Page 44 of Ruin Me With Lies

Shouts and curses echo in the background.

“Explain.”

“I had lunch with the Uppers and let it slip—on purpose—that Liquid Blue’s bartender was picked up for being an informer.Onlyoneof them knew her by name, and he immediately excused himself to go ‘handle something.’”

“Who?”

“Ricky Garro.He has a cross tattoo on his clavicle.”

“Not surprising.”

Another pause.Then, to someone in the background, he barks, “Bust it in!”

He’s multitasking what sounds like a war zone, and I’m here playing detective.

“Raya, babe,” he says, voice lower now, more serious.“Try to find something,anything, that definitively points to Garro.If it were up to me, he’d be dead within the hour.But Stefano won’t act on just that.”

“I’ll do my best,” I promise.“And Lorenzo?”

“Mhm?”he responds, distracted.

“Don’t get shot.”

A deep, dark chuckle.“I’ll do my best.”

CHAPTER TEN

Raya

AN HOUR LATER, STEFANOis glaring down at me with eyes full of disdain and distrust.

His unbuttoned shirt, suit pants, and damp, slicked-back hair tells me I’ve caught him in the middle of taking his sweet time getting ready for the evening ahead.

From what I know, his sleep schedule is erratic.His concept of time is warped and he sleeps wherever and whenever he can steal a break from his criminally long days.And yet, somehow, he always looks so damnrefreshed, sharp, and alert.

Must be nice.

A“crunch”slices through the intense silence as he bites into a bright red apple.

“Do you have a name for me?”His voice is lazy, almost bored.“Or are you here to steal something else?”

“Ricky Garro.”

He nods once, as though the name makes sense.“Proof?”

“Kind of.”

He starts shaking his head, but I cut in quickly.

“Peter Rogers, head of surveillance, was doctoring security footage at Liquid Blue.Gio went to pay him a visit, but someone else got to him first.He’s dead.”

Stefano’s expression doesn’t change, so I press on.

“About an hour before that, I casually mentioned at a table of on-duty Uppermen that the bartender at Liquid Blue was nixed.Ricky Garro was the only one who showed interest and immediately left.”

I pat my trusty laptop under my arm.“I suspect Garro’s the one who took out Rogers, so I scoured all surveillance footage around Staff Valley within the timeframe he left Diner Hall.He did a great job avoiding the cameras, but I still caught him—barely—on distant feeds, heading up to Peter Roger’s apartment.”I shrug.“So…that’s my ‘kind of.’”

He stares at me, openly irritated.