Page 127 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Elliot hugged him back and was surprised at howniceit was. How much he’d missed friends and—and casual affection. “You’re welcome.”

When they pulled back, Gerard was assessing the record. “Pink Kiss Lovers? Are they indie?”

“Yeah, it’s their EP,” Xander explained. “They’re like FOX meets Dream Train Crush. You said you like a beat, right? You’d love this.”

Gerard looked the record over with new interest. “Oh yeah? I’ll have to look them up.”

“Okay, but you have to make sure that you don’t listen to the remix version first,” Xander said. “It’s the more popular one online, but the original is by far better. Here, actually,” and then Xander was pulling his phone out. “I can text you the listening order. It’s important—there’s this whole story element that they’re doing.”

“Oh yeah?” Gerard asked, amused as he pulled his own phone out. “Then I guess you’d better text me so I don’t mess it up.”

They exchanged numbers and then Xander shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Okay, I made Gerard listen to some stuff, but don’t think you escaped my clutches,” he said, nudging Elliot playfully. “I know you’re not a music guy, but I think you’d totally like Blue Symphony. Come on!”

Then Xander was pulling him down another row. Elliot caught the smile on Gerard’s face as he followed, and couldn’t help thinkingyeah, listening to a dozen records of Xander’s choosing was way, way better than the quiet, cold mausoleum that had been Mattia’s house, Mattia’s life.

And Elliot would never, ever go back.

Chapter 22: Nikolai

Nikolai was roused from sleep by the sound of his phone blaring.

Fuck. Nikolai kept his personal phone on do not disturb at night, which meant that this was a business call. His father’s business.

Groggily he turned over to reach for his burner phone on the bedside table, squinting at the screen to see it was Gerard calling.Fuck.

“What is matter?” He grunted, voice sleep-rough

“Problem with the new shipment,” Gerard clipped.

Nikolai needed to be sitting up for this. He did so, shuffling up to lean back against his headboard. “Fuck. What?”

“Half of what I looked at was fake,” Gerard spat. “Mixed in with the real gems. Someone’s trying to pull one over on us, thinking that we’re fucking stupid.”

Nikolai groaned, rubbing his temple. He could feel a headache coming on. “Which supplier this is?”

“Eisen, who’s been good for years,” Gerard said. “I think this happened later down the line. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to risk his business like this.”

Gerard had a better handle of their import relations, so Nikolai trusted him. “Alright. We put people on it, track down rat. Is this ship of rats now?”

Nikolai didnotlike all the things that had been going wrong recently. They’d operated this area of his father’s business smoothly for years. All of these disruptions—

If this wasn’t related to Vitale, if someoneelsewas trying to put their hands in his business while they thought he was distracted…

“I sure as fuck hope not,” Gerard said. “But we’ll have to make an example of them. I don’t want this happening again.”

Nikolai couldn’t see him, but he could easily picture Gerard with one of his butterfly knives in hand, flicking it out and back in.

“Yes. An example,” Nikolai agreed.

“How should we negotiate payment?” Gerard asked, lowering his voice into the phone. “I’m not paying full price for cubic zirconia.”

Nikolai hummed. “Who bring shipment in?”

“Couple of guys I don’t know,” Gerard said. “We haven’t worked with them before.”

That… wasn’t promising. “Is usual?” Nikolai asked, because he wasn’t sure.

“Sometimes. There’s some turnover,” Gerard said. “But I think it’s real damn suspicious that two new guys brought inthisshipment.”

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