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Chapter

Twenty-Three

“As always, you and the rest of your family remain complete and utter idiots.” Cold glanced at the doorway where he saw Trev peeking out. “Ah, Trevanion. Are you all right?”

“Fucking peachy,” Trev replied as he flew out of the office to immediately tackle Jupiter. He hugged him tight, burying his face in his chest.

“Trev,” Jupiter murmured, wrapping his arms around him and kissing the top of his head. “Why do you have two guns?”

“Buy one, get one free?”

“Let’s just… Here.” Jupiter gently took the guns away so he could hand them off to Mickey.

Jules was busy disarming Emil and Sal, humming lightly as he did. He whistled at the office. “Hey. Juice. You can come on out now.”

Juicy peeked around the corner and then he grinned when he saw Cold. “Ha! I knew you weren’t dead.”

“Yeah! How the fuck?” Trev demanded. “I saw your head! I saw…” He tried to remember exactly what he’d seen, but it was only a blur of red. “You were fucking faking it.”

“Thirdsies here is very keen on explosions and special effects.” Cold nodded to the young man.

“The picture,” Trev realized. “The one that was a little off in the corner. That was it, wasn’t it? It just popped off and sprayed a bunch of what? Fake blood?”

“Yes. Remotely controlled, of course.”

“But the waiter?—”

“Really was an assassin.”

“And the gun?—”

“Personally planted by Valdemar.” Cold tipped his head to the old man. “Loaded with blanks. The security detail wouldn’t allow anyone to bring a weapon inside the restaurant, so the Luchesi family thought they’d be clever and hide one in the days leading up to the hit.”

“So, you found the gun, planted your own loaded with blanks, rigged all that shit up and made sure you’d sit in the corner so you could pretend to be fucking murdered?”

“Yes.”

Trev stared.

And he stared.

“Okay.” Trev took a deep breath. “But fucking why?”

“To make sure these two felt brave enough to stick out their necks,” Cold replied, his icy gaze turning on Emil and Sal. “After all, we do have so much to discuss.”

Emil only growled while Sal stared furiously.

“And what are you doing here?” Trev gave Jupiter a shake. “I left you at the house!”

“I followed Juicy to the hospital,” Jupiter replied. “That, uh, Thirdsies guy came with me and?—”

“Juicy!” Trev scolded. “You didn’t think to mention that?”

Juicy blinked. “Mention what?”

“Right.”

“Anyway.” Jupiter chuckled. “We went to the hospital with Juicy and left to go get something to eat. We left Juicy in the room, thinkin’ that the old man couldn’t get into that much trouble?—”