Chapter 19: Both Bluffing

I put Bianca in a cab with four of the Don's men and Molly, and I walked back alone.

It took me six minutes.

The Lupo captains were still in the yard, smoking in the porch light, and not one of them stopped me.

I went up the steps and through the kitchen.

In the front room, Rocco sat in a leather chair with a drink in his hand.

Sandro knelt on the rug in front of him.

His hands were tied behind his back, his lip was split, and one eye had begun to close.

When he saw me, he shut the good one.

"Don't," he said.

"Mrs. Vannozzi," said Rocco, delighted. "You came back. Where's the sister?"

"Home. With her father's men around her."

"And you?"

"I came to make you an offer, in front of your captains."

I turned to the doorway.

They had crowded in behind me, the men from the hedge, big and quiet in their dark coats.

"The drive you took tonight is blank," I said. "Look at the label. It's the wrong plastic."

Rocco's driver, with the dried blood on his eyebrow, put the case on the table.

Rocco opened it and looked a long time.

"Where's the real one?"

"In a place that opens at six tomorrow morning, unless I phone a number by then."

I lifted my chin.

"Along with a photograph of a letter in the dead heir's hand, selling the Don's daughter to you for Easter."

I watched it go through the room.

"That's a lie," said Rocco.

"Which part? The boat?" I said. "You said it on the phone this afternoon, and Molly heard you."

I looked at the captains.

"Ask whether a man who plans to ship the Don's daughter out of Revere in the dark was ever going to sit down with the Don and eat."

A big gray-haired captain at the front took the cigar out of his mouth.

"Boss," he said.

"Don't."

"I put my name on this peace, and my son's."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Married the Mafia Heir to Bury My Secret from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.