Page 96 of Cook

Before I could make it over to find the light switch, the door burst open. The doorknob hit the wall, and I jumped. A scream escaped my lips as I threw my hands over my head and crouched at the foot of the bed, preparing to be kicked. Only Signora came into a room like that when she had been angry and needed someone to take it out on.

“Maddie,” said Cook, and I peeked through my fingers.

He was here. I was safe.

Behind him stood his friend Celt, older than he’d been in the photos, yet still the same. Also, I thought I recognized him from the mill when all hell had broken loose, and I’d found Cook.

And there was... a girl. Blond. Her eyes were glassy. Why? Had she been crying? Had something happened to her?

Celt had the same hardened determination as Cook, and the scowl etched into Celt’s face scared me. I had only seen it in pictures when he was a teenager. Adulthood made it more severe.

I put my hands over my head again.

“Maddie, drop your hands,” ordered Daddy, and I did. He slipped his gun behind himself again. Clearly, nothing was a threat.

Celt was Cook’s best friend. Of course, I was safe.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just knocked into something.”

Cook’s thick frame slid in front of Celt. “You’re naked, Maddie.Cover yourself with a blanket.”

I grabbed a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around my shoulders. “I just knocked something over. I’m sorry. Let me clean it up.”

When the light flicked on, I moved to collect the pieces.

“No,” said Cook, and I halted. “The pieces are sharp. You’ll hurt yourself. You need a dustpan.”

“I’ll clean it up,” said the woman. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie.”

“Thanks, Roni,” Cook said.

When I woke up without him, I panicked. But his voice outside the room had made me stop and listen. The names they were tossing back and forth sent terror coursing through my veins.

The Gambinos. All of them.

Roni returned with a dustpan and small broom. “Okay. I’m just going to sweep up over here, Maddie. Nothing to worry about.”

Her voice was nice enough, unlike that doctor at the place Cook saved me for the second time. However, I didn’t move, not when Celt’s hard stare held me down.

“Maddie, nizhóní, come into the living room.” Cook strolled out of the bedroom, and I scampered after him, sliding past Celt to get out.

When I reached Cook, I whispered, “Was that lamp special?”

“Not that I know of,” he answered. “Why?”

I waited for Celt to disappear into the bedroom with the girl—Roni—then asked, “Why was he so angry with me then?”

“He’s not, baby girl.”

The corners of my mouth curved a little. I liked the sound of that.

“But the way he looked at me... at my arms and legs.”

Daddy looked me in the eyes and pushed my hair behind my ears. “He’s concerned. That’s all. Now be good, okay?”

“Okay.”

Sweeping and clattering sounds reached me as Roni brushed the shards from the floor, and I tucked my chin into the soft blanket. Roni and Celt murmured in low voices.

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