Page 3 of Villains Never Die

“Police.”

I looked up and nodded. “Take care of it. Make it look like an accident. If it gets messy and the police start sniffing around, write a check to Captain Franklin with however many zeros it takes to make it go away.”

Franklin was one of the few people I had ties to in the human world, and he loved a good bribe.

“Anything else?” Gray asked.

“That shipment of fae artifacts is coming in at midnight. They should all be documented and labeled already. Make sure they’re ready for the auction on Saturday and be careful. You know how unpredictable they are.” I tapped my fingers on the desk, Rook’s attack refusing to stay in the back of my head while I needed my attention on work.

I’d let him sneak up on me. It was sloppy. That’s what happened when I did menial bullshit myself instead of sending someone else. I should have been hunting him down and sent Gray for the bones.

“Find Rook’s club,” I said. “There are enough lowlifes frequenting the place that someone knows where the fuck it is. Don’t send any of our people. Just text me the address.”

Gray’s black eyebrows shot up. “You taking care of this one yourself?”

I rubbed a hand over my chest, where the wound had healed. I may have cheated death, but that bullet left a permanent scar. “This one is personal.”

Chapter Two

It had been two weeks and no one could tell me where Rook’s club was. Aside from obsessing about finding it, everything was business as usual. There were five requests for rare artifacts that weren’t so rare I’d have trouble tracking them down. Three deals made. Drugs distributed at the hottest clubs. And Calvin disappeared, quickly, quietly, without police interference.

I had a fluid system, and between Gray and myself, there was little interruption to the machine I kept running day-to-day.

“Did you hear about the body they found by the river?” Gray asked one morning, the second I walked into my office, before I even had a cup of tea.

“You expect me to keep track of everyone who is murdered in this entire city?” I raised my eyebrows, sat in my chair, and Gray handed me the exact cup of tea I was craving. Five years in America had not swayed me to give up tea for coffee. Some things could be pried from my cold, dead hands, and that would be a long time from now.

“This one was a magician.”

“You’re not piquing my interest, Gray.” I shuffled through some papers, looking for the list of new inventory in my warehouse. It was there somewhere—

“Weird killing—they found him with his tongue and both his hands removed, and there was a note.”

I glanced up from my paperwork and gestured for him to continue.

“It said, ‘the hubris of magic.’”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s disappointingly vague.”

Gray shrugged. “Just thought it was worth mentioning. You like to stay in the know.”

“What I want to know is where the fuck Rook is hiding his club, so I can kill the bastard.”

Gray never flinched when I threatened murder. It was one of many reasons I liked him so much. He pulled a business card from his pocket and laid it out on the desk in front of me. A black chess piece—arook—glared up at me against a white background.

“Good thing you have me, then.” Gray grinned and tapped his fingers on it. I turned it over and there was a black bird on the other side.

“How does this help?” I asked, noting that there was no contact information of any kind.

“Needs blood.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I scoffed, sitting back in my chair. “Cheap blood magic. What a waste.”

Not so cheap that I wouldn’t give my blood to find him. Blood magic carried certain risks, but I was positive Rook wasn’t so powerful that I had to worry about them. I picked up an ornate letter opener and pricked my finger until a scarlet bead balanced on the tip. I stared at that drop of crimson one beat too long, my vision swimming slightly, before I pressed it to the card.

An address in black, typewritten letters unfurled across the length of the business card. A smile unfurled similarly on my face.

“I’ve got him now.” I held the card up to the light from the floor to ceiling windows and memorized the address. “This ends tonight.”