Chapter 9: Dock Lights

I asked Remo what Cesare had meant, and he said it would keep until morning.

We drove back to the boathouse in silence, and I carried the heavy bracelet in my fist the whole way.

I did not feel victorious.

I felt tired and sick.

In the loft, I sat on the cot with my shoes still on and began to shake.

It started in my hands and went up my arms.

I could not stop it.

"It's the adrenaline coming down," Remo said from the stair. "Give it a minute."

"It's been ten."

"Then give it ten more."

My teeth were chattering, and I was angry about that, because it reminded me of the lake.

He crossed the room and took the wool blanket off the end of the cot.

He did not put it around me.

He held it out.

"I'm asking," I said. "Put it on me."

He draped it over my shoulders, and then, because I was still shaking, he rested both hands on my upper arms through the wool and held on.

They were big hands, and they were very warm.

"Breathe," he said. "Slower. In through the nose."

I breathed.

Little by little the shaking eased.

His thumbs moved once along my arms and stopped.

I could hear him breathing too.

It was not as even as he wanted it to be.

I should have looked away.

Instead I looked at his mouth, and I heard him say my name, low, no longer a title.

"Silvia."

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