na

me at the threshold the moment I pushe

, like old pennies lef

opping my keys on the g

royed. The wooden dining

urtains being torn by the wind, lashing aga

he balcony, my cane clic

n my stomach as I loo

ng concrete of the Chicago streets, a

neath it, a dark pool of cr

dicate's wrath. Or perhaps she ha

ad ju

to ring, a shrill, piercin

ked i

sidence?" a sterile,

I bre

ella Rossi. He explicitly refused to claim them. If someone does not sig

and clattered against the wal

ay, featureless blur. Exactly two hours

against my chest, a pathetic substitute for the

ody of my grief,

ty, heavy sheets of freezing rain that s

p, a violent tremor seizing my spine as

ing of a closed bakery, a meag

f a high-end restaurant swung open, casting a

steppe

four massive Syn

inst his side, laughing

a large bla

ensive dress from a single drop of water, allowing the

y mother's ashes, the rain plasteri

urned h

and for a moment the roar of the traffic and the drumming of th

s. His gaze fell, lingering o

gaze. She wrinkled her nose. "Is that

did no

sk of pure ice, an expressi

ern of ours," Dante said, his

of the rain, loud and cruel, a

f Serafina's back and guided he

uddle, sending a wave of dirty water wa

rse brick wall and sli

nees and sobbed until my

k into my apartment build

by the door, a hulki

f-empty bottl

e bloodshot

Lorenzo slurred, l

aid, my voice a hollow t

torted into a mask

ung h

nst my jaw, the impact snapping my head

w bac

med against

urn dropped,

illed across the dirt

my house!" Lorenzo roared, and hi

s the air was driven from my lu

of my wet jacket and dragg

threw me down the first

mming the heavy fire door shut and locking

stellation of pain, staring as the gray d

. I dragged myself up the stairs and loo

enthouse building where the Falcone family lived-a t

reaked pane, I saw

not

red if I died toni

nd stumbled across the street, pushing past his

Dante's wet, expensive suit. "Why are yo

bloody, trembling hand

th a force that felt as if it might tear the bon

ned in

bacco on his breath, a clean scent again

smile that did not reach

ther was sleepin

-

ant

s slid shut behind m

r standing in the rain with my mother's words still burning in my ears, I

s I passed. I nodded back. The world continued to function.

vacy between the lobby and the penthou

as sleeping wi

atched the light drain from her eyes, watched her stumble backward as if

t was the a

ots of Isabella Rossi on her knees in the Don's private office. "The Families are calling for a blood price," she'd said,

nothing to d

hirty years in the Syndicate by feeling nothing. "If you care about her at all, you will make her hate you. Public

For three day

note slipped under my door: *The Rossi girl has pretty

note and memori

si was nothing to me. I'd let Serafina drape herself over me like a trophy. I'd watched Elen

uring rain, I'd told her the

ther was sleepin

amily's operations for him. That Isabella Rossi was a spy. That the entire Rossi bloodline was now marked for extermination. That the only thing

leave her alone. If they saw me destroy her,

the Mafia. That was t

. I walked into the penth

ty where Elena was probably still standing in the rain, clutching her mother

ist throug

my wrist in hot, steady rivulets, and I welcomed the pai

ted her destroyed. I would play the monster so convincingly that even

as Don and no one could question my decisions-I would find her. I would kneel at her

reckage of my own wall, and I allowed myself exactly

y se

mask went

-