The Mob Boss Said My Father Owed Him a Life, So He Took Mine to Keep novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: First Snow
The first snow came on a Thursday in the middle of November.
I stood at the foot of the ramp on the 9:15 boat with my badge on my lanyard and my punch in my hand.
The captain had given the badge back the morning after the Sunday table.
He had stood at the gangway with both hands still in casts and the badge hooked on his thumb.
He couldn't say anything, because of the wire.
I put it over my head and said, "Thank you for keeping it warm."
He nodded, and his eyes went bright.
The flakes were fat and slow, and they came down through the sodium lights.
They settled on the rail and the dock and the shoulders of the walk-ons.
I said "Watch your step" to a woman with a stroller.
I said it to two boys carrying a Christmas tree.
I said it to a man in a dark wool overcoat with snow in his black hair, who stood at the foot of the ramp with a paper ticket held out in his hand.
I looked up.
His eyes were the flat gray of the water, and they were smiling.
"That's a one-way to Jamestown," Rocco said.
"Adult fare."
"Is it?" I said.
I took the ticket.
My fingers were not entirely steady, and I punched it, and the little hole went through the paper.
The deckhand beside me, the twenty-year-old who eats his lunch on the rail, had gone red to the ears.
He looked at me, and at the man, and made a strangled noise.
"Boss," he whispered.
"I mean, sir.
"I mean, it's a pleasure."
"It's a boat," Rocco said, mildly.
"I'd like to ride it."
I handed him the ticket stub.
"Step aboard," I said.
"Mind the gap."
He stepped over it, one long leg, and the metal of the ramp rang.
He did not touch me.
He walked past with an inch of cold air between his sleeve and mine, and I breathed in wool and snow and dark clean soap.
I had known that exact inch since the first night.
I knew it would not be an inch for much longer.
I worked the whole boat.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Mob Boss Said My Father Owed Him a Life, So He Took Mine to Keep are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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