Page 52 of Beautiful Killer

I smiled at her.

She smiled back. “You’re looking a lot better.” Then she frowned. “Well, the scar is healing nicely, but you’re actually looking kind of pale.”

I sighed. “I’ve been feeling a little off. I’m sure it’s nothing, a bug I picked up or something.” I waved a hand. “Never mind me. You’re looking great. How are things?”

“Yeah, things are looking up. Bobby’s got a new job and he’s been spoiling me.” Her cheeks were flushed and she looked genuinely happy.

I was glad to hear this. I just wished she wouldn’t always rely on other people for her happiness. “That’s great, Julia. Really great.”

“I know, right?” She leaned against the counter. “What about you, are you seeing anyone? Because Bobby has some pretty cute friends if you’re interested.”

I took in my stepsister. All my life I’d wanted someone to confide in, share girl talk with. And right then, I wanted to share with her. Maybe that was another way we could connect? “Well actually, I am seeing someone. It’s nothing serious, just . . . fun.” I wasn’t sure fun was the right word for Zeke and me, especially not with all the drama lately. But I had no idea how to describe Zeke’s and my relationship. How to describe Zeke, for that matter.

Her eyes went wide. “Really? You’ve been banging someone?”

I laughed. “I guess you could call it that.”

“I’m glad. It’s about time you blew those cobwebs away.”

She was teasing and it was . . . nice, despite the subject matter. “How do you know I had cobwebs?”

“Am I wrong?”

I grumbled and she laughed.

We talked for a while longer, then she left—without asking for a thing.

Zeke

I sat beside Neco in Tomas Mendoza’s office. We were meeting in his strip club tonight. The crime boss had businesses all over the city, but he spent a lot of time here. The man across from me was hard and cold, ruthless, but he looked after his girls. No one touched them and got away with it.

Neco had worked for the guy once a long time ago, when they’d both lived in our old neighborhood. The same neighborhood my family had moved to when my father had been transferred. Not a great place to grow up in, not after coming from Roxford, but it’d been all we could afford at the time. That’s how I met Van and Hunter, then Jude and Neco.

Tomas sipped his whiskey. “You know I don’t give anything for free, yes?”

Neco stiffened beside me. He’d been against me coming here as soon as I’d suggested it. But one of Tomas’s guys had been talking and I heard through one of my contacts that Tomas had recently turned down someone trying to pay his debt in jewelry.

I jerked my chin up. Short of murder, I was willing to do whatever it took to find the fucker who hurt Sunny. At this point, I didn’t have anything, and I was getting desperate. So yeah, I knew I’d have to repay him some day, probably soon, and I was prepared to do it. My soul was already blacker than black. What was one more mark when I was already going to hell?

Tomas nodded his approval. “The guy’s small time. Borrowed money from me. I don’t usually deal with that trivial shit, but this guy is young, bloodthirsty, the kind of man that will do pretty much anything and not lose sleep. I hoped to bring him into the fold when he failed to meet his payments. I can always use men like that.” Tomas took another sip of his drink. “He tried to pay me in jewelry first. I sent him away. Cash or nothing. He came back with the cash, so I assume he found a buyer for it.” He shrugged. “You win some, you lose some.”

“You have a name,” I asked.

Tomas sat back in his chair. “Kyle Miller.”

Neco glanced at me. “You ever heard of this guy?”

“No, but we’ve got nothing else. Let’s check him out, see what we dig up.”

Neco dipped his chin and we both stood.

“I’ll be in touch, Zeke,” Tomas said when we headed for the door a short time later.

I didn’t doubt it.

Sunny

I walked around the counter and picked up my ringing phone.