Todos os capítulos de The Revenge of the Underboss’s Bride : Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

Vincent spread a paper map on the study desk like the city might behave if he stared at it hard enough. Pier 6 sat under his thumb. Warehouse roofs. Water line. A service road that looked harmless until you needed to leave it. “You walk from the east lot,” he said. “Not the main gate. Main gate has two cameras Costa already knows. East lot has one and it points at the dumpsters.” “I walk,” I said. “You are where?” “Warehouse two. Second floor window. Gio on the roof of warehouse one. Russo’s people on the water in a boat that looks like it has no business being there.” Vance sat in the armchair like the chair owed him rent. The wire case was open on his knee. “My people take the crane and the north roof,” Vance said. “If your people cross my sight lines I will assume they are Costa’s and I will treat them that way.” Vincent did not look up from the map. “Then keep your sight lines where you said they would be.” Elena stood by the window with her arms folded. She had sho

We left the estate at two. Dark clothes. Two cars. Russo in the second. Elena stayed behind with Carmine’s remaining detail because I did not trust the night with her in a moving box. Vincent drove without lights until the parkway. His profile looked cut out of the windshield. “Vance will have three vehicles,” he said. “Lead. Prisoner. Tail. If Costa’s leftover people hit, they will hit the middle and they will want confusion, not a clean kill. Confusion makes Julian valuable again.” “They will want me there,” I said. “A wife on the shoulder of a transfer road completes Julian’s painting.” “Which is why you stay in the car unless the middle vehicle opens.” “If the middle vehicle opens I am not staying in the car to watch him walk.” Vincent’s hands flexed on the wheel. “We are going to fight about this at two in the morning.” “We already fought. This is the short version.” He let out a breath. “If you leave the car you stay at my back, not his door.” “Fine.” We set

The annex hallway was too bright. It made everyone look guilty, even the clerks. Vincent stood at one end near a vending machine he did not use. I stood at the other with a file under my arm that contained nothing but dock copies and the need to have something in my hands. We did not look at each other often. That was the point. Julian arrived in a suit that did not belong to a man who had eaten asphalt six hours earlier. The bruise on his cheek had been powdered. Of course it had. His lawyer was a woman with expensive glasses and a voice like polished wood. Vance came out of a side door, saw us, and looked like he wanted a new job. He stopped beside me first, voice low. “You should not be here.” “Your building put his name on a list. I can read.” “The Suit,” Vance said, and I hated that he used the same word. “If you mean Deputy something from the sixth floor, I cannot talk about him in a hallway.” “Then talk about him in a room after this. Julian does not walk.” Van

The hostess knew Vincent’s face and pretended she did not. That was manners in this part of town. “Private room,” Vincent said. “Occupied.” “Then occupy the kitchen hallway and forget us.” She looked at my taped elbow and decided the kitchen hallway was a gift. Elena had been right. The Barolo shelf had a seam. Vincent found it with two fingers and did not open it yet. I went through the front like a woman meeting a man who had stolen her work. Reid sat at the back table with the case on the chair beside him. He had already ordered wine he was not drinking. When he saw me he did not stand. “Mrs. Moretti. I did not expect you to take a lunch invitation you were not given.” “You took my binders. That felt like an invitation.” I sat across from him. “Open the case.” “No.” A waiter hovered. I asked for water. Reid asked the waiter to come back never. “You made a speech in a courtroom,” Reid said. “That was colorful. It also told every ambitious person in the buildi

Vance read the motion in his office with the door locked. His face did the same thing it had done on the pier. Tired arithmetic. “This is Reid’s initial,” he said. “I can take this to internal and watch it vanish, or I can take it to the judge as evidence the government is speaking with two mouths.” “Judge,” I said. “Judge means I light a fire under my own building.” Vincent stood by the window. “Your building already sent a car to your plaza and a suit to my house. The fire is late.” Vance looked at me. “If I do this, Reid will go for the clinic first. Not because he needs the nurses. Because he needs you off balance.” “Then move my mother again,” I said. “Tonight. Different town. No clinic sign. I am done using her as a map.” “I can help with a clean ambulance and no record,” Vance said. “That is the last favor I dress up as procedure.” Vincent nodded. “Do it. Russo will meet the ambulance. I want two of my people in the back, not yours.” Vance did not like that. H