I expected Lucius. I expected his evil. But this? This beautiful piece of paper is worse than all the Vinemonts combined.
9
Lucius
It doesn’t take long for my informants to begin searching for Evelyn Delacroix. I pay well for all my underworld contacts, and they’ve never failed me when it comes to sniffing out my enemies. Soon enough, I’ll know why she’s so fucking pissed at me.
I down a whiskey as I search through the information I’ve already amassed.
“If you keep drinking like that, your liver—”
“Yeah, yeah, go play Operation, okay?” I wave Teddy away.
“What?” He wrinkles his nose.
Teddy’s living out of my New Orleans penthouse while he does his residency. I stay here whenever I’m in town. High atop the Ritz, this place is decked out with every comfort imaginable. Twenty-four hour room service I don’t order, a view I don’t bother to look at, and plenty of women and coke at my fingertips. Even so, I still prefer my estate back in the parish. New Orleans is just a necessary evil at this point, a place where I do business.
“Operation, Teddy boy. It’s a great game for doctor types like you. Just don’t touch the sides. When his nose lights up, you’re fucked. Okay, buddy?”
“Such an asshole,” Teddy mutters as he grabs a vitamin water from the fridge.
“That’s no way to address your favorite big brother.” I give him a grin.
“Sin’s my favorite. Everyone knows that.”
“Lies.” I shrug, but the motion reignites the ache from Evelyn’s bullet. She really got me. That fucking vixen with brass balls nailed me good.
“I can check that for you.” He jerks his chin at me.
“I have all the medicine I need.” I pour another whiskey.
He sighs. “You’re going to die.”
“So are you.”
“You know what I mean.” He downs some more of his healthy water bullshit.
I open an email from another informant. Looks like Evelyn Delacroix did attend Princeton, but funnily enough, the student ID photo shows a girl who is most definitely not the person I met today.
“That’s not her.” Teddy leans over behind me and looks at my screen. I’d bite Sin’s head off for doing that shit, but Teddy gets a pass. He’s the baby of the family, and now it appears I have to regain my ‘favorite big brother’ status. Fuck.
“Brilliant observation skills.”
He doesn’t respond to my crack. “She didn’t get a degree. She’s just … Who is she?” he asks. “Do you think she was a part of it?” he asks quietly.
It. I know exactly what ‘it’ is. The Acquisition. A fucking contest between the snakes of southern society to decide who gets to lord over our tainted world. Modern slavery with mindfuckery twists and kinks worthy of a serial killer documentary. My brother Sin was the last Vinemont to participate in it, and we thought we’d killed the entire thing. But really, we’d only cut the head off the snake. I drink some more. No one should have to deal with this shit sober.
I finally get back to his question, to one of the myriad problems swirling around my beautiful little Ms. Delacroix. “I don’t know. She could be.” I sure as hell wish I did. “She’s still young, though. Too young to have been involved directly, and if she had been, she’d be a pile of ash right now with all the rest of them.”
He shakes his head. “She seemed familiar, though. Like I’d seen her before. But, then again, I see a lot of people at the hospital.”
“See? That shit right there is just so goddamn intriguing.” I rub the stubble that’s already growing along my jaw. “Sin said she was familiar, too. Even I’m beginning to think maybe she’s familiar. But how could I have come near a woman like that and not fucked her? It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s … that’s the question you’re left with?” He slides his palms down his cheeks.
I shrug.
“The more important question is, if all three of us suspect we’ve seen her before, is that a good sign? I don’t think so.” He pulls at my collar.
“No free peeks.” I smack his hand away.
“Just let me look at the bruise, you big baby.”
“This is stupid.” I groan and place my laptop on the couch beside me and strip out of my dress shirt.
“Holy shit.” He crosses his arms as he comes around to get a better look. The bruise is almost black with a yellow halo around the edges. Ugly, and about the size of a saucer, it’s going to take a while for it to fade.
“Like it?” I ask.
“She could’ve stopped your heart. You know that? Could’ve thrown off the rhythm with the impact, and you’d be dead without the bullet ever breaking your skin.”
I grimace. “That would’ve been anticlimactic.”
“It’s not a joke, Lucius.”
I meet his gaze. He’s still young. Has a good heart. Nothing like Sin and me. I want him to stay that way. “Look, you know how many people I’ve … dealt with in the past. This is nothing new.”