Page 2 of Murder & Mayhem
Me:
Yeah, I’m good. Thanks though.
I pulled out of the garage, giving the finger to the building as I pulled out onto the city street. Adrenaline was already pumping through my system. This. This was what I lived for. Not staring at my computer for eight hours a day while my clients changed their minds about what they wanted 5000 times and then bitched at me for getting it all wrong, even if I’d done exactly what they’d told me. No, that was just how I spent my time so I looked “normal,” whatever the fuck that meant. Going after low life scum was the only thing that ever excited me, that I even cared about, besides my brothers of course. But that was different. They didn’t get my heart pumping the way these jobs did. It was the only time I felt alive.
The group chat continued to buzz, but I told Siri not to read it to me. It would be my source of entertainment once this was done and I needed something to come down. That was always the hardest part, but my brothers’ ridiculous bickering helped. Sometimes.
I kept to the speed limit as I drove and was careful not to get distracted by my ever-buzzing phone. No reason to get pulled over. Not that the cops would find anything, but still, you could never be too careful.
I didn’t need GPS to get to my target’s house. I knew theroute by heart. Joseph Byrne. Garbage man by day, predator by night. He had a preference for young boys, something that always got to my brothers and me more than anything else. It was all fucking awful, and I was happy to rid the earth of any of these bastards, but it was personal when it was the ones like Byrne. I always enjoyed watching the life leave their eyes a little more than usual.
We had been watching this asshole for a while now, but Ari had said it wasn’t time. He’d needed all the evidence first, and then I’d had to wait till the guy was alone. The fuckface spent way too much time hanging around the Wraiths, a local gang he had ties with. He wasn’t actually affiliated, which was nice. We didn’t need a gang war on our hands, and while I’d love to take out every single one of those assholes, it wasn’t realistic. Our whole operation worked because we flew under the radar. No patterns, no pomp and circumstance, and definitely no fucking trophies. The authorities hadn’t even caught on that there was a serial killer or two of them in their midst yet. I wasn’t optimistic enough to believe it would never happen, but the longer they thought these were individual, unconnected events, the better for all of us.
I parked three blocks away in a commuter lot. We knew exactly where the cameras were and were careful to avoid them. I had a pass for the lot that I put in the window. After taking my suit jacket off, I hung it over the passenger seat, grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder, and put my sunglasses on. Lastly, I stuck in my earbuds, my way to communicate with Ari. Thank fuck for everyone using them these days. Nobody questioned someone talking to themselves anymore, making Ari’s need for constant communication so much easier.
After I locked the car, I stepped into the lot, easily blending in with the other commuters all hustling to head home for theweekend. There was a group of businessmen who were walking from the train station to their cars. I slid in between them, and then when they all began to separate, I walked with two of them until I couldn’t anymore. With my back to the camera, I headed onto the street.
“Alright, I’m on my way, A.”
“Got visuals,”Ari commented seconds later, slightly distracted as he was always focused on a thousand different things. The man was a fucking genius. Like literally. It was one of the reasons he’d always been the target of our foster dad growing up. That and he was small and obviously queer. But mainly it was because of how damn smart he was. Mitchell had hated it and had made it clear as often as possible. That was, until I and eventually Gid had gotten bigger than him. But that was around the time the other nightmares had started.
I shook my head. This was not the time to be thinking about Mitchell. The creep had long since been handled. It was time to focus on getting another one off the streets, and Joey Byrne had been going unchecked for way too long. Not any longer.
“You can approach at any time,”Ari told me as I was reaching Byrne’s block.“Only the first house has a Ring doorbell. No CCTV on this street either.”
“Got it.” We had already gone over all this, but it was part of Ari’s routine to remind me. I didn’t mind. I liked routine as much as he did.
“Yo, Nicky, when this is done, wanna come to the club with me? I need to get laid.”
I rolled my eyes. Gid always had two things on his mind when he wasn’t educating the future leaders of the world: sex and murder. If only the parents of his middle school students knew the real Mr. Vecchio. Usually, I was down to go with him, but I was feeling restless lately, and while taking it out onsome subby boy who wanted to call me Daddy while I choked him on my cock had some appeal, I didn’t think I was in the mood today.
“Nah. I think I wanna just hang out at home. You’re welcome to join me though. I might order wings from Wingtopia.” It was a ridiculous fucking name, but delicious wings.
“So my choices are getting dicked down by some leather Daddy twice my age or spending the night with my older brother eating wings in our pj’s? Thanks, bro, but I think I’ll pass.”
Fuck, was I getting old that that idea held so much more appeal than the club? Ari seemed to agree.“Well, if you’re paying, count me in.”
I rolled my eyes. Like Ari didn’t have access to whatever money he wanted. But the cheap bastard always mooched off Gid and me. And since he’d literally kept us alive and out of jail over half our lives, we gladly let him.
“Always, Ari.”
My brothers continued to bicker for a bit, like they always did, but I was finally standing on the rickety back porch of Joey Byrne’s house.
“Here.”
“Okay, last check on the feeds, he was passed out on that shitty recliner.”
“Ugh. Fucking hate those things.”I could practically hear Gid’s shudder through the line. I didn’t respond, but I agreed. Mitchell had loved his. Gid and I had gotten great pleasure out of setting that fucking recliner on fire, along with the rest of the house and Mitchell, when we’d finally ended the shithead.
“Wait, Nicky. Something’s off,”Ari interrupted.
Fuck. “What is it?”
“The cameras are off.”Besides the house on the corner, Byrne’s was the only one with security. The only difference was that all his cameras were inside his house. He recordedevery single room, including the bathroom. Some of the footage we’d found once Ari had hacked them had made me want to puke. Ari had.
“All of them?”
“No. Just the ones in the living room. Like it was broken or turned off manually. Let me see if I can get audio on one of the others.”
