Pipe Burst Guest novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: House Rules

"My husband is in love with my best friend," I said. "They've been together three years, and I just heard it with my own ears."

Nico Varrone did not look surprised.

"And you want the family he took from your father," he said.

"I want all of it. The docks, the hotel, the trucks, the restaurants."

"And the woman?"

"I want her to stand in the room and watch me take it."

He nodded slowly.

"Good," he said. "A woman who wants revenge and says so is easier to work with than one who says she wants peace."

"Then we agree."

"We haven't agreed to anything yet."

He held out his right hand to the lamp.

There was a long cut across the heel of it, still beading blood.

"I ran my hand along the cut pipe in 502," he said. "I wanted to know what your plumber used."

"And?"

"A good blade, and a bad edge on the last inch."

I went to the bathroom and came back with the hotel's first aid box.

"Sit," I said.

He sat on the arm of the sofa, and I knelt in front of him with the box open on the cushion.

"House rules," I said, because someone had to say something.

"Go on."

"You're a guest in my hotel until the Commission meets. Nobody carries a weapon through the lobby."

"Agreed."

"You sleep in the second bedroom."

"I've seen the second bedroom. It has a very good lock."

"And nobody touches anybody," I said.

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