Page 96 of With a Vengeance

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Dante shouts from the other endof the car before ramming into Seamus again. All it takes is a few grunting shoves for Seamus to get Dante to the door of his room.

“You’re going to get inside and stay there until we reach Chicago.”

“What if I refuse?” Dante says.

“Then I’ll shoot you.”

Dante raises his hands and allows Seamus to back him across the threshold to his room. Anna follows them inside, visibly furious.

“Did your father send you?” she says. “Is that why you’re here?”

“No! Of course not.” Dante, still moving backward deeper into the room, reaches the chair by the window. When it hits the backs of his legs, he drops into it. “I have nothing to do with this and I have nothing to do with him.”

“You still work for him.”

“Only because I have no other choice,” Dante says. “Believe me, if I could get out from under his thumb, I would.”

Anna sighs. “I wish I could believe you. It would make this betrayal hurt less.”

“What should we do with him?” Seamus asks.

“Tie him to the chair,” Anna says. “Then we close the door and stand guard outside until we reach Chicago.”

With trembling hands, Seamus undoes his necktie, sliding it free of his collar. He then leans forward and removes Dante’s tie in a few rough, shaky tugs. Holding it out to Anna, he says, “Help me with this.”

Anna takes the tie and approaches the chair. As Seamus lashes Dante’s left wrist to the arm of the chair, Anna does the same with his right, avoiding eye contact.

“Annie, you don’t need to do this,” Dante whispers in her ear. “This is all a huge misunderstanding. You know me. You know I would never kill anyone.”

Anna makes one more loop of the tie, topping it off with the tightest knot she can muster.

“That’s the thing, Dante,” she says. “I don’t think I ever really knew you at all.”

She turns and exits the room, refusing to look back, even as Dante continues to shout.

“Annie, please! Don’t leave me like this!”

In the hallway, Anna looks to the window, surveying the snow-covered landscape passing outside the train. The fields, forests, and small towns in the distance look peaceful in the brightening dawn. A far cry from the chaos of the Philadelphia Phoenix.

Behind her, Seamus exits Dante’s room and closes the door before joining her at the window.

“Here to say I told you so?” Anna says.

“No. I’m here to say I’m sorry. I know how hard this must be for you.”

“You have no idea.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Seamus says.

“Yes. Leave me alone. Just for a little bit.”

Anna walks away, hurrying toward the back of the train, glancing over her shoulder to make sure certain Seamus isn’t following her. In the observation car, she drops into the nearest seat. Only then do all the emotions she’s kept at bay for the past hour rise to the surface. The grief. The fear. The guilt. All of them swirl around her in a churning flood. And Anna—too tired to fight them—allows herself to drown.

Forty-Three

She cries forexactly five minutes.

There isn’t time for more.

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