Chapter 19: The Table Is Set

The dinner was laid in the third warehouse, under strings of yellow lamps.

Twelve long tables ran down the concrete floor.

Santoro captains sat on one side and Corvi men on the other.

The white cloths were already stained with wine.

I sat at the head table in a dark blue dress, between Adriano and Ettore.

Under the cloth, Adriano's hand lay on my knee, and it had not moved in an hour.

At five to nine, the band stopped playing.

Nobody had told them to.

The drummer put down his sticks and walked out through the side door, and the clarinetist went after him.

Ettore did not turn his head.

"They were paid in advance," Adriano said, very low. "Silvio's men bought the band."

"Then it begins."

At nine exactly, the wide doors at the water end of the warehouse slid open.

Eight men came in with their hands showing and their coats open.

They were smiling.

The one in front was thick through the shoulders.

The left side of his head was a smooth pink scar where an ear should have been.

I knew him. I had last seen him over a dead guard on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk.

"Gentlemen," he said. "Don Santoro. We're here to bless the engagement."

"You're early," Ettore said.

"We're on time. We always are."

He raised one hand.

The men behind him reached under their coats at the same instant.

I stood up so fast that my chair went over.

"Down!" Adriano shouted.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Let Me Die for Her, So I Refused His Ring from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.