guy named Carl disappeared around the same time as Fairfield. Apparently he was into all sorts of shady shit, but they couldn't prove it."
I nodded slowly. I was well acquainted with Carl. Boner and I dispatched him together.
"I was thinking," he said, sitting back and pushing his hair off his forehead. "Should we send them some information?"
I tossed my bag down on the desk.
"What, like my name and address?" I knew he hadn't meant that, but I couldn't resist teasing him.
"I would never…" He started to say before he realized. I'd baited him and he'd taken it hook, line and proverbial sinker.
"I meant information about these… People." His voice was tight.
The people we were after had taken his younger brother from him. Augustus Titmus was the youngest of three after Jules and Cass. He took his own life after Granger Fairfield abused him.
Pain still lingered in Cass' eyes when he thought about Auggie. Chances were it always would, the same way mine undoubtedly looked when I thought about my sister, Lottie. She was also abused and murdered by these men.
Most, I hunted down and killed. Two remained, men who called themselves Hypnos and Zeus.
Fancy names for pieces of shit.
Once I found out who they were, they'd be dead. After I gave them the chance to experience the kind of suffering she'd gone through before she died.
I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly.
"I've tried," I told him. "Early on I sent information about what happened to my sister and they did nothing. If she was rich, powerful and male, maybe then…"
That's what these men were: rich and powerful. They thought they were invincible. Untouchable. The police wouldn't dare to go after them. So I had to.
Ironically, the police wouldn't hesitate to come after me for doing it. Who said there was no justice in this world? Sometimes it seemed there wasn't, not unless you went out and found it yourself. It wasn't for nothing Boner jokingly referred to us as Vigilante University. The name was fitting.
"Getzoff might be more receptive," Cass said. He didn't look convinced.
"I'd still like to know why he turned up at Boner's gallery that night," I said thoughtfully.
"He might have been on to Solomon Danforth," Cass suggested.
"I prefer that explanation than thinking he had an inkling to what I was up to," I said. "He might have been about to arrest Solomon, but we got to him first."
Technically, he got to us, pinning us down in Archer's apartment. We got the last laugh there. He and Gina got the last breath.
"Would it hurt to send him some information and see if he acts on it?" Cass said.
"What information do we have?" I asked. Nothing, as far as I knew, we hadn't acted on ourselves up until now. "Boner said he had someone he wanted to deal with tonight." I rubbed my temples thoughtfully.
Cass swallowed hard. He'd seen the things I did and he'd still stuck around, mostly observing rather than taking part. He was getting used to the bloodshed, but his stomach wasn't up to it the way mine was. Maybe I was more cold-hearted than him.
"If we tell Getzoff anything, we can't go after them," I reasoned. "It might be the thing he's waiting for. We tell him where to go and he uses it to pin us down. Either tracking the information back to us or waiting for us to act and catching us red-handed. Literally."
"What do we do then?" Cass asked. "If this guy comes after you…"
"I can deal with a cop," I assured him.
During the brief conversation at the gallery party, he'd given me no indication he knew who I was. Not what I did in my spare time anyway. There was no suspicion in his gaze. No attempt to follow me or ask me questions.
He seemed like nothing more than a guy who thought I was the right person to hit on. Or a distraction while he was waiting for Solomon to make a misstep.
Getzoff was either clueless or a really good actor. I won't lie, the latter was slightly terrifying.
"You're not going to…" Cass adjusted his glasses and winced, his gaze toward the kitchen.
"I'll do whatever I have to do to keep us safe," I told him. If that meant making Hans Getzoff into spaghetti Bolognese, so be it.
Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. I didn't like messing with the police, not unless they were corrupt.
As far as I could tell, this guy was just doing his job.
Trying to keep the public safe from harm.
I wanted the same thing, we just came at it from different angles.
Mine slightly less legal than his. A lot messier too, most likely.
Although, mine resulted in less paperwork.
"So we don't tell him anything," Cass said, slowly closing the laptop.
"I don't know what we'd tell him anyway," I admitted. "Boner didn't give me any details."
"If this is something we can't deal with, we'll try to find a way to let Getzoff know."
"Then we'll watch him," Cass said, pushing himself up from his chair and wrapping his arms around me.
"Definitely," I pressed my mouth to his, tasting the chocolate milkshake he must have just finished. "If he goes after them, we'll know he's doing the right thing. If not…"
Cass nodded slowly before leaning in to press his face into my red hair.
