Lady Killer (Dead Girls Club #2)

13. Everest

Chapter thirteen

Everest

I wasn’t a big shopper. Not much of a gift giver either. But Alister had raised the bar, and I wasn’t about to get left behind.

If Luz wanted pretty things, I had plenty of money to buy them. But spending money was easy, killing someone was hard.

For most people.

But I knew my girl wouldn’t be impressed by body parts from just anyone. Luz had some sort of moral code, and I suspected she would be less than forgiving if I chopped up someone she wanted alive.

Luckily, the universe offered me a boon, as it so often did.

My cause is just!

One night, unable to sleep, I’d been looking for some light reading and started combing through Alister’s updated files on my Starbright.

Imagine my surprise when I came across a video with one Hester Fordham and a Jade Brookings.

The Fordhams were old money, and a couple generations ago, they would have been considered a respected client of the Blackwells. Unfortunately for Hester, her grandparents started burning through the family’s money before she was even born. Her parents made enough to maintain the facade, but they certainly didn’t wield the influence that their predecessors had.

Jade’s family was new money. Her mother was a successful angel investor, and her father had worked for Goldman Sachs before taking an early retirement.

“You can’t kill them.” Nixon had caught me watching the video of those anthropomorphic shit stains insulting my Starbright a couple of nights ago.

“And you don’t tell me what to do, Nixie-Bo-Bixie,” I said, swiping the video closed and sitting up.

The older twin, by six minutes, was the more reckless of the two. Which was why I could always rely on him for a good time. He was harder to rile than Locke, but once you set him off, he was explosive.

Luz was proving to be an excellent pressure point of his.

He sneered at me. “No, only Daddy Lucian does that,” he taunted. “But what do you think he’ll do when he finds out you’ve added to the number of dead girls around here, and from two families with enough resources to cause a fuss.”

“Fordhams don’t have shit. They’re broke as a joke. And Lucian will forgive me when I explain it’s for Starbright.”

“Wrong," he said. "The Fordhams still have connections, even if they are broke as you say. And the Brookings sure as fuck aren’t broke,” he challenged, crossing his arms with a smirk. “Lucian might forgive you, but will he forgive your Starbright so easily?”

Damn it. Was he right? Lucian wouldn’t be happy about more bodies right now, that was true. I had been working on getting myself out of the doghouse, but the subject of Luz was still a sensitive one.

“Don’t hold back because I said, though. Personally, I’d love to see the bitch get what she deserves. ”

This was why I could never trust Nixon. He lied. To himself. He could say what he wanted now, but we both knew he didn’t really want her dead.

How can I trust a man who doesn’t trust himself?

“Lucian wouldn’t go back on his deal,” I countered.

“Lucian doesn’t have to kill her to make her suffer, Everest," he said snidely. "You forget not everything has to end with a body.”

Shit, he might be right . . . Couldn’t let him know it though.

Change of plans.

“Do you think you’re going to feel left out when your brother and I are sharing Luz like that scene from Lady and the Tramp ?”

His face scrunched in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You know, the movie with the hot lady dog and the roguish scoundrel? They eat the spaghetti, with the meatballs, and then they like slurp it and kiss in the middle? Luz would be the spaghetti?”

“You want to kiss Ali?”

“No. I mean, I’m not opposed to it, but I meant like the slurping and the eating and the sharing. It’s super romantic, there’s a red-checkered tablecloth and everything.”

“Seriously, Everest, what the hell are you talking about? ”

Fucking children.

Sometimes, I forgot how much younger he and Alister were. They’d been born in 2002, for Christ’s sake.

“I really wish I’d been there to intervene during your wayward youth. Your knowledge of classic Disney movies is depressing.”

“Right,” Nixon said, raising his eyebrows, standing up from where he’d been leaning against the doorframe, and moving to turn around.

“What are you doing here anyways?”

Nixon and Alister usually stayed on campus at the townhouse. It wasn’t like him to wander around the estate at this hour unless he’d been wrapping up a job.

“Picking up some last-minute supplies.”

“Oh?”

Nixon wasn’t just our resident pyro. He was also an explosives and demolition expert.

“Rush job.”

“Ah, have fun.” I gave him a cheery salute.

