“Yeah.” Vincent Murilla downs his coffee and pours himself another one.
“Seriously, man, you’re gonna stay up all night. It’s after six p.m., and you’re still guzzling coffee?”
It feels like I can actually hear Vincent Murilla’s eye roll.
“What about the Day girl?”
“Huh? Oh yeah. Call me naive, but I just don’t understand how Damien could ever live with himself if he killed her.”
The shiver coursing down my back turns into a full-body spasm, and Josh’s hand crushing mine is the only thing preventing me from crying out.
“You’re naive, man,” chortles Vincent, drinking the second cup and helping himself to a pastry.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” Everest sighs while passing a hand through his hair. “Still, I know Damien has guilty men killed. Even women, occasionally. But that girl didn’t do a single thing.”
“She’s curious,” shrugs Vincent, tearing off a hunk of Danish pastry, then swearing when the filling gets on his collar. “And you know what he said—curiosity killed the cat, and it’s going to kill Piper Day.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” groans Everest. “I know Damien is Damien and all that, but I don’t think he’s gotten to the point where we should be quoting him like he’s a demi-god or whatever. You’re such a suck-up, I swear you’re going to make his head explode with how swollen it’s been getting.”
Vincent snorts. “I’m just saying, that’s why she’ll be dead soon. She’s an inconvenience.”
I’m trying to find enough saliva in my mouth to swallow, but it feels impossible.
“Yeah, well,” argues Everest, “if we went around killing people because they’re inconvenient, Seraphina would have been dead a long time ago.
I frown.Who?
“That’s different. He was obsessed with her, remember? Still is, by the way. I’ve never met a guy whose whole world turns around one person like that.”
“That’s not the excuse he used, though, to save her,” grumbles Everest. “He said we have a moral code. We don’t kill people just because they’re inconvenient.”
“No offense, man, but you’resonaive.” By now, Vincent’s finished the pastry, and he’s dabbing at his collar with a napkin, his nose wrinkled in disgust because the stain is only getting bigger. “We kill people for every reason under the sun. Because they deserve it. Because they’re a risk. Because they’re inconvenient. Sometimes even, just because.”
Everest hisses. “I wish we could focus on acquisitions and that kind of shit.”
“Go right ahead and do that,” says Vincent. “The rest of us have an innocent girl to kill.”
My head is slumped against my one free hand—the other one still being crushed by Josh—as I try to understand everything they’re saying.
Devil wants me dead.
Not just the organization. Not just its soldiers. The actualfounders. Damien Wells, the most powerful man on the East Coast, knows who I am, and he wants me dead. Me, talkative, annoying, glasses-wearing Piper Day.
What the hell?
Everest’s voice has dropped to a whisper. “And what does Logan have to say about all this?”
“You know very well what Logan has to say. He lives and breathes by Damien. Never seen such a loyal guy. Damien could order him to jump off the Empire State Building, and he would. And that’s not just a cliche. The guy literallywoulddo it.”
Everest shakes his head. “It just seems insane, now that we know who she is—that he would just go along with Damien’s orders.”
What does he mean,who she is? Uhm, I’m Piper Day? They know that. What the fuck are they talking about?
“Well, Loganisinsane, in a way. He would rather put a bullet in his own skull than ever betray Damien. In fact, I’ll bet you fifty bucks Logan Colt is the one who kills her.”
I’m swaying, trying to stay in a seated position, as both of them actually laugh and shake hands.
“You’ve got yourself a bet,” accepts Everest, still chortling. “Not that I don’t think Logan won’t be loyal. But he won’t kill her directly. He’ll bring her to Damien and have him do the dirty work.”
