Blood in the Water(13)
Byron generally defended his father—after all, the man was blood. Nobody but family got to run his father’s memory down, but in this case, he couldn’t muster up any bluster. Dix hadn’t said anything Byron didn’t already believe.
“I suppose.”
“You’ve always been dangerous.”
Byron saluted Dix with his glass before he drank.
“But you don’t hurt women. You never could.”
Buckley would call it a weakness, sentimentality. If you wanna get ahead in this world, boy, you gotta be willin’ to break all the rules. And Byron had, with relish. He’d murdered and robbed and blackmailed his way to the top, but there were some lines he wasn’t comfortable crossing.
His father had used women and children as cannon fodder, as weapons against his enemies. Byron hadn’t stooped so low—yet. At this moment, he wouldn’t harm a hair on Jane’s head, but what if he slipped? Changed? Any day now, a confrontation with Tucker Cobb was coming. He’d been pushing for it for months. Byron wanted to take over the whole operation, become the man in charge. Taking Tucker out wouldn’t be easy. It might even turn him into a full-fledged monster, like dear old dad.
It was Byron’s biggest fear. One day he’d look in the mirror and see his father’s face grinning back at him.
“Are you sure?”
“You’d never hurt Jane.”
You don’t know that because I don’t.
“You ain’t what I’d call….”
“Enough.” Byron gripped the glass hard. “Drop it if you know what’s good for ya.”
While he might give the rest of the world a piss and vinegar grin, Byron had wounds, deep ones, and Dix was poking at them with a sharp stick. They might be friends, but he wouldn’t hesitate to give Dix a big black eye.
“Fine.” Dix stood and folded his arms across his chest. “But trust me on this, shacklin’ yourself to the past won’t do a damn thing. It only drags your ass down.”
“I got nothin’ to offer her, Dix. I talk a good game, but underneath it all, I’m a no account hit man and always will be.”
“So am I, yet here I am with a good woman at my side. I ain’t sayin’ we deserve them, but there’s no harm in askin’.”
Belle was an innocent, a counselor. Byron didn’t know how Dix slept at night. If he were Dix, he’d worry who might harm Belle to get to him.
“You didn’t work your way up the ranks like I did. If you knew half the things I did....”
“Well, I know you’re changin’ the outfit.” His lips curled. “We ain’t legal, but we ain’t the bastards we used to be. You have a nice home, all the money she could ever spend. You should offer Jane your protection, build somethin’ together.”
Byron shook his head.
Dix held out his hand. “I bet you a thousand bucks you propose to her by the end of the year.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Nah, I’m crazy like a fox. You takin’ the bet?”
Byron stared at the outstretched hand. “Why not? It’s easy money.” They shook on it, and Dix grinned as he waltzed out of the room whistling.
Why did Byron get the impression he’d made a losing bet?
He checked his watch again. Jane was late, which wasn’t like her.
What the hell’s keeping her?
***
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Jane.”
She couldn’t think at the moment, couldn’t really process what she’d just seen.
“Talk to me.”
She looked around the room. More photographs of dead blonde women—twisted trophies.
“I think you’re a serial killer.” Oh, God.
And she was all alone with him, in a lake house, miles away from anyone else. She backed away, keeping her eyes locked on him as she headed for the exit.
“I’d say it’s an accurate assessment.” Valentine didn’t appear alarmed or ruffled in any way by her harsh words. “A bit simplistic, though—there’s much more to me than killing.”
Jane wanted to run and hide—get as far away from him as possible, find a place where he’d never reach her. Yet her rational mind knew there was no such place. Valentine knew her name, where she worked. He’d even been over to her apartment once to drop off evidence.
She was trapped.
“Why show me all of this?” She licked her dry lips. Her heart thundered as though it wanted to break free of her ribcage.
Unless he intended to kill her too? Jane thought of the poor fish on his table, the way he’d sliced off its head.
She shuffled further away.
“Like I said, I want you to know me, see all of me.” He took a step forward. “This is the darkest part of my character, Jane, but it isn’t all I am. You deserve my honesty.”