Page 196 of The Carnage We Keep

“I got us a meeting with Viktor Varga.”

The smile on her face drops like a stone.

“What?” She stares at me incredulously. “Seriously?”

I nod.

Varga is the shadowy, cold-blooded, very dangerous second-in-command of Kasper Sorel’s predator empire. If Sorel is the monster pimping out children, Varga is the demon working from the shadows to silence, buy off, and erase any problems that might come Sorel’s way.

Obviously, he’s near the top of both my and Bella’s kill lists. But he’s also a fucking ghost, and impossible to get a face-to-face with.

Well, nearly.

“How?” Bella gapes.

I grin. “I resurrected our old friend Tucker.”

Her brow furrows. “Who?”

I sigh. “Don’t you remember your magical night on the town with the dashing and charming Tucker Fannybottom?”

Bella nearly chokes on her laughter.

“The night we went after the Wolf Pack? How could I forget.”

I shrug, grinning. “Well, it seems Varga heard all about that night. Quite a few people in Sorel's orbit did, I believe. And thought he, luckily, couldn’t make it to the party that night, Mr. Fannybottom’s correspondence with the Wolf Pack has made him sound like exactly the kind of man Varga likes to rub elbows with.”

Bella’s brows shoot up.

“And when Tucker further expressed an interest in investing heavily in Varga’s boss’s business…” A shit-eating grin spreads across my face. “Well, he was more than eager to meet Mr. Fannybottom and his lovely female companion in person.”

Bella stares at me. “Okay, but…the second he sees who we are⁠—”

“It's fine.” I grin. “Sorel obviously knows someone’s been coming after his organization after Carl Bigsby and Judge Beckford…” I shrug. “But he doesn’t know who. The only place either of us ever slipped up in terms of security cameras was that one at Carl’s place. But Kodra is the only one who ever saw it.”

Bella grins. “So…we’re really sitting down in a room with Viktor Varga?”

“Consider it a belated wedding gift to my lovely bride.”

“Aww, baby,” she coos with a grin. “You shouldn’t have. How can I ever repay you?”

I smile. “You could start by chiseling the tapioca and cornstarch off those pots and pans?”

Bella giggles as she kisses me and then slides her mouth to my ear. “I was thinking I could choke on your cock instead…”

I groan as my dick swells to life.

“And then,” she giggles, “I promise I’ll clean up my shit.”

An hour and a half later—after the aforementioned cock-choking, followed by me bending Bella over the kitchen counter and railing her to within an inch of her life—I’m on my way to the gym when my phone rings.

I frown curiously at the screen before I answer.

“I didn’t think you did phones.”

“I don’t, but you need to hear something.”

Officer Doug Williams is my contact in the Hawthorne Hollow police department. He’s the one who got me the Jane Doe evidence that I planted on Patrick McCleary, and I pay him a handsome retainer to keep me abreast of things down at the station.