Page 1 of Slay Tricksters and Silent Skeletons
PROLOGUE
Bento
My stomach was growling so loudly, I was surprised the people around me didn’t look up in search of a thunderstorm. It was cloudy, so it was definitely possible. But nope. I was just starving. It’d been two days since I’d eaten anything, and I was ready to do just about anything for a meal. I hadn’t resorted to selling my body for cash yet, but it wouldn’t be much longer before I did. I was getting desperate.
As a street kid, pickpocketing and stealing was all I knew. I didn’t have an education. Everything I knew, I was self-taught or taught by some of the other homeless people. School was a laughable idea. I’d never been. I was born in some back alley beside a dumpster, and I’d been left there like yesterday’s garbage. A small group of homeless people had taken me in and kept me fed, stealing formula and jugs of water until I was old enough to eat finger foods.
I had no documentation listing me as a United States resident, which put me in even more danger as I got older. If lawenforcement got their hands on me now, I’d be deported to a country I’d never been to. To a place that spoke a language I wasn’t familiar with. My skin tone might have been brown, but I didn’t know my heritage. I didn’t know my mother or my father. I was only named Bento Perez because of the woman that had taken care of me while I’d been a baby had been Hispanic herself. She’d passed away before I was a year old, but everyone just kept calling me by the name she’d given me.
I had no idea if my parents were alive, and the older I got, the less I cared. The fuck did I want with someone who’d abandoned me?
My stomach rumbled again, and I sighed, looking around for someone I could easily pickpocket. Someone who also might have some cash. Cards did me no good. They could be traced. But cash? Cash was a free-for-all.
I almost missed the Hispanic man standing beside an expensive Maserati. He was talking to another man, and they seemed to be pretty deep in conversation. Taking my opening, I moved forward and just as I was about to walk past, I reached for his back pocket?—
I squeaked in alarm when a hand suddenly wrapped around my bony wrist, and within a split second, I was being shoved face first against the side of the expensive Maserati. My nose bounced off the passenger door, and I groaned when it began to throb.
“Just what do you think you’re doing, kid?” the one I hadn’t been trying to pickpocket asked. He leaned a broad shoulder against the SUV and crossed his arms over his chest, the black sleeves of his t-shirt straining around his massive biceps. He arched a dark brow at me when I remained silent, trying to think of a wayout of this, though I wasn’t sure it was possible. I’dneverbeen caught before. “You got a death wish or something?”
My stomach rumbled again. I huffed in aggravation. “No. I’m just fucking hungry,” I griped.
“Do you know who I am?” the one Ihadbeen trying to pickpocket asked, spinning me around to face him. He still hadn’t let go of my wrist, and now that we were facing each other, I could see the gun peeking out from beneath his jacket. My empty stomach dropped right to the pavement.
Fuck.
I’d dug myself a goddamn deep hole this time.
I swallowed thickly. “I, uh, no,” I stammered.
The other man made atsking noise, drawing my eyes to him. “You ever heard of Rico Martinez?” the man asked me. My face paled. Slowly, I turned back to look at the man in front of me. “You’re lucky you’re not being hauled off to be tossed somewhere, kid. You could have died just now.”
“You’re lucky I’m not in the mood to drop bodies,” Rico warned me. My blood ran so cold, I shivered despite the summer heat. He ran his eyes over me. “When’s the last time you ate?”
I shrugged. “Like two days ago. Look, I’m sorry. This won’t happen again. I swear it.”
Rico snorted. “I know it won’t because I’m not giving you the choice to even contemplate it.” I was going to be sick. I had nothing but stomach acid to puke, but I was on the verge of spewing it. Rico Martinez was a notorious crime boss and head of the Martinez crime family. He was dangerous as fuck, and I’d just pissed him off.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I was about to die.
Reaching around me, he opened the back passenger door, then yanked me around to face the backseat. “Get in, kid.”
I shook my head, my teeth beginning to chatter. “Really, no,” I rushed out. “I swear. I won’t do this again. I’ll figure something out. I f-fucking swear.”
Rico sighed, the sound impatient and annoyed, and then, I was being manhandled into the backseat. Rico slid in beside me, and then the door was shutting, and the back locks were engaging. I was sweating profusely now, my teeth chattering so hard, I was surprised I didn’t bite my tongue.
“Stop freaking out,” Rico snapped, irritated. “I’m not fucking killing you, kid. I’m going to give you a job where you get three meals a day, room and board, and a decent fucking paycheck. Chill the fuck out.”
“I…what?” I finally blurted, not understanding. But hey, he’d shocked me so damn well, my chattering stopped, so that was a plus. I was no longer at risk of losing my tongue.
“You’re getting off the streets,” the other man said as he slid into the front passenger seat. The driver got in on the driver’s side, and then, just like that, we were pulling off from the curb. Turning to face me, the man smiled at me, but it was unnerving and made my gut twist with anxiety. There was something cold and cruel about his smile, even if he was trying to be friendly. “I’m Alfonzo, Rico’s second in command.”
“The man you’ll be answering to and who will be training you for your new position is my personal bodyguard, Niran Chun. He will get you everything you need, including shoes, clothes, and toiletries.” Rico turned to look at me, his dark eyes coldand unnerving. “I don’t normally help people, kid, so consider yourself lucky.”
Alfonzo snorted. “Not all that lucky. Niran is going to chew him up and spit him out.”
“That’s what his job is,” Rico deadpanned, shooting an annoyed look at Alfonzo.
I fidgeted and shifted nervously in my seat. “Whatismy job?” I questioned, my anxiety spiking again.