Which brought us to today.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what Ali was doing when he chased after Luz like a bloodhound with a scent. I meant what I’d said. I was happy to share my Starbright with him. While I was her number-one stalker, not even I could be on her 24/7 .

With the killer lashing out and murdering Melody, keeping her alive was going to be a team effort.

She was the light. It was natural that all sorts of pests would be drawn to her. That was why she needed the monsters waiting in the dark to stomp them underfoot. She was for us. Not them.

I was happy to see Alister getting over whatever stick was perpetually in his ass and finally taking matters into his own hands. I just hoped he treated her with the respect she deserved.

Otherwise, I might have to take matters into my own hands.

Hester and Jade lived in a well-maintained colonial on the edge of campus along with another friend, Bianca Winters. She wasn’t in the video, so she wasn’t on my shopping list tonight.

I’d staked out the house the last couple of days, waiting until I knew one of the twins had eyes on Luz. Bianca was out of town at some fancy-pants fundraiser her grandmother threw every year. I knew about it because Lucian had sent Locke there to rub elbows with some of our more important clients. There was never a bad time to remind the rich and ruthless that you knew the worst of all their dirty little secrets.

Despite what most people thought about me, I could be quite patient when I wanted to be. I just had to be sufficiently motivated.

Waiting because someone told me to?

BORING.

Waiting to exact bloody vengeance and pick up the perfect present to declare my intentions to the future Mrs. Collins, killing two birds with one stone? Exquisite suffering.

Maybe I should take her name?

Everest Torres had a nice ring to it.

If the Blackwells could make everyone who married into the family take their name, why couldn’t I take Luz’s?

It was past three in the morning when Hester and Jade drunkenly tumbled out of an Uber and into their home.

I watched from across the street as lights flicked on in the house, bright rectangles blazing against the vast blackness of night. Too bad it wouldn’t keep them safe from me.

Eventually, the house went dark again, and it was time for me to move. There was a security system, but it wasn’t anything that I didn’t have plenty of experience with. I went through the back and was in before you could say “ lickety-split,” the door closing behind me with a pleasant shunk .

I didn’t bother locking it. No one would be going anywhere tonight.

Their rooms were on the second floor, and as I stole up the curving wood staircase, I fished around in my pocket for one of the syringes I’d brought with me.

Like I said, no one was going anywhere. Not until I was done carving Starbright’s present from their faces.

From my coat, I pulled out the pièce de résistance.

Based on Luz’s description, it’d been easy enough to find a plastic sheep mask online. I sincerely doubted that either girl would be talking after I was done with them, but it never hurt to throw some chaos into the mix.

First up was Hester.

I let myself into her room to find her passed out, snoring loudly, still wearing her cocktail dress, her heels kicked off next to her bed. The scent of vodka overwhelmed the space. She would’ve had one hell of a hangover in the morning, if I hadn’t gotten to her first.

I plopped down on the bed next to her.

Originally, I’d planned on waking her up first to make sure she was paralyzed with her eyes open. It was more fun when they could watch. Unfortunately, she was so drunk now I didn’t know if I’d be able to rouse her.

“Here we go,” I sang before rolling her out of bed onto the floor.

She landed with a hard thud and curled into a fetal position, moaning.

Music to my ears.

In a flash I had her on her back, her eyes opening wide in horror as one of my hands slammed down over her mouth, silencing her scream, and the other jammed the syringe I’d prepared into her neck.

She continued to struggle for another couple minutes while the drug took effect. But eventually, the thrashing stilled and I was able to remove my hand, her eyes now frozen in an expression of desperate fear.

A perfect canvas for me to work with.

I reached over to pat her cheek. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

Jade’s room was in the rear of the house. She was equally drunk, sleeping with one leg dangling off the side of her bed. Didn’t anyone ever warn her about the monster under your bed?

I grabbed her ankle and wrenched her to the floor, watching as her face made contact with the hardwood with a satisfying crunch .

Unlike Hester, she screamed. Like Hester, she was easily subdued, and it wasn’t long before I was dragging her down the hallway to her friend’s room.

Throwing her next to her friend, I reached for my phone in my pocket.

Time for some mood music.

“Siri, play Christina Aguilera, ‘Dirrty.’”