Chapter 16: Thirty Days

"That's me," Mauro said.

He didn't sit back down.

He didn't reach for anything.

He put his napkin on the table and held his hands out in front of him, wrists together.

Maybe he had.

The agent in front read him something off a card.

Conspiracy.

The waterfront.

The words went over the table.

The cuffs clicked.

Then the agent turned to the others.

She read five more names off the same card.

The capo with the pinky ring.

The young one from the church steps.

Three more.

Every man who had just stood up and said sorry to me.

Every name on the list in my closet.

They went quietly.

The capo's napkin was still tucked into his collar.

An agent pulled it out for him and dropped it on his plate.

Sergio sat where he was with his wine in his hand.

Nobody read him anything.

"I'll call the lawyer, kid," he said. "Don't say a word to these people."

Mauro looked at him over the agent's shoulder.

He didn't answer.

He looked at me instead.

"Lock the shop," he said. "Lock the storage room. Don't open the alley door for anybody."

"Mauro."

"Go home, Giada."

They walked him down the hall past the coat room.

Out the front door, down the steps, into the back of a gray car with the lights going.

The neighbors were on their lawns in their slippers.

Gabriella had her face in her hands at the window.

Her shoulders were shaking.

When she lowered her hands, her eyes were dry.

I went back into the dining room for my purse.

Sergio had moved.

He was in Mauro's chair at the head of the table.

He'd pulled Mauro's plate away and set his own in front of him.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Don, Your Regret Can't Keep Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.