Page 10 of Heartless

“Caitlin Winslow.Never married.She led a quiet life.Not luxurious, but being a bank manager, she had a good handle on her finances.”

“Past tense?”

“Died two months ago.Cancer.Story is Morrison saw the mother’s name in the obits and accosted the girl at the cemetery.”

“The day of the funeral?”

When Sile confirmed, I exhaled slowly.“I need to meet her.”

Sile smirked.“Way ahead of you.Sienna and her friend Gabrielle Ashford—”

“Ashford?”

“Yep.That Ashford.They’re on the guest list of the Silver Shell on Friday.”

The Silver Shell was the nightclub where all the trust funds babies went to spend their parents’ money.The popular nightclub was owned by The Family and managed by Zook.

“You want in on that one?”I asked.

Swinging back his legs up onto the balustrade, he chuckled.“Nah.I just want to see you crawl out of the unrequited love that girl is going to unleash on you.All by your fucking self, Jakey.”

Lifting my bottle in a cheer, I slanted back in my chair.

Revenge was going to be fucking sweet.

****

The administrator ofthe hospice, a rail-thin woman, followed me into the room where my comatose father had been lying in for half a decade.The urn containing my mother’s ashes was sitting on the narrow shelf on the side of his bed.

I tipped my chin down.“Thanks, Doctor.”

She threw a coquettish smile my way.“Leslie, Jake.We’ve known each other for a long time.”

The woman squirmed.Even if she’d been my type, did the bitch think I’d fuck her in my father’s room?“Thank you, Dr.Nuys.”

She got the message and exited the room.I pulled the empty armchair near the bed and settled down.

I’d never get used to his stillness.My father had been a force of nature who’d taken me camping, taught me how to fish and build a shelter.After my mother’s death, he’d plunged into a depression he’d never gotten out of.Then, five years ago, he’d driven his truck into a ravine that left him here, waiting for a death that wouldn’t come.

All this because of that motherfucker.

“I’ll make it right, Pa.”

I touched the urn on the shelf beside his bed and left.

****

On my way home, I pushedthe Bluetooth button in my truck to call Zook.

“Son, what’s up?”

“Zook, is my marker still valid?”

After a pause, he said, “A marker from The Family is for a lifetime, son.”

One night, Bianc, Zook’s niece, who’d been sixteen at the time, had come to the sports bar with her friends.When a grown-ass motherfucking predator had cornered her in the bathroom, I’d taken the fucker to the alley at the back of the bar and taught him a lesson that had left him with a permanent limp.

As a show of gratitude, Zook’s brothers, Edoardo Conti, the head of The Family, and Dario, Bianc’s father, who served as Edo’s second-in-command, had bestowed me a marker.A favor of any kind granted to me with no questions asked.