“There’s nothing in the woods but animals and Sasquatch,” Nico said.
“Sasquatch?” Levi parroted.
Nico nodded. “Yeah, you know. Bigfoot.”
“Did you fuck Bigfoot?” Levi asked, pulling the lollipop from his mouth with a pop.
“Yeah, who was it? The not hobo, the lumberjack, or Bigfoot?” Arsen asked.
Jericho made an exasperated sound, falling into his stuffed leather office chair. “D. None of the above. I ran into a guy at the cabin. He was there to dispatch Trevor as well. One thing led to another and we kind of hooked up.”
Levi’s eyes bulged, chair rocketing upright. “In front of Trevor?”
“You’d rather I fucked Trevor?” Jericho asked, distracted by his friend’s pearl-clutching.
“Kinky,” Arsen said, nodding his approval.
“No,” Jericho said. “Listen. Trevor got dead first. I was kind of keyed up. He was…there. And willing. He was a redhead. You know I always wanted one of those.”
“Wow.” Only Felix could put that much condemnation in a single word.
“Was he hot?” Levi asked, once more rocking the chair back on its hind legs.
Jericho couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face. “Yeah. He was. And kind of like…I don’t know. He was dressed like any other pro, but there was something so…subdued? Inhibited? It was like getting a handjob from a bible salesman.”
“You’re a cretin,” Felix muttered, flouncing into the chair beside Levi, crossing his legs primly. “So, are you going to see him again?”
Levi grinned around his lollipop. “Yeah, are we getting a stepdad?”
Jericho lobbed a pen at his head. “Fuck off. It was a blowjob, not a marriage proposal.”
“You got a blowjob from a bible salesman?” Arsen said, admiration leaking into his tone.
“No, I gave a blowjob to a bible—You know what? This is none of your business,” Jericho snapped.
How did he let these kids run him around like this? He was the adult. They were all adults, really, but still. He was the adultiest of the adults at thirty. He paid the bills, he kept them fed when they couldn’t take care of themselves, and in exchange, they helped him clean up their neighborhood by taking out trash like Trevor. And around there, there was no shortage of trash.
“So, are you going to see bible boy again?” Arsen asked.
Jericho’s first instinct was to say hell no, but what came out was, “I’d have to find him first.”
Arsen snorted, jumping to his feet and shooing Jericho away from his desk. He plopped down into Jericho’s desk chair and opened his laptop. He rolled his eyes when the boy typed in his password without asking. Not one ounce of respect out of these little monsters. Not a drop.
“What do you know about him?”
“His name is Atticus. A little over six foot, kind of bulky, definitely worked out, insanely blue eyes. Like, swimming pool blue. Had a snake tattoo curling over his right shoulder. He said he was a pro.”
“A pro? Like a hooker?” Nico asked.
“Sex worker, dude. Come on,” Levi said, disgusted.
“No, you idiot. A pro like a hired killer. He didn’t look like any hired gun, but he was wearing a watch that would probably buy this entire block and he called it his backup watch so…who else has that kind of money?”
“Atticus Mulvaney, eldest son of billionaire Thomas Mulvaney,” Arsen said, as if reading from a cue card.
“Son of a billionaire. Definitely not—”
Arsen swung the computer around to face Jericho. “Is this not your bible salesman?”
