Page 1 of Murder & Mayhem (Bloody Desires #9)

DOMINIC

M y phone buzzed as I was closing out my computer for the day.

Ari: It’s time.

A smile spread across my face. Fucking finally.

It had been way too long since I’d let my monster out and had been able to take out a monster in return.

This particular one had been a long time coming, and I had been anxiously waiting for the all clear from my brother that it was finally safe to take out the target.

It would be easy to get ahead of myself, which was what Ari was for. He was my conscience and my safety. I had no doubt without him watching my back, I would be in jail or dead by now, but Ari was a stubborn son of a bitch and wouldn’t let me go that easily.

I quickly sent him back a message, a thumbs-up, before pocketing my phone.

Once my work computer was shut down and closed, I grabbed my worn gray backpack I’d had for years now, my lunchbox, because wasting money buying food every day was outrageous, and I headed out of my cubicle, hoping to avoid my coworkers.

Obviously, I wouldn’t have that kind of luck.

“Hey, Dom,” Meghan, one of the other employees in the marketing department, popped out from her cube, smiling flirtatiously at me.

Ari would be proud that I didn’t react to her calling me Dom. I hated that nickname. My brothers called me Nicky, and everyone else called me Dominic. Or they were supposed to, but sometimes these people had a hard time wrapping their brains around the concept.

“Dominic,” I reminded her drily. I didn’t have time for this. I had a child rapist to murder.

She laughed, waving me off. “Oh right. I’m sorry. That’s such a mouthful, I sometimes forget.”

It really wasn’t. Dominic was a perfectly normal name. She was just trying to be cute. It wasn’t working.

“What do you need, Meghan? I have plans.” Ones that relied on me not straying from our timeline, even by a few minutes.

Ari had the details for every job planned down to the second.

Things went wrong all the fucking time, but I tried very hard not to be the one who caused the issues.

I didn’t always succeed, but still, I didn’t want Meghan, of all fucking people, to be the reason this job wasn’t done correctly.

Her face fell at my harsh words, but I couldn’t give a fuck.

She was a nuisance and never seemed to get the hint that I wanted nothing to do with her.

I had asked Ari to look into her, in hopes he could find something worthy of me getting rid of her, but unfortunately, she was clean.

A few speeding tickets and she stole her neighbors’ Wi-Fi, but that was hardly a killable offense.

Still, it was tempting sometimes to break our code just to get her to shut up.

I glared at her, hoping she’d get the hint.

She was not, nor would she ever be my type.

Not only did she have the wrong body parts, but I could never deal with her personality.

Not that I had found a man that I could tolerate either, but at least I was able to get off in a nice, tight hole or by spanking a round bottom.

Meghan only irritated me without offering anything in return.

Her brown eyes widened, only for a second, at my expression, but she quickly schooled it and soon had her flirtatious smile firmly back in place.

“Oh, what a shame. What about tomorrow? A few of us are going to McLean’s for karaoke night. It would be so fun if you joined us.”

Kill me now.

“Sorry. I’ve got plans then too.” And every other day she tried to invite me.

Listen, I understood why this job was necessary.

I had to stay under the radar, but fucking hell, sometimes it would be worth raising suspicions just so I didn’t have to deal with anyone on a daily basis.

Maybe I could convince Ari that working from home would be acceptable.

He did IT work from his place, so why couldn’t I?

“Alright. I gotta go. See you.”

I shouldered my backpack and was out of there before she could say another word. Luckily, I made it to the parking garage without being interrupted again.

As soon as I was in my Toyota Highlander hybrid, I told the car to send a group text to my brothers, Ari and Gideon.

Me :

Are you sure I can’t quit this job?

Ari :

Yes. Suck it up, buttercup.

Gid :

You could come work with me.

As a teacher? Yeah, I didn’t fucking think so. If I thought my fully adult coworkers were too much, I had no idea how I’d manage a bunch of sixth graders.

Me :

Yeah, I’m good. Thanks though.

I pulled out of the garage, giving the finger to the building as I pulled out onto the city street.

Adrenaline was already pumping through my system.

