Chapter 8: The Doorman's Word

Adriano sent six men down to pier nine, and I stood at his office window and watched them go.

They crept along the fence in the dark with their lights off. Nobody on the Orsini boat fired, and nobody shouted.

By the time they climbed aboard, the deck was empty. The crew had left by the far side, in a rowboat.

On the dock, in the middle of the boards, someone had set a bunch of white lilies tied with black ribbon.

The card was addressed in neat handwriting. For the bride.

Adriano read it twice. He passed it to me without a word.

"I said yes in front of the whole household," I said. "Every captain and my family heard me."

"And a few guards."

"And nobody else."

"Somebody carried it here faster than a car could," he said.

I looked at the lilies and thought about a phone buzzing against a skirt.

I didn't say it. I didn't have anything but a feeling.

I drove home at three in the morning, and nobody was waiting up.

On Sunday, the council met in the long dining room at eleven.

The table had been cleared of plates. Twelve captains sat along it, and Ettore sat at the head with his stick across his knees.

Massimo stood on his father's right. Bianca sat near the door in a gray dress, with her hands in her lap.

I stood alone at the foot, in my exam jacket.

Outside, past the tall windows, I could see the gate. At a quarter to twelve, a gray car pulled up beside it and stopped.

Ettore struck the floor once with his stick, and the room went quiet.

"One matter," he said. "Livia Ardenti has accepted an offer from the head of the Corvi family. Massimo has objected. Let him say why."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Let Me Die for Her, So I Refused His Ring from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.