Chapter 20: The Pledge

I put my hand over the pen and slid it back across the cloth to Silvio.

"Not here," I said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You want me to sign a paper in your dining room, with your wine and your maid."

I glanced at the corner.

"And a man you've beaten as a witness."

I glanced at Thurston, who flinched.

"If I sign in the dark, nobody will believe I did it freely," I said. "Not the capos. Not me."

"What do you propose?"

"The club. Dawn. All the families at the long table."

Silvio set down his fork.

"You want to sign in front of them."

"I want you to promise in front of them," I said. "Zia goes home. Thurston goes home."

"And?"

"Nobody touches my husband while I'm alive or after. You say it aloud, with your hand on my father's chair."

"Why would I?"

"Because you'll have what you want."

He studied me for a long time. The chandelier clinked, very softly, over our heads.

"You are your father's daughter," he said, and I couldn't tell whether it was an insult.

He pushed back his chair.

"Dawn," he said. "Bring the paper."

The back room of the Social Club was dim and cold, and it smelled of coffee and old smoke.

They had come at his call, all eleven of them, and they sat in the leather chairs looking at one another.

Zia Ines was in the corner with a blanket around her, untied now, with a guard on either side.

Thurston stood against the wall in his white shirt.

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