Page 51 of Surrender

Great.

I head for the door. “Come on.”

I hear shouting as I approach the event hall. Not surprising, with a bunch of very dominant men suddenly being told what to do. The guards have their hands full trying to prevent a riot.

I whistle sharply to draw attention to myself. “Listen up, you fucks,” I say, more anger than I expected coming through. Shit. I can’t let my feelings get the better of me now. “Nobody is leaving until we account for everybody’s whereabouts. One of you fuckers is a murderer—”

“Aren’t all of us fuckers murderers?” Giulio Pavone interrupts, laughing. “I mean…”

I stare at him. It’s one thing to know he’s an irreverent asshole. It’s another entirely for him to break out laughing in the middle of something like this. “Don Cresci is dead,” I say flatly for the benefit of the entire room.

“Yes,” Silvano says, stepping into the room behind me. He has a tablet in his hands now, and his expression is colder than I’ve ever seen before. “I will not allow my father’s killer to escape unpunished.”

At least Giulio doesn’t make another fucking stupid remark, although I notice that his consigliere is gripping his arm now.

Fox sidles up to me then. “You’re about to have problems,” he whispers. “The guards have been asking around. Several people noticed our absence.”

Yeah. I’d been afraid of that.

“Silvano knows where we were,” I murmur. But again comes the problem of how to explain why we were gone for so long, and I still don’t have a good answer for that question. “But I had to step away and answer a call, and you came with me, as any bodyguard would.”

Fox grimaces but nods. “As long as Pavone doesn’t contradict you.”

“Yeah,” I say, but my voice is hollow.

I’m not entirely sure Pavone will keep his fucking mouth shut. Then again, it might be better if he doesn’t. He was sitting outside the door where Fox and I had been… busy. At the very least, I know four people in this building are probably innocent: myself, Fox, Silvano… and Pavone.

How ironic.

Enzo and Silvano are peering at the tablet Silvano brought, occasionally whispering to each other. I feel useless simply standing here, so I start observing the room, trying to see if anyone is being shadier than usual.

In a room full of fucking mobsters.

“Did anyone stand out to you?” I ask Fox.

He bites his lip thoughtfully. “The blonde woman with the pixie cut. She’s not as vapid as she appears, I think. But I can’t figure out who she came with, and fuck me if I know where she’d hide a weapon in that dress.”

I nod. “I’ll make sure Silvano knows. Come.” I start walking toward Silvano.

Peter has joined Silvano now, and his brow is furrowed strangely. “Right there,” he points out. “And then…” He scowls at me as I approach. “Fiore.”

I arch my own brow, and I stare him down. He seems so much different tonight than he’d been the last time we’d spoken. I’ve never liked the way he simpers around Silvano, but I’ve never really thought much about him. “Peter,” I say by way of greeting.

“Where were you all night?” Peter snaps. “You disappeared for like an hour, at around the same time as the Boss was getting murdered.”

“I had an important matter to discuss with my bodyguard,” I say calmly, almost wishing I could just say that I’d been fucking said “bodyguard” senseless after he’d pissed me off enough to make me see red. “Fox and I were in the parlor the entire time. Silvano saw us go in there.”

Silvano’s eyes narrow. “I saw you for a few minutes, then I left. Because you didn’t want me there.”

“You know why I didn’t want you there,” I tell him in a low tone, not willing to announce it to the entire room but unable to think of anything else to say. “It had nothing to do with— For fuck’s sake, why would you even think I’d kill your father? He might as well have been my father, with how well he took care of me.”

“We all know you’ve been angling for his position,” Peter interjects. “And now you bring this stranger along, who you claim is your bodyguard but is smaller than you?”

There’s a murmur from the other gathered people. At least some of them are my allies… but “ally” is a tenuous word in this profession. I think most of them will sit back and wait to see how things shake out before they step in one way or another.

“He and the redhead came back only moments before you all locked us in here,” one of the men says suddenly. I glare at him, and I realize I don’t recognize the guy at all. He isn’t a major player. There are too many unknowns here tonight.

Fox curses under his breath. “I can show off my bruised ass if you think that’ll convince them of what we were doing,” he whispers to me. “But they might shoot anyway.”

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