Page 34 of The Handyman
“How many people have you killed for money?”
Stiffening at the blatant question, I lifted my head to stare at Riley from under high brows.
Her rosy cheeks puffed out, lips thinning. The slur in her tone could’ve been tiredness or alcohol, and her dark eyes were almost black from the blue light streaming from behind her.
I couldn’t tell if she was still drunk. “Why do you want to know?”
Puffing out her lips, Riley’s brows knit sharply at me.
I inhaled deeply through flared nostrils.Crap. No getting out of this.“Eighty in eight years. About one a month, give or take.”
“Oh.” Obviously, I’d surprised Riley by being able to give a number, and she blinked blearily at me.
Of course, I had other jobs, other prerogatives more important than killing someone, but she hadn’t asked about that. I sure as shit wasn’t going to tell her of my own volition.
“Like who?”
“What kind of question is that? You don’t pay tens of thousands of dollars to have someone killed unless they wronged you. Sometimes, it’s a cheating or abusive spouse, or someone that fucked you over real bad. The reasons never matter. I just do my job, and I don’t care about the sob story. It’s not gonna get you a discount or anything.” I purposefully kept my voice low and soft, but heat pooled in my chest. Dread gnawed at my gut, my hands tingling as I swiped back Riley’s hair to cup her cheek. “If you ask me, I’ll answer, but make sure you won’t regret it, baby.”
“I’m fine with the fact that you can give me a number.”
Delilah must’ve said something.I scowled lightly at that thought, but the damage was already done, if there was any to begin with.
Lifting her head to stare into my eyes, Riley shuffled a little deeper into my lap to wind her arms around my neck. “I love you. It doesn’t matter if it’s just right here on the sofa. I’m on here, and you’re on here, and we’re together.”
“Riley…” My lips quirked up.
Riley craned her neck to kiss me sweetly.
The heat in my chest morphed into something softly warm and gentle— just like her. But I could taste the wine on her mouth, and I pulled back to lay Riley on the sofa to cover her up. “Go back to sleep. It’s not like I’ll go anywhere. This is my place.”
My demand lowered her eyelids, but Riley had enough energy and mind to take my hand and lace our fingers. She smiled beautifully and a little lopsidedly.
My heart grew full as I leaned to kiss her lips. In seconds, she was asleep again, leaving me with one question circling ruts into my brain.
Would she remember this in the morning?I wasn’t sure which answer I wanted more. “You got deep under my fingernails, didn’t you?”
Riley wasn’t awake to answer, her breaths deep and even.
I pulled a duvet up over her shoulders. Working out from under her legs didn’t stir her at all, either. Stretching my arms over my head, I arched my back and bit down a groan. “We’ll see what happens when the sun comes up.”
Riley, Delilah, and Hannah had loudly agreed that Friday was the day to sober up. Hannah had to work at 3:30, Riley was simply over being drunk, and the way they drunkenly decided on their reasons was what made it so funny. Gazing down at her, now, so peaceful and not crying or laughing hysterically, I captured her pinked face and calm expression.
“Ah. . .” Running my hands up my face and through my hair, I squeezed the back of my neck between my palms. My phone started to vibrate in my pocket, as if Vanessa had some creepy sixth sense of my restlessness, and I shuffled around the sofa to head into the kitchen. “Hello?”
“I figured it out—”
Vanessa’s winded tone rose the hairs on my arms, and I leaned on the counter to cross my ankles and hold my cheek.
“I found out why her information is all wonky. Riley’s her dad’s mistress’s kid, not her mom’s.”
“What?” My voice cracked in shock, and I closed my eyes tightly to pinch the bridge of my nose. To some extent, I’d expected this, considering the warning Vanessa had given me, but to hear it as a certainty settled heavily on my shoulders. “What the fuck, Vanessa?” The air had been knocked from my lungs.
“Yeah, Riley shares DNA with her father but not her mother. From everything I found, it seems like Riley’s father was just like, ‘hey-y so, I found this baby somewhere, and you always wanted a girl, so let’s just pretend she’s ours’.” Drawling dramatically, Vanessa cleared her throat softly. “They had her as a home birth, falsified her information on her real documents, and as far as I can tell, Riley’s mother probably knew her husband was cheating on her. Since Riley’s biological mother and ‘adoptive’ mother have the same blood type, no one ever noticed.”
“So, how do you know hedidn’tjust find a baby somewhere and be like ‘hey’?” Licking my lips, I rubbed my eyes and down my jaw to scratch my freshly shaven chin absently. My mind whirled too fast, beating against my forehead, and I inhaled a deep, shuddering breath. “Even if he did, what happened to the woman? The mistress?”
“She was from a super religious household, and as far as I can tell, she died giving birth in a motel room. Dude took the baby and police didn’t find her for days until they got called about the smell.”