“Right.”Lazarus nodded with a cool smile. “You know this game.”
“I-I don’t know where they got our names,” Chaz stuttered. “But it… it wasn’t us, boss.”
Lazarus rubbed his mouth. “Is that your officialanswer?”he huffed. “That yourstoryand you’resticking to it?”
Another gulp. A few more droplets of sweat trickling down his face. Chaz nodded. “Yes.”
Lazarus's head swiveled toward Helio, the movement fluid as mercury. “What about you? Same answer? Samestory?”
“Y-Yes, sir.” Helio's right foot shuffled against the tarp, making a sound like distant thunder. His hand rose to tug at his collar. “I didn’t know anything about it. When did it happen—”
The gunshot ripped through the room, shattering the silence like a hammer through glass. The back of Helio's skull erupted in a volcanic spray—bone fragments, brain matter, and blood suspended for one eternal microsecond in the amber light. His eyes registered shock, then nothing, as his face went slack. The body dropped like a stone, knees cracking against the hardwood beneath the tarp, torso pitching forward until his forehead struck the plastic with a sound like a watermelon splitting open.
Chaz's legs buckled, and he staggered sideways, his face draining of color until it matched the sickly white of old bone. “Jesus Christ!” The words escaped as a strangled whisper, while his eyes, wide as silver dollars, remained fixed on Helio's body—the dark crimson pool spreading beneath his skull.
Lazarus calmly cocked the weapon, the metallic click echoing through the room like a death knell. His eyes, cold and unblinking as a reptile's, settled on Chaz. The man's gaze remained fixed on his fallen companion—partner in crime, drinking buddy, midnight lover—until the silence grew so heavy it finally dragged his attention away.
“You...” Chaz's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he swallowed. A thin film of sweat formed on his upper lip. “You said the plastic wasn't for... us.”
“I said it wasn't for you.” Lazarus moved with fluid grace, each step deliberate as he raised the still-warm gun.The polished barrel pressed against Chaz's forehead, leaving a perfect circular indentation in the flesh. “But maybe I lied.” He increased the pressure until Chaz's head tilted back, then withdrew the weapon with a slight twist. “I don't lie.”
Chaz trembled in place, his watery eyes bulging in their sockets as they repeatedly darted to the body on the tarp. Something likeanguishrippled over his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lazarus said softly with feigned remorse. “Did I just…” He looked down at the dead man. “… shoot yourboyfriend?”He shook his head. “Fuck, I am sorry. A good fuck-buddy doesn’t come along every day. Were you two…” Lazarus raised an eyebrow. “…fuckingwhen I paged you? Shit. Again, I’m sorry. That was just rude of me.” He stared at Chaz’s frightened, distraught face. His voice lowered and dropped all pretenses of giving a fuck. “Ithurtsto lose someone you care for, doesn’t it? Gets you right…” He shoved the gun barrel hard against Chaz’s left pec, causing the man to stagger back a step. “…here.Right in the fucking heart.”
Chaz hung his head and tears rolled down his face.
“People like you.” Lazarus thrust the gun under Chaz’s chin and forced his head up. “Cowardswho shoot up neighborhoods without a fucking thought of thecollateral damageyou leave behind…” His eye twitched, and his finger tightened on the trigger. “… you deservehell.”His voice turned soft as velvet over steel as he nodded at Lord, whose face remained impassive. “Deliver him to the devil.”
Panic erupted across Chaz's face like a sudden rash as Lord stepped forward, his rough hands twisting Chaz's trembling arms behind his back. The metal cuffs bit into his wrists with a decisive click that echoed in the blood-scented air. Chaz's gaze darted to Helio's corpse—the crimson halo spreading beneathhis shattered skull, one eye still open, glazed with the dull surprise of sudden death.
“He was just the driver,” Lazarus said, his voice soft as silk. “Thedevilwants the one who pulled the trigger.”
Lord's fingers dug into Chaz's bicep as he shoved him toward the heavy oak door, leaving twin red streaks where his Italian shoes dragged through the blood.
“Have someone clean up this mess,” Lazarus instructed, flicking his manicured fingers dismissively toward the cooling body on the tarp. Lord nodded once, a soldier's acknowledgment, and shouldered the condemned man through the doorway.
CHAPTER 13
Chaz stumbled as Lord shoved him down the carpeted hall of Lazarus’s fortress. His mind still reeled from Helio’s sudden death, with blood and brain matter from Helio’s exploding head clinging to his face and riddling his hair. He felt sick; Helio had been his best friend since Chaz joined Lazarus’sfamilyover four months ago. Drinking, drugs, fucking women, then fuckingeach other—Helio was the perfect partner and best fuckingfriend.
And Lazarus had taken him out as if he were nothing more than an annoying gnat.
Forget Helio—worry about yourself.
Chaz stumbled again, then deliberately tripped, crashing into the wall and falling to the floor. His face pressed against the carpet, his hands bound behind his back. He didn’t try to get up.
Lord grabbed his cuffed wrists and hauled him roughly to his feet, wrenching Chaz’s arms in their sockets. Chaz grunted in pain. The underboss didn’t speak, but Chaz could feel the man’s rage as he shoved him forward again.
“Hey,” Chaz rasped. “Can’t we make a deal?” He was desperate, and words tumbled out before he even knew what he was saying. “I know you like cock.” A chill of death radiated from Lord. “Hey… Hey, no judgment,” Chaz added hurriedly, tripping over his own feet. “I like cock, too. Me and Helio, we fucked all the time. You saw us. Cock is awesome.” Chaz grunted as Lord smacked him hard in the back, almost sending him sprawling face-first into the carpet. He grabbed his footing before he went down and staggered forward. “I’m just saying, I’ll… I’ll suck your cock if you let me go. I mean, swallow thewhole thing. I don’t have a gag reflex.”
Lord’s breath surged through his nostrils like a furious beast.
Chaz had nothing to lose, so he kept trying. “Some of the men think you’re servicing the boss. I-I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is…” He snorted. “That can’t be too satisfying, am I right? I mean, the boss is fuckingrigid. Kindasoulless. You need someone who focuses onyourneeds and takes their time gettingyouoff. You can’t tell me the boss gives a shit about pleasuring you, right—”
Chaz face-planted the wall, his nose crushed by the force. Blood gushed into his mouth as his eyes instantly watered, and pain exploded through his face. Lord gripped the back of his neck, strong fingers digging into the tendons, holding his broken face against the wall. He leaned in, lips peeled back from his teeth as he snarled in Chaz’s ear, “Bethankfulthe boss didn’t hand you over tome. I would have taken you apart, piece by fuckingpiece, forinvolvinghim in your little stunt.” He ground Chaz’s face into the wall. “You haveno ideawhat your littlefuck-uphas caused. No onehurtsthe boss and lives to tell about it.”
Hurts the boss?The ferocity of Lord’s words seemed to go beyond merely getting Lazarus involved in the drive-by hit. But Chaz had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
