Chapter 19: Ines

Rocco had his coat on and his gun in his belt before I finished reading the card.

"No," I said.

"Livia."

"He wants me alone. It says so on the back."

I turned the card over, and Silvio's slanting hand said it plainly: No Rocco, no men, no phone.

"Then I'll go in your place."

"He doesn't want you. He wants me at his table and you outside, so he can show me what's missing."

Rocco's jaw worked.

His face had gone the color of the plaster behind him, and I saw the fight in it.

I crossed the kitchen and put my palm flat on his chest.

"Six years ago a man decided what was good for me," I said. "I never want it again. Not from you."

"I'm not him."

"I know. That's why I'm asking you to hear it."

He stood quiet a long time.

"Tell me what you need," he said at last.

"Stay at the end of the road. If I'm not out by sunrise, you can come in and do whatever you like."

"Sunrise is a long time."

"Then you'd better wait well."

He put his forehead against mine, and his breath shook.

"Take the petition," he said.

"Why?"

"Because it's the only thing he wants. It buys you a minute to think."

I folded it into my handbag next to the register.

I kissed him once, hard, and walked out to the car.

Silvio's house stood on a hill in Roland Park, behind a brick wall with a gate that opened before I rang.

A man in a black coat took my bag and looked through it. He took out the petition and handed it back.

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