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I look at her, a strange sensation creeping up my spine. “What aren’t you telling me?”
But she refuses to answer. Instead, she bites on a long, fake nail.
I turn to Connor. “Why the fuck did the De Kysas order a hit on Joey, and why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
I was simply told who killed him and then handed a photograph with a name and address scrawled on the back. I was told not to ask questions and get it done.
“Why is there so much secrecy surrounding his death?”
Connor sucks on his cigarette. “Because there are bigger things at play, and you don’t need to know about them.”
“Does it really matter why they killed him?” My mom snaps. “Your brother is dead, and someone has to pay.”
“And you said you’d take care of it,” Connor reminds me, smoke puffing out of his mouth as he talks. “And either you take care of it, or we send someone else to do it.”
If they send someone else to do it, Ares will be dead by the time I get back to Tennessee this afternoon.
“That won’t be necessary,” I reply quickly.
Connor knows a lot of thugs who’ll do it for one of the rolls of money stashed in the freezer. And it won’t be quick. It’ll be messy and bloody.
I need some time to figure this out.
Find out what the fuck really happened.
“Good, then I expect it done by the end of the week.” He reaches down to stub out his cigarette in the glass ashtray on the coffee table. When he straightens, he tries to unnerve me with a menacing look. “No more fucking around… you hear me? You get it done, or I will.”
He strides out of the room, and I barely restrain from rolling my eyes. It was meant to be a dramatic exit, I’m sure, but he tries too hard to be intimidating to actually be intimidating.
“Well, this has been charming,” I say, deciding it’s time to leave.
I’ve absorbed enough toxicity for one day. And I’d be lying if I said the information about Joey didn’t unnerve me. Someone has gotten something wrong somewhere.
“No, please stay,” my mother says with heavy sarcasm. “Stay for some tea, cake, and a tête-à-tête. You can tell me all about how you dance naked in front of fat old men for crumpled dollar notes.”
I ignore her and walk toward the door but pause to look at the woman over my shoulder. “You didn’t even care about Joey in the end. Why do you care now?”
Her eyes sparkle with malice and too much alcohol.
She shrugs. “Because I can.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
She isn’t just cold-blooded. She’s a cold-blooded sociopath. She doesn’t care about Joey being dead. This woman only cares that someone took something from her.
It’s always about her.
Without giving Mom another look, I walk away and close the door behind me.
I won’t come back here again.
I’m done.
I hope for a clean getaway, but I have to walk past the kitchen to get to the front door, and Connor is standing at the counter looking at something on his phone.
“A word of warning, Aurora.” His voice cuts into the silence. “I won’t tolerate your petulance like your mother does.”
He’s trying to intimidate me… again.
