Death Bliss
I think of the oath I swore at this grave with blood on the stone and a priest as witness, and I think of the authorization code in violet ink with the initial T, and I understand that the vengeance I wanted would have made me the same thing as the man who signed the order.
I stand. I turn away from the grave. Serafina is still waiting at the edge of the grove, her hand now empty at her side, her eyes on my face.
"Walk back with me," I say.
She falls into step beside me without a word. We cross the grove together, past the olive trees and the dry earth and the place where the bullet came from an hour ago, and we walk through the gate into the courtyard where three capos are dead on the stone