The Butcher and His Boy

THE BUTCHER AND HIS BOY NIGHTINGALE COMPANION NOVELLA LAURA LASCARSO Published by Laura Lascarso www.lauralascarso.com This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The Butcher and His Boy First Edition: © 2023 Laura Lascarso Cover Art by Cormar Covers Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model. All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Laura Lascarso via lauralascarso.com. DESCRIPTION Known only as the Butcher, John’s “special deliveries” usually arrive at his doorstep already deceased. But when a young man is brought to him, brutally injured and barely clinging to life, John bucks the Hand’s authority in order to save him. If he can keep the boy a secret from the criminal empire, he might be able to keep him out of harm’s way. Bayani has no idea how he wound up in this apartment, woken to the tender care of a handsome stranger. Equal parts terrified and intrigued, Bayani must learn to navigate new surroundings, as well as his burgeoning feelings for his strong and capable caretaker…all while being hunted by his ruthless and sadistic ex who wants him back, dead or alive. THE BUTCHER AND HIS BOY is a 35K companion novella to a previous published work, NIGHTINGALE, as part of the Virtuous Sinners multi-author series. They can be read separately and in any order. Trigger warnings for depictions of violence and flashbacks of abuse, torture, and sexual assault. This slow-burn, age-gap romance explores the theme of hurt/comfort and culminates in a happy ending. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 A Year Later Nightingale The Virtuous Sinners Series Books by Laura Lascarso About the Author 1 JOHN It’s the middle of the night when John gets the call. Resigned to answer, he rubs the grit from his eyes, already dreading the long night ahead of him. “It’s the Butcher,” he says gruffly. He doesn’t use his real name because a call at this hour can only mean one thing. “Special delivery,” says the voice on the other end, velvety and low, one of Matthieu’s son’s, he thinks, though John cannot say for certain which one. They all sound like their father, slick and seductive, oozing a quaint Southern charm to mask the cruelty underneath. Most “deliveries” are prearranged, so that John can prepare for their arrival. A call like this means someone—most likely the man on the line—has indulged in some spontaneous blood sport. “I’ll be down in ten,” John says. “Make it five,” the man replies before ending the call. John groans into the silent room. He’s got to get out of this arrangement, and soon. His spirit grows heavier with every job, and it was never very light to begin with. His sole companion in life, a black cat named Miss Priss, gazes back at him with yellow eyes and flicks her tail in passive agreement. Donning a fresh set of coveralls along with his rubber-soled boots, John shuffles downstairs in the near-dark from his upstairs apartment to the butcher’s shop below. The ground floor contains the storefront, a meat locker, a walk-in freezer, and a tiny office used mainly for bookkeeping. The subfloor is where the more delicate jobs are handled, behind a padlocked door with only one key. He grabs the wheelbarrow with both hands and steers it down the ramp to the alleyway behind the building, unlocks the door and wedges a block of wood underneath it to keep it open. The night is humid and John inhales deeply, smelling urine, sewage, and days-old trash, as well as the fainter scents of the gulf and the dank muck from the nearby coastal marshes. John is familiar with the aromas of his home in Gulfport, Mississippi just as he became accustomed to that of body odor in the barracks and gunpowder in the field. Some of the IEDs smelled like marzipan, which always surprised him, how something so deadly could smell so sweet. The scent of blood and viscera used to turn his stomach as a boy. Now, his constitution is iron cast. It’s a marvel, he thinks, man’s ability to adapt. The alley behind the butcher shop is not frequented by pedestrians, especially not at this hour. Only the stray cats who’ve grown used to John’s scraps slink around here at night and nefarious individuals like the one who stands before him now. Matthieu’s eldest, Emile Fournier, lounges against the side of his silver Maserati smoking a cigarette while one of his henchmen pops open the trunk of his car. The henchman hauls what can only be a dead body out of the vehicle’s tiny hatch. Wrapped tightly in blood-stained sheets, the body is thrown casually over one shoulder. The size of the bundle and relative ease with which the man handles it can only mean one thing. “I don’t do children,” John tells Emile and crosses his thick, muscular arms to make his point known. There are lines he won’t cross, and this is one of them. “This isn’t a child,” Emile says, holding John’s gaze in a power play he’ll likely win. His eyes are