Page 109 of To Die For

Glass stared dead at him. “Who told you I did?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter, Devine, to me. They… they burned up Alice? I… I never got a chance to say goodbye to… her. To bury herproperly.” Glass shook his head clear. “Just one more damn thing to blow up in my face.”

“Then let me give you another one. Perry Rollins said he had some dirt on you. He wanted to sell it to me. Then he got gutted in a men’s bathroom at a bar.”

“I already told you I knew nothing about that.”

“But were you lying or telling the truth?”

“Don’t push it, Devine.”

“So who’s after you, Danny?”

“Some people.”

And Devine finally had corroboration as to why, according to Nancy Fine, the RICO suit had really been dropped.

“And these people are even more dangerous than you are? And so you cut a deal to deliver them to us, in exchange for the prosecution against you being dropped.”

By not answering, Glass answered this question.

“Only they discovered you were ratting them out and now they’re coming for you. And Betsy.” He paused. “So that’s who killed Alice and Dwayne? Your enemies?”

Glass glanced up at him. “Maybe.”

“You don’t know?”

“Like I said, Devine, this is not my world. I’m a little out of my depth.”

“If it was your enemy, why leave Betsy alive?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Danny. You’ve always been a smart guy. Always one step ahead. So how about now?”

“I have my theories. Theories that I don’t want to think about right now, because they might make me do something I will regret. But I can tell you this—the feds did me no favors today.”

“They withdrew the charges against you!”

“But they can bring them again if I don’t toe the line. They are forcing my hand when Idon’tneed my damn hand forced.”

“Meaning?”

“Some folks will now believe I’ve agreed to cooperate. Which ups the ante all around.”

“Putting you in more danger, you mean?”

“It putsBetsyin more danger. She’s the last wild card in the whole deck.”

“So what now?”

Glass rose. “Now, you take care of Betsy, Mr.Guardian. Anything happens to her, you get the same a hundred times over. And I’ll fucking do it myself.”

CHAPTER

50

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