Chapter 17: The Docks

The shot cracked across the water and Jake folded.

He sat down on the planks with both hands pressed to his side, and he looked at me with a stupid, surprised face.

"Oh," he said. "That's a lot."

"Jake!"

"Don't. Don't come. He's going to."

The big man swung the pistol back toward me.

Behind him, Remo stamped down on the man's instep with all his weight.

Then Remo threw his skull backward into the big man's nose.

The pistol went off a second time, into the sky, and Remo's bound hands closed over the man's wrist.

"Lucia, run!"

I did not run.

I took the ledger out of Silvio's arms.

It was easy, because he was staring at his bodyguard, and I tore it from him and flung it as far as I could out into the black water.

It hit with a flat slap.

"Cara," Silvio said, in a stunned voice. "What have you done?"

"I gave you what you asked for."

Headlights came down the length of the pier, high and white.

Bianca had gone for her car the moment the shirt was mentioned, and now she drove it straight down the planks with her hand on the horn.

Behind her, a second pair of lights, and a third.

Two more black Pesaro cars fanned out beside hers, and men in dark coats climbed out of them with guns.

I saw the oldest captain with the gold crucifix.

I saw the one who had stood beside him at the hospital, with his hand inside his jacket.

Bianca had called them from the road.

She had said one sentence, she told me later: "Silvio Ruzzo has Lucia on the pier."

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