Within moments, they heard the pounding of feet. Donny heard the shouts as those nearest tried to temper the geyser, calling for a wrench, a spanner.
“That ought to do it,” Gunner said. “Fine work, Teddy.”
They traveled quickly through the parish, over sodden ground that moved underfoot. When they passed a standpipe, Theo blew it up, and they moved on as the residents came from their houses, suspicion in their shouts.
“Where the fuck are we goin’?” Donny asked, once it seemed they’d made a dozen turns, blown a dozen standpipes. “We ain’t got a single fuckin’ clue where Patty’d be.”
“Shit,” Gunner said, and he struck Donny in the chest, hurtling him backward into a brick wall.
“Coppers?” Donny asked.
“A fleet of ’em,” said Scottie. They remained still and silent as feet thundered by, and Donny felt a familiar panic rise. He didn’t know this place,didn’t know if he faced east or west. If the walls of this alley were an arm’s-width apart or closing in. He had the sensation that the world was turning too fast, that soon he’d find himself hanging upside down, falling.
Feet approached.
They each turned toward the threat.
“Patty?” Scottie said.
“Goddamn,” a gut-deep voice replied. A voice Donny thought he’d recognize with his head in a canal. A voice that immediately righted the world and held back the walls.
And he thought he might buckle right there, let his knees hit the filthy ground.
Instead, he clawed toward the supernova of gold now erupting, that shining specter. “Pat?” he said. Arms caught his shoulders firmly, shook him.
“Fuck me,” Patrick breathed.
And then he pulled Donny to his chest so tightly that their ribs rebounded off each other, and Patrick’s hands pounded at shoulder blades.
Donny laughed. Felt relief seep from his eyes.
Patrick held him at arm’s length again, mussed up his hair and slapped his cheek. “You fuckin’ cryin’, Donny?”
Donny took Patrick’s coat lapels in his hands and shook him. “You ruddybastard,” he laughed. “We thought those swanks must’ve put your head on a pike!”
“Worse,” Patrick said. “They put me in the House.”
Patrick released him, but Donny only dropped his hand to Patrick’s elbow, pinching his sleeve like he had when he was a kid. He only let go of Patrick as he caught Gunner up in another back-slapping hug. “Good to see you alive, Gun.”
“Stealin’ my words, brother,” Gunner grunted, the emotion clear in his voice. “Fuckin’ hell, it’sgoodto see you.”
There hadn’t been another time in life when they three had been apart so long. Donny felt something that had been constricting his chest pull free.
“Ma?” Patrick said next. The sound of two bodies colliding again, theirmother’s breath escaping in a whimper. “What the hell are you doin’ out here?”
“Standin’ in a fuckin’ alley with coppers a few feet away,” Tess said tearily. “Take us to the hole you’ve been hidin’ in, son. Before we’re shot, if you please.”
Patrick sighed. “Don’t cry, Ma.”
There was a sniff and the swipe of a hand, and then Tess said, “Where’s your father and the girl?”
“Waitin’ round the corner,” Patrick said. “We thought you might be swanks.”
Donny registered the sort of grim silence only his mother could exude. “Let’s get some walls around us,” she said. “There’s a few things we need to discuss.”
Donny didn’t release Patrick’s sleeve. He let his brother guide him down the alley and around a corner, where their footsteps echoed off the tight brick walls and water dripped from eaves discordantly.
There came a voice he hadn’t heard in more than two years. A voice he revered more than God’s.
