Chapter 18: Overruled

Domenico drove us back to Newark at four in the morning without saying a word.

His men were on every corner of the street, and the porch light was on.

In the front hall I stood still while he took my coat off my shoulders, and I let him.

Daniele's blood had dried stiff on the green dress, and it had gone through to my skin.

"I'll run the water," Domenico said.

"I read your letter."

He stopped with his hand on the banister.

"Twice for the deed, once for the line," I said. "You wrote it three times."

"Four."

"I'm not keeping the docks because you're sorry."

"You're keeping them because they're yours."

"I'm still angry that you sat on it all day."

"I know."

"Say the rest."

"I should have told you at the door of that kitchen." He did not move.

"From now on I tell you the moment I know. That's all I've got."

I looked at him in the dim hall, with his bandage and his split lip and his scraped wrists.

"Rule three," I said.

"Rule three," he said quietly. "Say the word, Cara, and I go downstairs and sleep on the couch."

"You'd do it, too."

"I would."

I crossed the hall and put my hand flat over his heart.

"Overruled," I said.

He made a rough sound in his throat and kissed me.

It was not careful this time.

His good hand was in my hair and my back was against the wall before I had breathed.

I pulled at his coat until it fell.

He never ran the water.

We went up the stairs with his mouth on my neck and my fingers at his belt.

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