He Died for His Lover, Then Returned to Win His Trust novel · Chapter 40 of 40
Chapter 40: The Path of Light
The envelope lay on Javier's kitchen table in the morning light, unopened, between two cups of coffee.
Dante had made the coffee.
It was black, no sugar, in the chipped white mug with the blue stripe, and Javier had taken the other.
"You read it," Javier said.
"I waited for you."
Javier slit the flap with a butter knife and unfolded one cream sheet.
The handwriting was slanting and elegant.
The terms are kept.
Harbor wall, east end, at dusk.
Bring your husband.
Do not bring a gun, Don Rossi. A.
"A," Javier said.
"Asmodeus. He signs everything."
"Do you want to go?"
"I want you to decide," Dante said.
Javier looked at him over the rim of the cup, and smiled slowly.
"We're going. I have a patient to thank."
They came to the east wall of the harbor at the hour when the sun lies flat on the water.
The tide was out, and the fishing boats leaned on their sides in the mud.
At the very end of the wall sat two men on a bench, with a paper bag of pastries between them.
One was tall, in a coat the color of wine, with dark, amused eyes.
The other was a boy of about seventeen in a tourist's cap and a white coat two sizes too big, with hair the color of a candle flame, licking sugar off his thumb.
"You came," the boy said, jumping up.
Up close, the thin gold band of light was clear on the back of his neck.
It was bright, and whole, and it did not flicker.
Javier stopped three steps away.
"You were under the bridge," he said. "In the rain. I told you to keep your arm still."
"Yes!"
"I never asked what you were."
"You didn't." The boy's face crumpled and cleared. "That's why I came. Nobody else stopped, and you didn't ask for anything. I wanted to say thank you properly, with the wing mended."
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