Don, I Left as You Wished novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: Leverage

Nobody in the office breathed.

The bookish capo took off his glasses and folded them, very slowly.

I couldn't stop looking at the screen.

The ring was somewhere underneath us on the drain.

It had been the first good night of my life in that pool, and Tullio was holding it in his palm.

"Sweetheart," Tullio said to me, kindly. "Give us the room."

"She stays," Santo said.

"Then I go straight from here to every family in this city. I'd rather talk to the Don first. As a courtesy." He spread his hands. "Your father and I always did each other courtesies."

Santo looked at me.

I knew what he was asking. I hated that I knew.

"Roz," he said. "Wait downstairs."

I picked up my bag.

I made myself walk past Tullio slowly.

He leaned in as I went, and his mustache brushed my ear.

"You always did swim like a fish," he said. "Your mother must be so proud."

I went down the metal stairs with my knees shaking and sat in my car in the lot.

From there I could see the glass wall of the office.

Two men, one sitting, one standing.

Tullio talked. Santo didn't.

It took barely ten minutes, but it felt much longer.

Then Tullio came down the stairs, heavy and slow, and got into his silver car without looking at me.

Santo didn't come down for a long time.

When he did, he walked straight past my car to the big driver and said something short.

The driver nodded and left fast, alone, toward the bridge.

Then Santo got into my passenger seat and shut the door.

"Not here," he said, before I could open my mouth. "Drive."

I drove.

He didn't talk on the expressway. He didn't talk up Todt Hill.

At the bottom of the long gravel drive he said, "Stop."

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