Series: Sean Moriarty
Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 113805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“What?” Eden asks in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“We might not remember every name,” Lucifer says as he leans back in his chair and stares at Eden. His eyes full of yet another emotion I have no clue how to read. “But Simon’s records generally do.”
“Told you it was for your own good.” Andrew laughs and punches James hard in the shoulder.
“Fuck you, asshole.” James laughs in return and dances away from Andrew, giving him the finger.
Eden’s face melts into even more misery as she watches the group start smiling and smirking at James.
Looking back at me, she snaps, “So it’s all just some great big joke?”
Sighing at my brothers as they act like children, I shake my head. “No, but if you bear with us, you’ll know whether we had anything to do with your father’s death.”
James looks to Eden then wiggles his thumbs. “It’s all about the thumbs, Eden.”
“Your uncle, Mickey Carmichael,” Simon says after a couple of minutes, “he had your father running jobs for him, correct?”
Nodding her head slowly, Eden says, “Yes.”
Simon doesn’t blink when he firmly states, “We did not kill your father. I highly suggest you reevaluate your position.”
“How would you even know?” Eden snaps back.
“Because we take great strides in knowing exactly who we fight against and who we kill,” Lucifer says as he stands up.
Moving around to the front of the desk, Lucifer rests his body against it and crosses his arms. “Only major chess pieces died during that time. Any of the pawns that happened to pass were accounted for.”
“Chess?” Eden says before she looks to me for some type of explanation.
“Years ago, there was a war between Lucifer and his boss,” I explain. “Lines were drawn and a coup happened. Anyone who fell on the wrong side of the war died. But we kept exact records of who died and when. It was imperative that we did because old debts and bad blood must always be removed.”
“He was murdered,” Simon says from his keyboard then spins it around so that we can see what’s on his screen.
Slowly he clicks through different pictures.
“Shot three times in the back, as you can see from the entrance wounds. The exit wounds are in the front. His date of death was one week before the coup, as Jude would call it, happened.”
Eden’s eyes start tearing up at the photos Simon so uncaringly shoves in her face. There, on the screen, live and in living color, are the autopsy photos, police diagrams, and notes about the murder.
Unsolved is in bold red lettering.
Her hand twitches as if wanting to reach out, to touch the man’s face that’s on the screen.
She must have cared deeply for her father.
That much is obvious.
While I don’t like Simon’s callousness, I know it’s because we need the full truth from her.
“What does any of that mean?” Eden asks, sounding even more upset and confused.
“We didn’t kill him,” Simon answers. “He died outside a laundromat in South Hebron, his back to whoever shot him.”
“No, my uncle said…” she trails off.
“Records don’t lie,” Simon says firmly. “These photos show the facts.”
“That…” she stutters. “None of that makes…”
I feel Eden’s grief as old wounds are surely being ripped open. It can’t be easy for her to have all that she knew ripped apart and torn asunder. Especially by the men she was led to believe were the culprits.
“We have no reason to lie to you,” I murmur to her and try to get her to see the light. “What would be the gain?”
Eden finally slumps in her chair in defeat and nods in acceptance.
There is truly nothing for all of us to gain in this situation.
“Your uncle, it seems, will have some explaining to do,” Lucifer says with a knowing look.
“He has a file on you,” Eden says after a long moment and looks up at Lucifer. “All of you. He has pictures of you. He wanted me to watch anyone who came to club and… and wanted me to… Even your doctor. They wanted me to get close to Nathaniel and…”
She trails off and just the thought alone fills me with murderous intentions. Her uncle wanted to pimp out his own flesh and blood to her supposed father’s killers.
“To what end?” Simon asks and spins his laptop back around to face him. His fingers fly across the keyboard.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. He just wanted me to report on you guys, especially you,” Eden says and looks at me with something akin to sadness. “He said it was something personal with you, but wouldn’t tell me what. Someone named Dimitri, I think, was paying them for the job.”
Personal? The only Russian who could have something personal against me is the fucking cunt that shot me.
“How did they know about the club?” Uriel asks from my side as he moves into view. “Sure, we bought it, but it was a quick, easy transaction. And it was lowkey enough that it shouldn’t have been on anyone’s radar.”