Lethal Love novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: Hemmed Short

I stood up with the magnet in my hand.

A pin was still stuck to it, quivering.

"We do hems," I said.

"Beautiful."

Gennaro unzipped the garment bag and held up a navy suit with a chalk stripe. "My best one."

He smoothed the lapel. "For my little cousin's birthday feast next month. Matty. You heard about Matty?"

"I heard."

"Terrible thing." He touched the gold cross. "Twenty-four. A baby."

He stepped out of his shoes and into the trousers right there behind the half-open curtain, unbothered.

I knelt and took the tape from around my neck.

My hands were cold.

"Inch and a quarter off," he said. "I like a little break on the shoe."

"Stand still, please."

"Look at you. A professional." He smiled down at me. "Dom said you were serious."

I pinned the left leg.

"He talks about you," Gennaro said. "You know that? He never talks."

He shook his head. "Since Matty, the kid doesn't say ten words a day. Now it's Jemma this, Jemma eats crackers."

"Turn, please."

He turned.

"Nice shop." He looked around the booth curtain at the machines and the window. "Old. Real. You don't see places like this anymore. Your grandmother's?"

"Yes."

"Forty years, I heard."

"Forty-one."

"And now Halsted's throwing her out." He clicked his tongue. "A shame. The block's going condos. That's progress, I guess."

I stopped pinning.

I hadn't told Dom about the notice.

I hadn't told anyone but the ladies.

"How do you know about our lease?" I said.

"Kid, I know about every lease from here to Coney Island. It's Brooklyn."

He patted my head, once.

"Listen. Halsted's girl, Oakley. Stay away from that one. Her people are trouble."

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