Chapter 16 - THE DOG THAT WOULDN’T DIE
The veterinarian worked in the back of a private clinic owned by a man who owed me three favors and feared needing a fourth.
Bruno had lost blood.
Too much.
The bullet had missed his heart by less than an inch.
“He’s old for a dog his size,” the vet said.
I looked at him.
He stopped talking.
Tony sat beside me in the waiting room with his shoulder bandaged. Luca stood near the window, unable to meet my eyes. Marco sat handcuffed to a radiator because Mara had insisted and because he had earned it.
Matteo slept against Teresa, who had arrived shaking and barefoot, kissing the boy’s face like she could pull lost time back through love alone.
No one spoke for an hour.
Then Luca said, “I’m sorry.”
I did not look at him. “For which part?”
He swallowed. “All of it.”
“That’s broad.”
“I wanted money. Respect. I was tired of being your little brother.”
I laughed without humor. “So you worked with Marco.”
“Marco said it was side shipments. No people. I swear on Ma.”
“Do not use her name to clean your hands.”
His face twisted.
“I saw one truck,” he said. “I saw them. I wanted to tell you. Then Harlan knew where I lived, who I dated, where Ma shopped. I got scared.”
Everyone gets scared.
Fear does not decide what a man is.
What he does next does.
Before I could answer, the vet came out.
“He survived surgery.”
The room exhaled.
“He’s not out of danger. But he’s fighting.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he was.
Marco whispered, “Dante.”
I turned.
His face was gray.
“I’ll testify,” he said. “Names. Routes. Everything.”
Mara, standing by the door, looked at him carefully. “That won’t save you.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Marco looked at Matteo.
“Because Elena should have had a childhood. Because Lily should have danced. Because my son should never know what I became.”
For once, no one mocked him.
Outside the clinic, dawn began to stain Queens blue.
A new day.
May you like
But not a clean one.
Not yet.
