“I’m not talking about business.” I massaged my temple to ease the ache that had been growing since Kitty’s disappearance. “Or am I? Fuck, I don’t know anymore. Angels might exist,” I reasoned, not wishing to trigger an existential crisis on top of a breakdown. “But they can’t fly off of balconies. Am I right?”
“Are you high?”
“No. I wish I were!”
“Sounds like an acid trip to me. You only ever say this kind of shit when you take LSD.”
“I haven’t taken any since before…” My shoulders slumped. “You know.”
“Then what’s brought this conversation on?”
And I had no alternative but to share what had happened today with him. I’d already had a powwow with my siblings about his cunt-in-law. That had led to Rory contacting the NYPD commissioner in our pocket after we’d obfuscated his part in the murder of a call girl from our stable.
But Kitty?
She was breaking news to my oldest brother.
He stared at me once I’d finished recounting everything,from using Conor O’Donnelly to trace her, Star Sullivan to upgrade her tickets, to the bomb blast that had killed Dead To Me and the unofficial meeting with Martinez. Then the mechanical breakdown in Hell’s Rebels’ territory and onto tonight—myàncilu’sdisappearance.
By the end, I felt like I’d gone to confession. I half-expected he’d make me go to church to atone then?—
“And you said I was crazy when I met Jen.”
Glaring at him, I demanded, “That’s what you have to say?”
“After the fucking BULLSHIT you spouted at me when I met and fell for her? Damn straight that’s all I have to say.” Then, he stroked his chin. “Let’s keep this from Rory for as long as we can, though. She already thinks we’re the over-emotional siblings, and I can’t deal with her being right. Not when she’s this pregnant.”
“I had no choice but to get Hunter involved,” I muttered, semi-relieved that the extent of his anger involved payback. I reallyhadbullshitted him during his courtship with Jen.
“Ah, shit. He’s a sucker for her. He’ll never be able to keep it quiet.”
Like I’d mentioned a thousand times, I threw in, “I’m telling you that he’s her Dom.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Neither do I! You’re the one who’s slow to read their body language.Gésu,I wish I had a joint.”
“You know what? Me fucking too.” He fell silent. Long enough to tell me he was stewing. Then— “We have to inform the O’Donnellys.”
“Fuck that!” I exploded. “We have to tell her family?—”
“They’ll liaise. You fucking owe me for this, Custanzu.Supra l'onori di mi matri,I’m only barely refraining from strangling you because the upside is, you look half-alive now.
“Do you know how worried we’ve been about you? This is proof. You bring this bullshit to my door and I can’t bust your face for it! Because I’m so goddamn happy that you’ve moved on?—”
“Can we celebrate when she’s no longer AWOL?”
He flicked at some invisible lint on his knee. “We don’t know if she is.”
“What do you mean? We scoured the estate.”
“You scared her. Not all women are at ease with wet work.”
“I cleaned the knife!”
“You guesstimated 95%. There were clearly blood traces on there, or why would she have freaked out?”
“Do you wantmeto breakyournose? We don’t know that she freaked out. Kitty’s ballsy enough to throw the knife at me if that had upset her. I never took her for a runner.”
