FRACTURED OATH

AN'

that refused to leave. I'd thought about renovating after he died. Ripping out the dark wood panels. Burning the b

was dying

grandfather bought this land with blood money. My father expanded it with more of the same. Now it was m

ut a knock. Only one

ing again," J

think

g, differe

d, silver hair, eyes that had seen three generations of Moretti men make the same mistak

le is awake

kno

his subclavian artery. Another minute a

rom the wi

desk. Manila. Thick. A photogr

k it up. "Wh

nt Jude's Memorial Hospital. Eight years in the ER. No criminal record.

l asking for h

t. But you

ne. He helped himself anyway, crossing to the d

hair. "They hit another shipment last night. That's how Marco got shot.

r. Losing him wouldn't

million. And the Russians are e

whiskey. It burned going

weak

e unma

m disuse. "Marriage is a weakness. Attachments are a

. "The Volkovs are painting you as a thug, Dylan. A young, reckless thug with no roots, no family, nothing to lose. That makes you unpredictable

ipped to the front showed a woman in blue scrubs. Da

me to marr

"Her brother owes fifty thousand to the Vasquez operatio

ring and a contract? This is

e debts get collected. And

pul

a living. Imagine what the press will do with that. The billionaire

face stared up at me from a driver's licens

r mother's

Astoria. The nurse is drowning in medical bills. She's two

o sweep in, pay her debts, and she'll b

he used when he was being the consigliere instead of the man who taught me to shave. "Her

f she

ses his knees. And she goes back to her seventy-h

or of her eyes, I realized. I'd noticed them in the photograph. Tired b

lready se

it up. She's being

have asked

served three Moretti bosses. I buried two of them. I'm not going

oor. Paused with h

alites. This one has steel in her. I saw it in her file. Marco confirmed it. He

l

long time. The fire died.

lence. The way he'd smiled at galas while his hands were still wet with blood. He'd been a mon

t to follow in

ce. Ava Maya. Thirty years old. A nurse w

I would

offer her a deal s

rank to the man I was about to become.