Page 62 of The Woman with the Target on her Back (Grassi Family)

“This is August. Augustine Grassi,” she added.

“Grassi?” he asked, even more confused. “The fuck you doing around here?” he asked, looking at me.

“Looking after your daughter,” I said. Because it was the truth. “Pulled her outta that oven. Got her somewhere safe.”

He swallowed hard at that and gave me a nod. “I appreciate that. But why? Why do you even know about my daughter?”

“Remember that shithead Colin?” she asked.

“Yeah. Remember ‘em all,” he said.

“Well, I sort of helped the Grassis save a woman who was caught in his world. They… they made it clear that we were friendly. I just… I don’t know. That’s who I called when they broke in.”

“I feel like you need to know that it doesn’t stop there,” I said when Traveler didn’t say anything else.

“No?” James asked, tensing. “What else?”

“We were dropping a donation of her shop’s milk off at the soup kitchen a couple days ago. And there was a drive-by. There’s… there’s no way it was a coincidence,” I told him, watching his jaw go tight.

“No, there’s not,” he agreed.

It was then, though, that his monitor started beeping faster, issuing a warning to the nurses, one of whom came rushing in.

There was some fussing then, the nursesuggestingwe leave, so he could settle back down. Her dad getting increasingly agitated because he wanted to keep talking to us. Then the nurse getting more firm.

“Dad, it’s okay. I will come back in the morning, okay? Just rest. Relax.”

“I’ll continue keeping an eye on her until you can do so for yourself,” I told him, and that seemed to make him relax just a bit.

“Make sure you do,” he said, a little threat mixed into the words. And, hey, I couldn’t blame the guy. This was his little girl, and he’d worked hard to make sure his shady dealings didn’t negatively impact her. You had to respect the guy.

“That was a lot,” Traveler said to my silent question as we made our way down the stairs.

“Yeah, I bet,” I agreed. Especially since she hadn’t seen the man in a long time. “It’ll be less intense next time, since he already knows about all the shit. And will have had time to process it all.”

“True,” she agreed. “I want ice cream. And sleep,” she declared.

“Ice cream and sleep it is, then.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Traveler

I was a terrible person.

I mean, I usually prided myself on the fact that I believed I was a pretty good human.

But when the call came through from the hospital telling me that, basically, my father was up and back to normal, the dominant feeling I got was… dread.

It didn’t take a genius to understand why, either.

Because if my dad was up, and he was his usual self, then I knew he was going to sign himself out of the hospital as soon as possible, then get to work on making the guys who attacked him—and me—pay.

Which meant I would be safe, and didn’t need outside protection anymore.

That meant that August was going to leave.

Go back to Navesink Bank.

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