Blood in the Water(39)
After a moment, Valentine spoke again. “I think whoever’s punishing these women is doing the Lord’s work.”
Byron made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “What the fuck do you mean by the Lord’s work?”
“Swearing is a foul habit.”
“So fuckin’ sue me. Wanna know what a real dirty habit is…? Killin’ people who did nothin’ to deserve it.”
“All women are born into this word unclean, tainted by their sin.” There was so much trembling rage in his voice, it made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. “It goes back to Eve in the garden. They can’t resist temptation like a man.”
Byron stared at the phone. “That makes as much sense as tits on a bull. You ain’t baptizin’ ’em, son. Stop blamin’ Jesus ’cuz you like to drown girls.”
She had no idea there was a religious component to Valentine’s delusions—which was utter nonsense, of course. Truly spiritual people would never condone his crimes. And over the years, she’d seen a lot of criminals use the Bible and other holy texts to justify their crimes.
“But I haven’t hurt anyone, right, Jane? I thought you were better than this. And I can only promise you one thing, your punishment isn’t going to be easy…or painless.”
“Listen up, asshole,” Byron said. “You’d best find a deep, dark hole and hide in it.” His lips peeled back from his teeth. “’Cuz if you come anywhere near her, I’m gonna come up with a punishment of my own.” He hung up and tossed the phone on the desk with a curse.
***
An hour later, Jane was in the guest room at Beauregard Manor. In theory, she should be getting ready for bed. It’s a shame she couldn’t relax enough to sleep; a few hours’ rest might do her some good.
She and Byron hadn’t spoken much on the way back. The mobsters had talked the situation over before they’d left the restaurant.
Byron informed the others because they had a “psycho on the loose” and Valentine might come looking for them, but he’d gone light on the details to protect her. To be safe, she’d texted Georgia and warned her to be extra, extra careful and then promised to call tomorrow with an update. Jane didn’t have the energy to hash it out tonight. When she’d finished doing that, Jane also texted her father with another warning.
Right now, she kept on thinking about Valentine and his threat to discipline her.
In his sick, twisted fantasies had those women been “bad” and he was compelled to correct their behavior?
A knock on the door made her yelp. When she opened it, she found Byron standing there with a frosty gallon-sized Mason jar in his grip.
He smiled. “May I enter? I come bearin’ gifts.”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Darlin’, I can’t stand to see you so down. What do you say we drink those cares away tonight?”
“I don’t see the point, our problems will be here tomorrow.”
“The point is, tonight you’ll be happy.”
It didn’t make any sense to her. Then again, emotions were baffling creatures. She’d never understand them.
“And what about Valentine?” Jane envisioned him climbing through the bedroom window with a knife in his back pocket.
“As I told you last night, I got one hell of a security team, not to mention a high-tech system. And if all that wasn’t enough, Ten is stayin’ down the hall. I invited him over before we left Poison Fruit. If the bastard is stupid enough to pick a fight with Ten, he deserves what he gets.”
“He’s dangerous then?” Byron nodded. “Good.”
“I’ve seen Ten peel the skin off an ol’ boy with a razor blade.”
“Why did you tell me that?” Jane put her head in her hands. She needed to have a serious talk with all of her clients when it came to confessions. If she ever got back to her normal legal practice, she’d institute a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.
“Sorry, force of habit. The point is, we’re safe for tonight. Might as well unwind a bit since we’re in this for the long haul. I still think you should let me take care of him.”
“I can’t.” Although the idea had become more and more tempting.
“Figured you might say that.” He held up the jar. “Come on, let’s wet our whistles.”
As a rule, she didn’t like to lose control.
“And I brought somethin’ else to take your mind off it.” From the inner pocket of his jacket, he pulled out a Gone with the Wind DVD.
As a little girl living in the South, she’d seen it countless times. The book and the film were nearly a century old and detailed the collapse of the Confederacy during and following the Civil War as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Scarlett O’Hara. It had some flaws, namely sexism and racism, but the work reflected the prevailing attitudes of the time, like Huck Finn.