Page 45 of Blood Moon

“Vik will be fine. He’ll get out and come to us. We need to go. Come on, love. You’re going to walk out as if nothing happened. You just had a lovely visit with your uncle who is healing nicely from his accident. We can talk about it once we’re in the car, okay?” He spoke softly, but I knew he wasn’t asking. I had to do what he said. I nodded and tried to wipe the horrified look from my face as we exited the room.

There were so many questions running through my head. Who would have killed Uncle Vinny? Why? There was nothing to be gained from his death. What had he done to deserve this? I knew that my guys would do everything they could to find out who’d killed my only family. That didn’t make it any less painful. I did my best to walk out calmly with Eli. Once we made it to the door, he picked me up and carried me to the car.

Only when the doors were locked and we were speeding down the road did he finally speak. “That was a hit. I have no idea who ordered it, but a vamp did it. He was drained before his throat was slit. That’s why there was no blood.”

I couldn’t focus enough to answer. It shouldn’t surprise me that there were vampire hit men, but it did. I still couldn’t figure out why.

“I promised not to hide things. You need to know what we’re up against. Someone wanted him dead.”

My words came in a whisper. “But who? Why?”

I glanced at Eli, who mirrored my pain back at me. “I don’t know, love. But I will find out, and they will pay.”

I sat there as Eli drove and the shock took over. A few minutes later, I found my voice. “What about Viktor?”

“He’ll be fine,” Eli responded, too quickly.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I turned toward him, but he avoided eye contact. “Eli! You promised.”

“We need to get out of the city. I’m not sure where we can go and be safe.” He was deflecting and I wanted answers.

“Tell me or I’m jumping out of the car,” I threatened. He looked at me, trying to judge if I was serious. I reached for the door handle and he sighed.

“The style of that hit reminded me of something I saw a few years ago. It was how Vik’s men would take out a target. I don’t know why he would do that to your uncle, but it looks like he’s responsible.” He still wouldn’t look me in the eye, but it didn’t matter because I turned away myself.

How could Viktor do this? Why would he have Uncle Vinny killed? Eli had to be mistaken. There was no way Viktor would do this.

I shook my head but didn’t speak. It couldn’t be true, could it? As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I knew that Eli had no reason to lie. Unless all of this had been a lie and he was trying to undermine my relationship with Viktor. I needed some time to think. “Where are we going, then?” I asked without turning to face Eli.

He hesitated before answering. “Vik isn’t the only one with a secret home outside the city. I have a small house out in the woods a few miles past the city line. We’ll go there and figure out how to get Vik back.” It should have been touching that he wanted to help Viktor, but with the revelation that one of my guys could have killed my uncle, I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted.

“Shit! I totally forgot. You gave Viktor his new phone. Do you think it’s safe to text him?” I didn’t bother to pretend that I didn’t know.

“You saw that, huh?” Eli winced at the realization that he wasn’t as slick as he’d thought.

“Yeah, I did. But it gives us a way to find out if he was the one who did it or if he knows anything about it,” I could barely bring myself to say the words out loud. I pulled my phone from my pocket and texted Viktor.

We need to talk. I knew it was somewhat ominous, but I had no idea how to ask him if he’d killed my uncle. I didn’t know how to process the thought that the man I was falling for could be so cold as to kill my only remaining family. I mean, my mom was probably out there somewhere, but she’d been chasing my dad for so long. I was certain that by now she’d forgotten all about me.

With that realization came the tears. I hadn’t broken down when I found his body, or when Eli had all but accused Viktor of murder. But now, sitting here in the car thinking about how Uncle Vinny had been the one person who was always there for me, I couldn’t hold back. Every scraped knee, broken heart, aced test—he was the one who’d helped me through everything and celebrated with me when I’d done things I didn’t think I could. And now he was gone. The whole thing seemed so unreal.

I picked up my phone again and sent another text. I knew it was pointless, because I hadn’t heard from her in the past ten years, but I sent it anyway. Hey, Mom, just wanted to let you know that I’m okay. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. The bar was destroyed, and Uncle Vinny passed away. I’m sorry to tell you this way, but I don’t know if this is even your number anymore.

I didn’t expect a response. The last time I had tried calling, the voicemail was full and no one had called back. I knew that most likely something had happened to her, but even that thought didn’t hit me as hard as Uncle Vinny’s death.

“What did he say?” Eli asked as he turned down an unmarked road.

“Nothing yet. I hope he’s okay,” I replied, wishing we hadn’t left the hospital.

Chapter 45

Eli

I wasn’t sure why Viktor hadn’t answered Delilah’s text, but I knew that she would be obsessed with going back to make sure he was okay. I needed to distract her.

I knew that trying to work with Viktor’s guys would be tough, since he still thought I was behind the explosion. I mean, I get it. I love blowing shit up. It’s my thing. But Vik’s thing was draining humans then slitting their throats to cover it up. That didn’t mean that I automatically thought he killed Vinny. Maybe for a minute. What mattered right now was that I knew he didn’t do it.

Maybe one of his guys went rogue. Or maybe one of us has a mole who’s been working for whoever was doing these bombings. That would explain how they were able to duplicate our specific signatures so easily.