This. This was what I lived for. Not staring at my computer for eight hours a day while my clients changed their minds about what they wanted 5000 times and then bitched at me for getting it all wrong, even if I’d done exactly what they’d told me.

No, that was just how I spent my time so I looked “normal,” whatever the fuck that meant.

Going after low life scum was the only thing that ever excited me, that I even cared about, besides my brothers of course.

But that was different. They didn’t get my heart pumping the way these jobs did. It was the only time I felt alive.

The group chat continued to buzz, but I told Siri not to read it to me. It would be my source of entertainment once this was done and I needed something to come down. That was always the hardest part, but my brothers’ ridiculous bickering helped. Sometimes.

I kept to the speed limit as I drove and was careful not to get distracted by my ever-buzzing phone. No reason to get pulled over. Not that the cops would find anything, but still, you could never be too careful.

I didn’t need GPS to get to my target’s house.

I knew the route by heart. Joseph Byrne.

Garbage man by day, predator by night. He had a preference for young boys, something that always got to my brothers and me more than anything else.

It was all fucking awful, and I was happy to rid the earth of any of these bastards, but it was personal when it was the ones like Byrne.

I always enjoyed watching the life leave their eyes a little more than usual.

We had been watching this asshole for a while now, but Ari had said it wasn’t time.

He’d needed all the evidence first, and then I’d had to wait till the guy was alone.

The fuckface spent way too much time hanging around the Wraiths, a local gang he had ties with.

He wasn’t actually affiliated, which was nice.

We didn’t need a gang war on our hands, and while I’d love to take out every single one of those assholes, it wasn’t realistic.

Our whole operation worked because we flew under the radar.

No patterns, no pomp and circumstance, and definitely no fucking trophies.

The authorities hadn’t even caught on that there was a serial killer or two of them in their midst yet.

I wasn’t optimistic enough to believe it would never happen, but the longer they thought these were individual, unconnected events, the better for all of us.

I parked three blocks away in a commuter lot.

We knew exactly where the cameras were and were careful to avoid them.

I had a pass for the lot that I put in the window.

After taking my suit jacket off, I hung it over the passenger seat, grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder, and put my sunglasses on.

Lastly, I stuck in my earbuds, my way to communicate with Ari.

Thank fuck for everyone using them these days.

Nobody questioned someone talking to themselves anymore, making Ari’s need for constant communication so much easier.

After I locked the car, I stepped into the lot, easily blending in with the other commuters all hustling to head home for the weekend.

There was a group of businessmen who were walking from the train station to their cars.

I slid in between them, and then when they all began to separate, I walked with two of them until I couldn’t anymore.

With my back to the camera, I headed onto the street.

“Alright, I’m on my way, A.”

“Got visuals,” Ari commented seconds later, slightly distracted as he was always focused on a thousand different things.

The man was a fucking genius. Like literally.

It was one of the reasons he’d always been the target of our foster dad growing up.

That and he was small and obviously queer.

But mainly it was because of how damn smart he was.

Mitchell had hated it and had made it clear as often as possible.

That was, until I and eventually Gid had gotten bigger than him.

But that was around the time the other nightmares had started.

I shook my head. This was not the time to be thinking about Mitchell. The creep had long since been handled. It was time to focus on getting another one off the streets, and Joey Byrne had been going unchecked for way too long. Not any longer.

“You can approach at any time,” Ari told me as I was reaching Byrne’s block. “Only the first house has a Ring doorbell. No CCTV on this street either.”

“Got it.” We had already gone over all this, but it was part of Ari’s routine to remind me. I didn’t mind. I liked routine as much as he did.

“Yo, Nicky, when this is done, wanna come to the club with me? I need to get laid.”

I rolled my eyes. Gid always had two things on his mind when he wasn’t educating the future leaders of the world: sex and murder.

If only the parents of his middle school students knew the real Mr. Vecchio.

Usually, I was down to go with him, but I was feeling restless lately, and while taking it out on some subby boy who wanted to call me Daddy while I choked him on my cock had some appeal, I didn’t think I was in the mood today.