Pipe Burst Guest novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Between Her and the Door

Nico's POV

I put my gun on the carpet and set my shoe over it before the first officer reached the table.

Then I kicked it under the long skirt of the head table, where nobody would find it until the staff did the vacuuming.

Tullio's three captains were the problem.

They had voted for the petition, they had followed him for fifteen years, and now he lay on the floor with his shirt going dark.

One of them, a heavy man with a ring on every finger, stood very still with his right hand inside his coat.

I stepped sideways until I was in front of Marisa.

"Don't," I said to him.

"Stay out of this, Camden."

"I'd love to." I kept my voice light. "But there are eight policemen in this room and a woman behind me who owns the roof over your head."

His eyes went to the uniforms, then to me, then to the three captains who had stayed seated and had not moved.

He took his hand out of his coat, empty.

"Smart," I said.

The two men beside him sat down.

Behind me, Marisa leaned her forehead against my back for one moment and straightened.

An officer in a white shirt went to Cesare.

Cesare gave him the pistol by the barrel, with his other hand open.

"It's mine," he said. "I shot him. Nobody else touched it."

"Sir, you have the right to remain silent."

"I know what I have."

They cuffed him in front, and he held out his wrists without being asked.

The captains watched in silence.

I had known men who were hauled out of rooms like this, shouting, or with their jackets over their heads.

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