“How you doing? You been treating my daughter like the angel she is?”
What. The. Fuck. Eric was insane. I was sure I looked like a bugged-out idiot, my eyes popping out of my skull, unable to believe what I was seeing and hearing. I was a detective and had seen some strange, and just wrong, fucked up shit, but this just jumped to the top of my list. Clearing my dry throat, I mumbled, “Your daughter is my whole world. She gets treated better than any angel. I love her.”
“Good. I’m so glad she’s happy. I saw you got her a puppy. That’s good. Divinity always wanted a dog.” He smiled. A genuine smile. Like he didn’t have a beaten and unconscious bloody man flung over his shoulder with knives sticking out of him. We might have been chatting over lunch or something. And how the fuck did he know I got Divinity a puppy when we hadn’t seen or talked to him in almost three weeks, and we’d only had the puppy for two?
I shook my head to clear my thoughts so I could focus on why we were here. I actually didn’t want to know how he knew. What was the saying? “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” I was sure in this case that applied. “We going to talk about the body now?”
“Sure. I have a gift. I’ve had some fun. I thought I’d let you have some too.” He dropped the body down at my feet not even removing the knives.
I STARED AT THE BRUISED and bloody body dropped at my feet. Eric didn’t look like he’d even broken a sweat carrying the man in.
“I thought here was a good place as blood is easy to clean off the floor.”
I was a detective so I wasn’t afraid or grossed out by blood but Eric’s casual talk, like he knew what he was talking about, made me uneasy. I looked down at the broken body of the man and didn’t recognize him. He wasn’t even someone I’d arrested. I had perfect memory. I only had to see someone or something once and I never forgot.
“Who is this?” I assumed it was X, but I needed to be sure before this went further.
“This is X. Or I should say, David Ricardo.”
Ricardo. That last name was familiar, but not David. “I don’t know a David Ricardo. I did arrest a Leonardo Ricardo ten years ago when I was new to the force. It was one of my first big busts. He was charged with selling of narcotics to children and dealing drugs. I caught him on suspicion of murder and, if I remember correctly, it was later confirmed he killed a young couple and family in a home invasion. He died in prison from gang related violence. He was a piece of work. So I felt like karma dealt its hand.”
Eric nodded as I spoke. “That about sums up what I’ve learned. This here,” he kicked David, “is Leonardo’s brother. He’s been holding a grudge against you. He feels it’s your fault his brother is dead, and he was innocent, blah, blah. Anyway, the piece of shit has slowly been building his empire so he can get his revenge on you.” Eric leaned down and slapped the guy’s face. “Wake up, fuckface.” He slapped him again. “The little fucker stuffed up though when he took my baby girl. No one messes with my kids.” He shook David and I watched as he opened his one non-black eye.
“You sure did have some fun with him.” David was a mess. He was black and blue and the wicked knives in his feet and hands were disturbing.
Eric shrugged, like what he’d done to David was not a big deal. I’d been trying to find X for months, and so had a team of us now, but we’d had no success. Then Eric goes out and three weeks later has the job done. I hate to say it but I felt like my man card had disappeared. “The fucker wasn’t a talker, so I had to make him.”
I crouched down and stared at David. “So you’re X?”
“Fuck you, Silverman. This is all your fault,” David snarled.
Raising my brow, I made a show of looking him up and down. “How do you see that? I haven’t done anything to you. Yet.” I glanced at Eric and didn’t miss the smirk on his face. “I believe my future father-in-law is the reason you are in the state you are now.”
Eric came around from behind David and the look of terror that flashed in his eyes as he scooted back made it very clear how he felt about Eric, before he even voiced it. “You’re a cop. You have to help keep him the fuck away from me. He’s crazy.”
Standing, I frowned down at him. “I’m not here on official business.” I cracked my knuckles. “I’m here for myself. You see you took my woman. Yo—”
“You need to pay for what you did to me and my family!” David yelled.
“I did my job. It was your brother who brought it all on himself. I hear your brother had a quick death. His throat was slit. You, though, will not be so lucky. First, I intend to give you every injury my woman had thanks to you. I promise by the time I’m finished you sure as shit will wish you never met me, or anyone I know.”