Chapter 19: The Seat

In the corridor outside room fourteen, at seven the next morning, Javier took Dante's collar in one fist.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"My family's table. At ten."

"Wearing that?"

Dante had put on a black suit for the first time in a month.

It sat on his shoulders as if it had been waiting for him.

"Today I'm wearing it," he said.

Javier studied him, and straightened his tie with two quick, sure pulls.

"Come back," he said.

"I will."

"I have a ward shift at the teaching hospital downtown. I'll be on the bus at nine."

"I'll text when I'm on the ward." His thumb brushed Dante's jaw. "That's me telling you."

"Thank you for telling me."

"Go. Be a menace."

Dante went.

The long table at the estate was set for twelve.

Rodrick sat in his usual chair, in a gray suit, with a glass of water at his hand.

He rose smiling.

"Cousin. You've dressed for the occasion."

"Sit down," Dante said.

Maria did not stand.

She sat in his father's chair with the pearls at her throat, and she lifted one finger.

Two of her men brought in the prisoners from the cellar.

They were not gentle about it.

The first was the man with a broken wrist from the pier.

The second was one of the masked men from the campus lab, with a bruise across half his face.

The elders stared.

The old man with the cane leaned forward on it.

"Tell the table," Dante said, "who paid you."

"He won't," Rodrick said gently. "These are desperate men. They'll say anything to keep their hands."

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