a

sharpness of bleach and the damp-wool smell of the carpet. I sat cross-legged on the lumpy

f expenses from the previous year, c

ousand-dolla

ctly to Dante's private account the week the Russian Brat

for securing a secondar

m, and logged into the Famiglia's secure banking portal, usin

numbers for that eig

touched a holding

the funds to a shell real

er, finalized the purchase of a lux

vigated to Serena Bianchi's

lights of Central Park scattered like jewels bel

und her neck that made the air in my lungs

or Dante two winters ago, a shield t

ed to constrict, as if the air itself w

my own money, the very funds meant to pro

te crime, a debt beyond the blood money I had

numb and clumsy, tapp

t ring completed. "Eva. Hav

I said, my voice a flat, sterile thi

ely perplexed. "What in God'

hanging. "You used my money to purchase a penthouse for S

s? Have you become some kind of bookkeeper, Eva? It is fa

eed a penthouse for you

shattering echoed through the receiver. "I am the Don! I make the

the only relationship

email notification chi

s, heavily encrypted address

I comman

en. There was no text, o

reath and p

ork armory flickered to life. The timestamp in the lowe

His hands were tangled in the pale mass of her hair. He was kissing her with a deep, desperate

t took my brain a full three seconds to reassemble

ber

the Chicago safe

t in my left shoulder while dragg

or four hours, waiting for the undergroun

ne, my voice hollowed out, s

ped, his breath

ight of October 14th, th

silence stretche

e finally said, his voice sudden

g you a file

deo to a text mes

faint, tinny sound of the video playing on his end, a ghost of his own betra

voice fracturing completely.

said with absolute finality.

he back from the cheap burne

nd wrote, in precise black ink: "Embezz

hundred and forty-seven thousand,

ven years of loyalty, reduced to a single su

, a mistress in his bed, and not a single moment of his honesty. He thought the worst was over. But the reckoning hadn't even begun. I was