Chapter 9: The Empty Safe

Ettore's POV

I left her asleep in my bed for twenty minutes, and it was the longest twenty minutes I've ever spent away from her.

She had finally dropped off at nine, after she'd cried and eaten a piece of toast and told me she was fine.

I wrote a note and left it under the salt shaker.

Back in two hours. Don't open the door. Not for anyone.

Then I locked her in and went down the steel stairs two at a time.

I drove to Bay Ridge with the radio off.

The house on the corner of Seventy-Fifth had a Falcone car parked across the street and a man in it eating a sandwich.

I went in through the kitchen, the way I had every morning for fourteen years.

The cook looked up from the sink.

"They're in the study," she said. "He's got a lawyer with him and three of the old ones."

"Who?"

"The cousin."

"I don't need him. I need the chapel."

She dried her hands on her apron and looked at me for a second.

"She's all right?"

"She's asleep."

"Good." She nodded toward the back hall. "Go on."

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