Page 115 of Fury

My heartbeat skidded to a halt. “Who came after her? Clean what up?”

“She killed a Smoking Gun. He attacked her in her apartment. She got him with his own knife and didn’t want to call the cops.”

A cold sea sloshed through me, jagged rocks of ice ripping at my veins. “She went to you?”

“Yes.”

He told me.

My insides twisted. Images of her alone, covered in that fuck’s blood. Struggling with his corpse, gulping it all down to stand up and keep it together. The fear, the fucking tidal wave of fear at being dragged back to Kansas.

Feeling she had no choice but to go to Turo DeMarco.

He eyed me. “It was a mess, and I handled it for her.”

“And what the hell did you want in return, huh?”

“Information on Med.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. And that was plenty.”

I leaned my head back, facing up at the dark sky. The clouds had smudged the ink of the nigh. There were no visible stars, not with the insistent glare from the city lights either. This wasn’t Nebraska. I gulped in the cold air, but the lightheadedness remained.

“She handled it all very well. She’d made up her mind and took care of business.”

I stared at the blurry cityscape of lights and dark outlines. “Thank you,” I muttered, the words leaving ash in my mouth.

His chin lifted. “They did that to you, didn’t they? Your face, your fingers. I remember it. What a fucking story.”

“It isn’t some story. This is my life.”

Holding my gaze, he took in a breath, the sudden silence stretching between us. “Are you and your buddy going to finish me off or what? If not, I need to go. I have an important meeting at midnight, and if I don’t show up there’s going to be trouble. I detest being late.”

“So do I. Give me her new name.”

“Lenore Yaeger.”

Lenore.

Turo had helped her, watched out for her. We both shared an admiration for her. I wasn’t sure if anything had happened between them, but I was fucking positive he’d tried. He wouldn’t be a man if he didn’t.

No, I wouldn’t kill him. I’d wanted to, that had been my rabid intention, but Turo DeMarco would be a useful connection. High level Guardino. A link to the most powerful family in Chicago. No, you didn’t kill somebody useful. I swallowed down the bloodlust that had coated the back of my throat, pooled in my mouth.

“You ever heard of Reich Malone?” I asked.

Reich had been looking to break into Chicago organized crime. He kept trying to court different families at different times. He was all for having a big organization at his back, the Flames back. That’s what his skinhead underling had been up to when I’d seen him in town that time. How far had that gotten?

“Flames of Hell from Ohio. Tries hard. Pompous pain in the ass,” he replied.

I squatted in front of him, so we were eye to eye. “He’s the one who put me in jail. I’ve known him since I was a boy. Ultimately, he’s the one responsible for this too.” I gestured at my face, with a maimed hand. “We have a healthy disregard for each other.”

“I’ll bet.”

“You ever worked with him?”

“I’ve met him, heard his pitch one too many times. I don’t care for his...style.”

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