The Mafia King's Ruthless Claim

a's

d of wet stone and old money.

e drain in the middle of the room. My bucket slipped out of my hand and hit the stone with a c

ce came back,

out thin. Stupid. Who

hed out like he had been reaching for something. His gray suit was expensive. His shoes were

Any normal housekee

e my brain did. I was on my knees beside him before I knew I had moved. Two fi

hispered. "

aking. They neve

o laughed too loud and women who barely touched their food. At eleven, Rosa sent me down for two more b

e first rule Rosa taught me two years ago, on my very first day. Tonig

n's face, and something

re a silver ring on his little finger, and he always looked at me a second too long, like

d fixed on nothing, and I

d near his hand.

r. It wasn't his. His cuffs had plain buttons. Somebody had

aybe because a small part of me, the part that used to stand in operating rooms with a stranger's life

ld house groane

tst

tst

cked in its slot, and I caught it with both hands before it

one who came down would know someone had been here. I lunged for it, but the wate

o, no

e top of the s

probably still wearing his socks because he hated cold feet. He had my stubborn chin and his father's

d to me down here, M

ters. Then a man died on my table on a night I still can't fully remember, and people I trusted stood up in a hearing room and swore I smelled of

ast like mine doesn't call the police from a mobster'

ap between two shelves at the back. It was so tight the wood pressed into my

m of the stairs swung on its cord, and shadows r

. Not hurried. Not scared. The steps of a person

The dead man's shoes. The wet floor. Then a pair o

oment, nothi

fingers closed around the cufflink in my

he champagne rack and stopped exac

Then a lighter clicked, and cigaret

s voice said, low and calm

body we

who owned half the docks, the union halls and the restaurants on Harbor Street, and, if you believed the rumors, a fe

Mor

Leave it. He never looked at the staff. He moved through his own house li

m a dead man, smoking lik

e he was guessing.

n it," he said. "Rosa label

she did. Fiona, in blac

out screaming. The party upstairs was loud, and these walls were thick stone. Nobody

in front of my hiding place. I could see t

he said quie

ng his house, he had n