Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Elio worked with a sort of practiced precision that made me think that they might not have their own Silvano in their Family to clean up shit for them.
I reminded myself that we weren’t trying to pass a criminal investigation here. We just wanted Matej to be able to move around his home without seeing blood or pieces of his loved ones.
My gaze slid to him often as I cleaned up the living room, finding him sitting there, stiff-backed, staring down at the floor, his expression seeming, at times, haunted or furious.
I couldn’t imagine his grief.
We’d had some men injured, of course, but we hadn’t had a murder in… fuck, I don’t even know how long. Maybe since Lorenzo’s old man. Though, no one grieved his death.
I couldn’t imagine the pain Matej was going through. The deaths alone were terrible. But to have heard it? To feel the guilt of feeling responsible for it? I couldn’t believe the man wasn’t a fucking puddle of grief on the floor.
I’d just tied off the black bag I’d filled when there was a knock at the door, making Matej and I both stiffen and look toward each other.
“It’s my mother,” Elio said, coming out of the kitchen, his gloves and booties off.
“Your mother?” Matej asked, brows furrowing as I moved myself behind the door, so she wouldn’t see me in all my bloody clothes.
“Thanks for dropping this by, Ma,” Elio said after he opened the door, pulling in something that resembled a vacuum, but I figured was the carpet shampooer.
“Do I want to know why you need it?” she asked. Then, thinking better of that, “Never mind. Don’t answer that. But you owe me a new one,” she warned him before I heard her footsteps moving back down the front steps.
“You asked your mother for her carpet cleaner?” I asked, shaking my head. “I think I’d have to pry my mother’s from her cold, dead fingers.”
“To be fair, she probably agreed because she wants a new one anyway,” Elio said, looking down at the thing. “Either of you know how it works?”
“Guess that’s me,” I said, reaching for it. “She didn’t bring solution, huh?”
“Can’t you use… soap or shit?”
“Sure, if I want the entire room full of bubbles. I can use laundry detergent, though, since you don’t care if the machine gets fucked up in the process.”
With that, I set to making a homemade solution, then dragged the thing upstairs to work on the mattress until there were no visual signs of blood, though I imagined there would be a ton of it deeper in the material. Then, just to cover our bases, I did the carpets in the room and the hallway leading to the bathroom. Clearly, Jan had used something to carry the bodies up to the tub to prevent too much transfer, but I didn’t want Matej to find any unpleasant surprises because I wasn’t thorough.
By the time I was done with that, my ears were ringing from the racket the fucking machine made, and I made my way back downstairs to get more supplies to start to work on the horror scene that was the bathroom, only to hear several voices where there should only have been two.
My gun was in my hand when I slowly moved down the stairs, only to find that Elio’s brothers had untangled themselves from whatever had them occupied earlier and had shown up for a briefing.
Gio was there, as I expected, but so was the next eldest. Ciro was tall like his brothers with the same swimmer’s build, brown hair, and dark eyes. He was always had dressed in a clean, expensive, but understated suit, unlike Elio’s willingness to wear bold colors or fabrics, and Gio’s style that kind of screamed ‘mobster’ to most people. He had the same brown hair and eyes. He had one dimple, but he never fucking smiled, so you didn’t get to see it.
If Gio was the more outgoing, social brother, and Elio was the edgy, alternative one, Ciro was the smart and standoffish one. He was the one who handled all the finances and shit like that.
“Gio, Ciro,” I said, tucking my gun away, so I could reach out to shake their hands.
“Sorry you had to be called in on this,” Gio said.
“It’s all connected to why I came to you in the first place,” I said, shrugging.
“Is Saylor here?” he asked, glancing around.
“She was. But she has a dog. She needed to get back to her.”
“If you want to get changed and head back, we can handle it from here,” Ciro said.
“It’s mostly done anyway,” Elio agreed.
“The bathroom,” I said to him, watching him wince at the memory.
“Got a change of clothes in the car,” Gio said. “I can handle it. You’ve done more than anyone could expect of you.”