Page 4 of Winning Bid

Moss smirks. “Your father gave him the money to buy this place.”

That doesn’t sound right. “Gave? He gave him the money? Not a loan?”

“Sal used to be like me. He did what I do for your father. Now,” he gestures around us, “he retired.”

“He worked for my father?”

“A long time ago.”

I can’t picture that little man taking down anything more than a person’s pizza order. Quietly, I ask, “He ever kill?—"

“More than me.”

Well, shit. “I guess you never know what someone is capable of until they have to do it. How are your daughters, Moss?”

He grins broadly. The man is both terrifying and the proudest father I have ever known. “Marianna is glad you have recovered, but she misses you. She would like you to visit the house sometime.”

“I might be able to make that work.”

“Angela has a new girlfriend who wants to be a doctor.” He pauses and crosses himself for luck on that score. “And Caterina, I fear, will be pale her whole life.”

Odd thing for him to fear. “What makes you say that?”

“She is sixteen and just graduated early from the high school. She starts university in the summer semester to get a head start, where she will become astrophysicist.”

“Wow.”

“Da.” He sighs. “She will never see the sun again with all her studies.”

“Maybe through a telescope.”

He chuckles and scrubs his hand over his bald head. “How are you feeling? The recovery, I mean.”

“Tender today, but worth the pain. June and I were able to spend some … quality time together this weekend.”

He grins and claps my shoulder hard. “Good for you! Has been very long time, no?”

“Longer than I care to admit. After that secondary stitch tear, I had to wait way too long for my liking.”

“I am grateful to you, Anderson. Every day, I tell God, you take care of that man for me.”

I chuckle. “I don’t think that’s how prayer works, Moss.”

“Me and God, we have an understanding. I don’t get in his way, and he doesn’t get in mine. Sometimes, I mete out his justice. Such is life. I am sorry you still have pains.”

I shrug. “Like you said. Such is life. I’m lucky I can feel anything at all. The doctor said if the bullet had gone an inch in any direction, I could be dead or paralyzed. So, it could be worse.”

“It could be better, too.” His mood turns somber. “I like that you ask about the girls. But I do not believe this is why you called meeting, Anderson.”

My stomach sinks. “You’ve seen the news.”

He nods once. “It is not good.”

“Not according to the reports I’ve seen.”

Moss leans forward. Seems that even in this place, we have to be quiet. “I did what I have always done. Deflate the body, weigh it down, sink it far offshore.” He sighs. “I do not know why it did not work this time.”

My stomach churns at the description of what happened that night, but my brain sticks to one part of what he said. I whisper, “Deflate the body?”

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