l Sto

me, the calculation behind his dead eyes shifting like silt in murky water. The doctor

low, a rumble of thunder before the strike. "If you're lying, the pain

t my ribs like a trapped bird, but I forced my voice to remain steady. "If you kill the heir to the C

r world, blood was currency, but power was law

er him a way out that didn't look like weakness. "I'll let t

. "You're in no positi

holicism that every mobster clung to. "Let me go to my mother's grave. Let me ask he

ctly. Hugo looked from her to me, then spat on the floor. He p

your sudden piety amusing. He says you can say your goodbyes to

and suffocating silence. When the car stopped, the darkness of the Bron

and grounding. We marched past rows of silent angels and marbl

ing. The grief was real, a heavy stone

at Hugo. "The stone is dirty

chin toward a dilapidated wooden shed near the pe

We stumbled toward the shed. The moment we stepped inside,

ed, her eyes wide with t

," I h

rner. I struck a match from the box on the shelf and dropped it. The fumes caught ins

, her voice shrill and

s head snap toward us. The sudden blaze

I com

o shouted a curse. The crackling of the fire masked the sound of our footsteps on the w

rvation and the life growing inside me. Arlene

ip in the terrain, a ravine th

the edge when a heavy h

rd. Hugo loomed over me, his face twisted in a mask of pur

led, drawing a serrated com

sed th

N

lene. She threw her entire weight against th

terrifying speed, his arm lashing out. The sound

shoved her off his blade, and she crumpled

rieked, scramb

onto his pant leg. He looked down at Arlene's twit

s a bitch,

b, but the wail of sirens cut through the

He couldn't be found here with a dead body and a Don's daughter. He gave m

d from her lips, dark and fast. H

er hand tightening on my wrist

Arlene,

ly person who had ev

dn't be found. Not by the police, who

't come. Instead, a cold, hard knot formed in the center of my chest,

d silently to the wet eart

I had to