"You always smell so good," he whispered.
"Not always," I said with a small laugh.
Sometimes I smelled like death.
"Always," Cass insisted. "You smell like lavender and…something else." He sniffed. "I don't know, but it smells amazing." He nibbled on my earlobe, making me shiver.
"It might be garlic," I told him. I cooked with so much of it, I should buy shares in a garlic farm.
That might be my retirement plan. Move to the country and grow the bulb. Maybe have some pigs. They were good at disposing of unwanted meat, amongst other things.
"It's not garlic, but I can smell that too," Cass said.
"Of course you can, it wouldn't be an Italian restaurant if there wasn't garlic."
He laughed softly, his chest vibrating against mine.
"I suppose it wouldn't," he agreed.
"We should get to work," I said reluctantly. I'd happily let him sidetrack me, with an orgasm or two, but we had lunch to prepare for.
I should have closed Angel's Rest today too. Kayla might need me over at the other restaurant. Or I could be over there obsessing about tiny details. Did we have enough forks?
We had enough forks.
I took care of that a month ago. Maybe longer. Spoons then? No, we had enough of those too.
Everything over there was going to be fine. I knew that. A little bit of faith in myself wouldn't go astray at the best of times. On a day like today, I was justified in being a little nervous.
I took his hand and we walked together to the kitchen. We pulled out all the pots and pans we needed and started to prepare everything.
"I like working for you," he said, slicing quickly through a pile of tomatoes.
"Because it smells nice?" I teased.
He grinned. "That doesn't hurt. But I like being here with you and I like learning new things. You know what they say. If you stop learning, you might as well…"
He trailed off. We both knew he was about to say, 'die.'
"Right," I said quickly. "It's good to keep the brain active and fresh. And keep challenging ourselves." I frowned. "I sound like a motivational quote. Archer would be proud."
Cass laughed and tipped the cutting board up to slide the pieces of tomato into the pot. "Yeah, he would," he said. "But he always is."
I glanced over to him as a blush crept up his cheeks.
"He is or you are?" I asked knowingly.
He scraped the last of the seeds off the board. "Both. We're both proud of you and we both love you."
"I love you both too," I said as I finished browning the meat for the Bolognese sauce. And started to add the herbs he'd already sliced for me.
"I'm lucky I met you. All of you."
Even Jules, although I still didn't know where he fit in the equation.
We'd been at each other's throats since we met.
Neither of us had let up. Sometimes we'd call an uneasy truce, but in the next minute one of us was snarking at the other.
Trying to bait each other and get the last word.
Was that how we were always going to be?
Probably, but it did complicate the situation.
On the other hand, it made it interesting.
Sparring with someone who wasn't trying to kill me was entertaining. And when it came down to it, neither of us meant the other any harm.
Mostly.
"I'm the lucky one," Cass said.
"Oh yeah?" I asked him over my shoulder. "How do you figure?"
He put down the board and knife and stepped over to me, chest pressed against my back.
"Because I get to listen to you come," he whispered in my ear. "When lunch service is over, that's what's going to happen."
Gone was the golden retriever persona, replaced for a moment by his dominant side.
My heart raced. "Are you trying to make me wet through the whole lunch service?" I asked.
"That's exactly what I'm doing." He kissed my hair and stepped away to clean the board.
I took a breath to clear my head. Vaguely aware of the back door opening and my servers stepping inside.
Shelly and Yvette. Both started working for me shortly after Gina and Erin died.
Both were professional and efficient. Both had a difficult few years, living both in shelters and on the streets.
These were exactly the kind of women I killed for.
Exactly the kind of people I wanted to help.
Giving them a job was the start they needed to get their lives back on track. Like Kayla and Dave, they'd been thoroughly vetted and watched for signs of an ulterior motive. If any was found, they wouldn't be working here.
So far, they were clean, but I hadn't been able to bring myself to trust them the way I did my previous staff. Once bitten and all that.
Honestly, after the things they'd been through in their lives, that went both ways. I also had to earn their trust.
There was a big difference between being someone's boss and being their friend. That was a bridge we hadn't worked our way across yet. Would we? I hoped so.
I wanted to surround myself with people I could trust, who trusted me. For people like us, that was huge. More than I deserved, maybe, but still something I'd work toward.
I gave them both a smile in greeting and went back to preparing the sauce and starting on the pasta. At the same time, trying to ignore the way my clit throbbed. One I knew he had every intention of keeping.
This was going to be a long lunch service.