Page 88 of Claiming Vanessa
She takes a deep breath, then she walks to the door and quietly knocks. Donny carefully opens the door a crack, and he hands her a bag. She takes it, but her hands are trembling. “You don’t have to do this,” she hedges. “I mean, you probably pay people off all the time, and they keep their mouths shut because they know Giulio would… would kill them if they didn’t…”
“Yeah? You want to call Giulio and ask what he wants us to do here? Because I’m pretty sure I know his answer.”
The guy pales and shakes his head, finally dropping the act. “No, come on. Please, I don’t even know anything. And—they’ll look for me. You don’t want to be a cop killer, man. You know they’d spare no resources in tracking you down. They take cop killings seriously.”
I grunt. “Still think he can be paid off, Vanessa? He’s a fucking cop. All he’d do is get out of here and come back with the whole force, arrest you and everyone—including Stef and Elena—and lock you up for prostitution. Then they’ll go after me and Giulio, and we won’t forget that it was your fault it happened because you got cold feet. Now hand me the bag.”
Vanessa stares at me, wide-eyed, and I quirk a brow at her.
“C’mon, Vanessa, I’m running late to work as it is.” I hold out my hand for the bag. She’s shaking as she hands it over to me, and I nod in approval. “Good girl. See, maybe Damien’s right about you being smart.”
It’s comical how seeing the syringe makes the cop panic even harder. He tries to wriggle toward the door, and his little worm crawl has me laughing. Then I bring my foot down on his ass, stopping him in his tracks. He squeals loudly, despite how little force I used.
“All right, let’s make this look… I’d say look natural, but you’ve got cuff marks on your wrists, and you bruised up your face. I don’t think the coroner’s gonna call it natural causes.” I squirt out a bit of liquid from the syringe, although it doesn’t matter if there are air bubbles in it or not.
I grab his shirt and force him onto his back. He wheezes, begging me to stop, and that’s the most exciting thing he’s said all morning.
“If you give me your real name, I’ll make sure your corpse is recognizable. You won’t have to have a closed casket funeral,” I say as I press the needle against his arm.
“F-fuck you,” the cop growls. “You’re gonna regret this. My entire division is—they’re going to—”
I inject the heroin into his arm. It doesn’t take long for the guy to start convulsing.
“Slayer—” Vanessa protests, like she thinks there’s any going back from this.
I glance at her, torn between amusement and irritation, because I am going to bereallylate for work, and I won’t even have time to deal with the corpse. Giulio let me walk into this blind, so he can fucking handle it. “And just think, if you hadn’t pointed out the shoes, he’d have walked out of here alive,” I tell her jovially. “Glad you know such random trivia.”
She blanches, her hand going to her mouth.
I wink. “Nah, just kidding. He was gonna die anyway. Paul will be lucky if he’s not next. But cool observation skills. Ever thought about becoming a private eye?”
Vanessa heaves, and she runs to the toilet, where I can hear her breakfast come back up. I snort.Amateurs.
The guy goes still, and I sigh. “Sorry he had to die in your room. That has to put a damper on things, huh? Maybe Giulio will give you a different room.”
I can hear her whimper as I whip out my phone, dialing Giulio and tucking the phone under my ear so I can check the cop for a pulse.
“Heeey, what’s up? I’m kind of busy right now,” Giulio says. “Important meetings, y’know how it is, being the CEO of a major business.”
“Yet you always answer your phone, even when you’re in the middle of business,” I retort. “Anyway, went to the farm and slaughtered the pig, but I don’t have time to deal with breaking it down. You’re gonna have to send someone to deal with it.”
“What? No, you can’t just leave the job half-done!” Giulio actually sounds annoyed, but I don’t give a fuck.
“If you wanted it processed completely, you should have told me in advance. You’re not my only client, y’know. I’ve got other shit on my plate.” I look in Vanessa’s direction. “And your baby mama is puking, although not from morning sickness.”
“Ugh, fine. Damien, can you call… y’know, what's-his-face,” Giulio says, and I immediately hear Damien responding with, “I don’t know who what's-his-face is.”
“Yep, you deal with it. I gotta go. I’ll take Vanessa to Elena so she’s not left alone with the carcass, but that’s all I’ve got for you, man.” I hang up before he can answer, looking at the body with a sigh. “God, what a fucking mess.”
Vanessa is brushing her teeth furiously, and she doesn’t look at me.
“Hurry up,” I tell her. “You can chill with Elena until they clean your room.”
She finishes up, wiping her face on a hand towel. She still looks pale, and she avoids my gaze.
I sigh. “Come on, Vanessa. It’s not like this is your first dead body, right? Didn’t your old man get wasted right in front of you? This was just some random cop who’d have arrested you and put your ass in jail. Then where would you be?”
“Away from the three of you,” Vanessa mumbles.