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Drake nods his head solemnly. In fact, everyone at the table looks disgusted and solem, all except for Pink, who sits relaxed, his eyes on Gio.
“We’ll set up a fund for them.” my best friend says, sliding the gruesome image back to Drake, who stuffs it in a manilla folder, but my eyes are on Pink and his strange demeanor.
“You good, Pink? You’re staring awfully hard at Gio.”
His eyes slide over to mine, his whole attitude changing instantly just as everyone turns to look at him, but I saw it.
“I’m good, just thinking about this bullshit.”
I nod my head, my hand scrubbing over my jaw, “And the lack of care for thisbullshit, as you so eloquently put it,” I speak slowly, monotonous, “has nothing to do with the fact that Lexi -who looks very fucking similar to these girls- pissed you off a few minutes ago?”
Gio stands from his chair, his eyes bouncing between us before hardening on Pink, “What the fuck is he talking about Pink?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” Lexi says before either of us can say anything. She walks over to the table with wine glasses dangling from between her fingers, like she’s a veteran bartender, and a fresh bottle of Rose, my sister’s favorite drink.
“I’m sure Pink meant nothing by the disrespectful tone he used with me, nor the way he stared at Gio as though it was him who killed these beautiful women, isn’t that right, big man?” She asks him sweetly, condescendingly, as she begins to pour the wine.
“As I said in the kitchen, Mrs. Vaccari, I meant no harm with my words.”
“It’s Lexi.” She corrects him at the same time everyone asks, “Harm?”
Lexi sighs, moving over to stand between Gio and me, “That’s over and done with, also not important right now,” she gestures to the manilla folder Drake still has in front of him. “During my time with theDoll Killer, I overheard some things Alan was saying when he thought I was unconscious. I know he’s working with someone, but thewhois unknown to me. The men you two killed were only buyers for me, not people he was working alongside.”
“The guy at the,” I clear my throat as Maxine’s dead face flashes in my mind’s eye, “bodega said he was a P.I for Alan. Something about digging into Gio and finding every scrap of information about him.”
Lexi shakes her head, “I don’t know about any of that. I only heard him talking on the phone a couple of times. Once he asked someone to go to the bodega because he was expecting some visitors. Now, I’m guessing that was you two instead of some skin buyers. He somehow knew you two were going.” Lexi’s eyes hold mine and Gio’s as her words making the rounds in our heads. I begin replaying every step we took the day we found out the truck Alan used to wreck into me, and Lexi was still at the bodega, but something ain’t making sense.
“We went in without back-up. We didn’t tell anyone we were going.”
Gio confirms he didn’t either.
“Have you swept this place for bugs?” Lexi asks, stepping closer to us as she looks around the large room.
I wrap my arm around her, the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention.
“If there’s bugs in here, that means we have a rat in our midsts and if that’s the case,” Drake stands, crossing his hands in front of him with his gun gripped in his right hand, his eyes sliding over Pink, Juny, and Vincenzo, who still sit around the table, “then you boys know what time it is.”
Vincenzo, who is as fucking nuts as they come, leans back in his chair, a toothpick gripped between his teeth as he shrugs, “I’m not sweatin’, boss. This is my first time here, but even if it weren’t, I ain’t no rat. Besides, you know how I feel about this shit.” He gestures toward the manilla envelope.
“It’s true,” his kid brother, Juny, adds, “but we’ll gladly do what’s required of us.”
Juny has always been a quiet guy, a man of few words, but it’s because of the shit he and Vincenzo went through as two kids in the catholic orphanage.
Everyone looks to Pink, who sits back, his head tilting to the side, “I consider you family. I may not know Lexi like you three, but she’s yours, therefore she’s part of this crew too.”
Maybe it’s just that he pissed off my woman, or maybe it’s something more, but I don’t believe a word the fucker says, but believe me, he’ll be watched very fucking closely.
I pull out a seat for Lexi as Gio grabs his device to check for bugs, something we should have done to begin with, and return to the topic of the girls that Alan has killed.
“Were any other clues or evidence left at the scene?” Lexi asks.
Drake pulls the reports out and hands them to her. I read over her shoulder, noticing two sets of bloody boot prints were on scene, one a size eleven in men’s and one in a size ten.
“Small feet,” I say, thankful I’m a man wearing size twelve and half boots, “No wonder these bitches have a thing for hurting anyone physically weaker than them.”
“No shit,” Lexi shakes her head before looking up at Drake, “was one of these girls named Lena?”
From the corner of my eye, I see Gio’s back go ramrod straight, his sweeping of the room’s furniture halting at Lexi’s question. Fuck, his mom. Wasn’t her name Elena?
