Chapter 10
I did not believe Lucia.
Not immediately.
That was why she enjoyed saying it.
“Rachel contacted the Cross family?” I asked.
Lucia leaned back as if the evening had finally become entertaining.
“Perhaps she wanted her daughter found.”
Claire’s voice shook.
“You said she was dead.”
“I said everyone eventually dies.”
I hated people who used cleverness to hide cowardice.
Thomas looked at Lucia.
“You know where Rachel is.”
That wiped the smile from her face.
Not completely.
Enough.
Claire noticed.
“So she’s alive.”
Lucia said nothing.
Marco stood slowly.
“You told me she escaped.”
Lucia looked at him with contempt.
“You believed what was useful.”
That sentence broke him more than any blow I had landed earlier.
For decades Marco believed he had helped with one terrible act when he was young and spent the rest of his life protecting the family that knew his shame.
Now he understood the shame itself had been another leash.
Rafe took the Cross token.
“The Cross family attacked Claire.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Maybe not to kill her.”
Claire touched her shoulder.
“They shot me.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked at the pendant.
“But they didn’t take the moon.”
I understood.
The gunmen were interrupted.
The pendant remained.
If Rachel had contacted them, perhaps she sent them to bring Claire somewhere.
Or someone had intercepted the message and turned retrieval into violence.
“Who currently leads Cross?” I asked.
Rafe answered.
“Damian Cross. Fifty-two. Old-school. No active dispute with us.”
Lucia smiled faintly.
“Not with you.”
There it was again.
Old debts beneath current peace.
I sent Rafe one instruction.
“Bring Damian here.”
Lucia laughed.
“You think men like Damian come when called?”
I looked at her.
“They do when I tell them Rachel Bellini’s daughter is bleeding in my cafe.”
That stopped her.
Forty minutes later, Damian Cross walked through the locked front doors with two men and no weapons.
The moment he saw Claire, his face changed.
Not surprise.
Relief.
Claire stood despite her shoulder.
“Do you know my mother?”
Damian looked at Lucia first.
Then at me.
Finally at Claire.
“Yes.”
Her knees almost gave way.
I caught her good shoulder.
She stared at him.
“Is she alive?”
Damian’s answer came quietly.
“She was this morning.”
Claire broke.
May you like
And Lucia finally looked afraid of something other than exposure.
She looked afraid Rachel might be coming back.
