At that, Gus gives an appreciative laugh. “Ah, that eejit. Haven’t thought of him in years. And what else did he deserve, Howie, traitorous wretch that he was?”
“And Frank?” Luca asks, his voice dangerous. “Why him?”
Gus grins at him. “Well, I didn’t want any Italian connections left to interfere with Howie’s heartstrings. But mostly, that one was just for fun.”
“What are you talking about?” Maggie demands.
When Gus looks at her now, all his fake warmth disappears. “You’re no use to me, Maggie-me-girl. You’ve forgotten where you came from. Who you owe.”
Maggie has gone so pale the orange freckles across her nose look like bruises. “I told you,” she says, voice trembling. “I told you, Gus. I’d give you what you wanted once I was safe.”
“Gus got tired of waiting for you to feel safe,” Luca says. “He switched his bet. Wants Finch to head up the Donovans,” Luca says. There’s another silence.
Maggie is staring hard at Gus, and in the end, he gives a shrug. “Sorry, Mags. You’re just not reliable.”
Luca lets out a chuckle. “Can’t trust anyone these days, can you, Maggie?”
“But Howie isn’t even—he’s not aDonovan,” she says desperately to Gus.
“What Gus wants is a puppet,” Luca tells her, his voice low and dangerous. “A figurehead. An American collection point for donations to his terrorist cause.”
Luca pauses, and Gus smiles. Shrugs again.
“But Gus doesn't know Finch,” Luca goes on softly. “None of you do. You've only ever seen him as a pawn to be used in whatever scheme you come up with next. But that’s where you all made a mistake, because Finch is not a pawn who can be picked up, moved around, sacrificed.” Luca glances at me and gives me a small, private smile. “Finch is the most important piece of all. He’s theKing.”
“My father left the Family tome, and I'm not standing down for anyone,” Maggie snarls. “Not for your bullshit Irish grudge, Gus, and not for that half-breed bastard.”
“It's not a matter of standing down, Maggie,” Luca says, almost pityingly. “You're not leaving this room alive.”
Maggie laughs then, a wild outburst of a laugh, just like my own. “Maybe,” she says. “But I'll take as many of you with me as I can.”
She waves the gun around once more, but when it stops, it’s aiming not at me, but at Luca.
In my mind I see a dark alleyway, a black-clad devil fighting for his life. And I do now what I did then. I protect him. I don’t even think about it, I just do it. I raise my gun and shoot three times, the way Luca gets me to do in practice. He always says if I shoot three times in succession I might hit something one day.
That day is today.
All three shots hit their target. Maggie drops where she stands behind Tara, blood blossoming across her white shirt.
Tara screams into the silence afterwards. I walk on steady feet over to Maggie and kick the gun away from her hand, fast. Just in case.
But Maggie won’t ever use it again. Her eyes meet mine. She’s trying to say something, so I crouch down next to her and lean in. She coughs and I flinch as blood sprays my face.
“You never…belonged in this…” There’s one final gurgle, and then she’s gone.
Family, she was going to say. And I guess she was right. I never really did fit in with the Donovans.
“Nice shooting, Howie,” Uncle Gus says, and claps his hands together. “Now let’s get upstairs and—”
The crack of Luca’s gun makes me start. Gus topples over the beer keg, a perfect red round circle in his forehead.
“We need to get out of here. Finch, untie Tara.”
I can’t move, still kneeling by the corpse of my sister.
My enemy.
Luca goes himself to Tara, pulling out a knife from his back pocket. She shrieks, and he pauses, looking her in the face. “I’m freeing you,” he says.
