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Real tough.
Coming from a nurse, too.
If I had one reason to admire Piper before, I had two now.
It wasn’t every day that I got to meet a woman who didn’t take any shit from anybody. Matteo and Cesare wouldn’t admit this, but I couldn’t hide this from myself. Keeping the truth from Felix’s sister was just that. Giving Piper shit. Sure, we had to protect ourselves. We had to keep whatever we had been up to secret, but she wasn’t wearing a badge, was she? She wouldn’t go to the cops, either. She proved that on the night I got shot. So, not telling her what had gone down at the docks was one hundred-percent wrong. And, even knowing those two wouldn’t approve, I decided to head up to that chapel and have a conversation with Piper.
A real conversation.
Not a joke like the one we’d had earlier.
I left the busy hall behind me, a large crucifix against the far wall meeting my gaze. On its left, there was a picture of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. Two rows of pews were stretching across the chapel, a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Two candlesticks were in front of either row, Piper sitting down on the first pew. I stepped into the flickering candlelight, watching my shadow on the hardwood floor.
“If you’re not here to come clean, you might as well leave,” she said, staring down at her interlocked fingers.
“Actually, that’sjustwhat I wanted to do,” I said, my voice steady. “We tried to buy some guns but got caught in a turf war. There was an explosion. Felix just happened to be closest to it. It could have been either one of us.”
“An explosion,” she muttered, her eyes shut as she shook her head. “Dear god.”
“Look, I don’t mean to pour salt into the wound or anything, but your brother’s a big boy,” I pointed out. “He knew what he signed up for; he knew the dangers. No one forced him into anything.”
“You should have asked him his last name, Leonardo,” she suggested, scratching her cheek. “If you’d known, you wouldn’t have hired him. I hope.”
“I know, but…” I paused for a moment or two. “Would that have made a difference? I mean, we needed a trustworthy weapons’ expert, and Felix was in the army. Some street guys vouched for him, and voila. We hired him.”
“I wouldn’t have Okayed that,” she went on, turning her head left to face me. “I would have told you to find someone else.”
“Nope. That wouldn’t have happened,” I told her, my confidence bringing about her next question.
“How can you be so sure?” she asked with a squint.
“Because Felix was broke,” I explained, remembering what we had heard about him out on the street. “The people we talked to were positive. He’d been living on scraps for weeks. I thought you’d know all that, being his sister and all.”
She let out a long sigh, taking her eyes off of me to look into the void. “We’ve been estranged ever since he got discharged from the army. Felix’s been bouncing from job to job throughout his entire adult life. I got tired of the same old excuses.”
I was just about to give her a comeback, when my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. The caller ID showed that it was Cesare.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you? Felix just woke up.”
“I’m with Piper in the chapel. I’ll be right down.”
“Save it. He wants to see Piper. He won’t talk to anyone else until he has a word with her. Tell her, will you?”
“Sure.”
“Felix’s awake,” I announced, setting the phone down on my thigh. “He’s asking for you.”
“I guess I’d better go, then,” she said, getting up from her seat. “Thanks for this, Leonardo.”
“When you’re done, I want to have a drink with you,” I added, my voice a bit stronger. “I could use some booze. I know you could use some, too.”
“I don’t know,” she replied, her cold expression not giving me much to hope for. “Maybe some other time, but thanks for the offer.”
Quick and painful.
That’s what this was.
