Arranged to the Don, Freed from the Lie novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Stable

Santino's POV

I found him in the east stables, with his back to a stall door and a pistol in his hand.

It was a small old revolver, the kind a man keeps in a tack room drawer for a day like this.

Harrison had not even closed the drawer.

"That's far enough," he said.

I stopped ten feet away.

The stable smelled of hay and oiled leather, and a horse shifted in the dark behind him.

"Put it down, Harrison."

"You bought the Providence note." His voice came out high and fast. "Don't deny it. He told me himself, on the drive, with his hand on his watch. Two million, at six o'clock this morning."

"At six."

"So his money is yours now. And he's waiting at the end of this road for a Crowninshield to hold."

"He is."

"So you'll want to keep him sweet." He wet his lips. "You'll give me your car and an hour's lead, and I'll leave you the whole sorry family."

I looked at his hand.

It was shaking, and the muzzle drifted to my chest and away again.

I had been shot at twice, at twenty-six and again at thirty-one.

I knew what a steady hand looked like, and this was not one.

"You taped a girl's mouth," I said.

"She wouldn't have come quietly."

"You put her in a car with a stranger."

"I did what my father told me."

"Your father tells you what to do, and you do it to women who can't stop you."

The gun came up level.

"Say that again."

Behind me the stable door scraped.

I did not turn my head, but I knew the step.

I had known it for two years, in corridors and elevators, coming toward me at the end of the day.

Harrison saw her, and his face lit with something ugly.

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