Page 41 of Lady Killer

They always did.

Chapter thirteen

Everest

Iwasn’t a big shopper. Not much of a gift giver either. But Alister had raised the bar, and I wasn’t about to get left behind.

If Luz wanted pretty things, I had plenty of money to buy them. But spending money was easy, killing someone was hard.

For most people.

But I knew my girl wouldn’t be impressed by body parts from just anyone. Luz had some sort of moralcode, and I suspected she would be less than forgiving if I chopped up someone she wanted alive.

Luckily, the universe offered me a boon, as it so often did.

My cause is just!

One night, unable to sleep, I’d been looking for some light reading and started combing through Alister’s updated files on my Starbright.

Imagine my surprise when I came across a video with one Hester Fordham and a Jade Brookings.

The Fordhams were old money, and a couple generations ago, they would have been considered a respected client of the Blackwells. Unfortunately for Hester, her grandparents started burning through the family’s money before she was even born. Her parents made enough to maintain the facade, but they certainly didn’t wield the influence that their predecessors had.

Jade’s family was new money. Her mother was a successful angel investor, and her father had worked for Goldman Sachs before taking an early retirement.

“You can’t kill them.” Nixon had caught me watching the video of those anthropomorphic shit stains insulting my Starbright a couple of nights ago.

“And you don’t tell me what to do, Nixie-Bo-Bixie,” I said, swiping the video closed andsitting up.

The older twin, by six minutes, was the more reckless of the two. Which was why I could always rely on him for a good time. He was harder to rile than Locke, but once you set him off, he was explosive.

Luz was proving to be an excellent pressure point of his.

He sneered at me. “No, only Daddy Lucian does that,” he taunted. “But what do you think he’ll do when he finds out you’ve added to the number of dead girls around here, and from two families with enough resources to cause a fuss.”

“Fordhams don’t have shit. They’re broke as a joke. And Lucian will forgive me when I explain it’s for Starbright.”

“Wrong," he said. "The Fordhams still have connections, even if they are broke as you say. And the Brookings sure as fuck aren’t broke,” he challenged, crossing his arms with a smirk. “Lucian might forgive you, but will he forgive your Starbright so easily?”

Damn it. Was he right? Lucian wouldn’t be happy about more bodies right now, that was true. I had been working on getting myself out of the doghouse, but the subject of Luz was still a sensitive one.

“Don’t hold back because I said, though. Personally, I’d love to see the bitch get what she deserves.”

This was why I could never trust Nixon. He lied. To himself. He could say what he wanted now, but we both knew he didn’t really want her dead.

How can I trust a man who doesn’t trust himself?

“Lucian wouldn’t go back on his deal,” I countered.

“Lucian doesn’t have to kill her to make her suffer, Everest," he said snidely. "You forget not everything has to end with a body.”

Shit, he might be right . . . Couldn’t let him know it though.

Change of plans.

“Do you think you’re going to feel left out when your brother and I are sharing Luz like that scene fromLady and the Tramp?”

His face scrunched in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

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