Chapter 7: Over the Wall

Santo's POV

At two in the morning I was in the study with the lights off, watching the east wall on a monitor.

I'd told Moira the gate was closed to Giacomo's men.

I hadn't told her that walls are only closed to men who respect them.

The first one came over at ten past two.

He dropped into the flower bed with a soft grunt and crouched there, waiting for the second.

I watched both of them cross the lawn toward the kitchen door.

They weren't carrying guns.

That told me what Giacomo wanted.

He didn't want her dead. He wanted a woman and a baby carried out through a back door, and a story to go with it.

I went out through the garden doors and stood on the patio in my shirtsleeves.

"Evening," I said.

The nearer man jumped.

He was big and young, and he reached under his jacket, then stopped, because I was already close.

I took his wrist and turned it until the bone gave.

He made a thin high noise.

The second man ran at me, and I hit him once in the face, and then again in the same place.

He sat down on the grass.

I picked up the first one by his collar and held him where the light from the kitchen window fell on his face.

"Tell Giacomo something for me," I said. "Tell him my gate is open to anyone who knocks."

He stared at me.

"The wall is not open," I said. "Next time, use the gate."

They went back over the wall, one of them carrying the other.

I stood in the garden and flexed my right hand.

The knuckles were split open.

When I looked up, Moira was at the nursery window on the second floor with Daisy against her shoulder.

She had been watching the whole time.

I raised my hand to her. She didn't wave back.

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