“You can’tseriouslybe going back to Hillview?” I demanded.
“We have a code for this kind of thing. The Boss just told me that everything’s fine and they’re not in danger. So for now, we do what he says and we go back.”
I didn’t like it, but I could hardly argue. Teo was the one driving the car, after all. And hehadproved himself a highly competent protector since the very first attack on my life. Plus he couldn’t exactly disobey Luca D’Amato. I didn’t understand all the Morelli Family ways, but I understood that one.
Teo took orders from Don Morelli like I took orders from God.
* * *
“You’re very quiet,”Teo said as we got closer to Boston. “You doing okay?”
“Not really,” I said, and I gave a sad laugh. “But it’d be more of a surprise if I was, right?”
“You know, if I see anything odd or off about the house, I’m gonna drive on by,” Teo said.
“But what about what Luca said?”
Teo gave me a fierce glance, but I reminded myself he wasn’t angry at me. He was angry at himself. Or so he’d said. “I don’t like that he told us to come back there. I don’t trust the Irish and I never have. Excepting yourself, of course, no offense meant. But right now, my first priority is you. I need to make sure I’m doing my job and keeping you safe. The Boss can look after himself, that’s for sure. He’s still alive, ain’t he? And he has Carlucci there if he needs. So if I see something I don’t like, we drive on by.”
When we came closer to Beacon Hill, Teo sped up, and took a too-early exit off the road. At first I assumed it was just his natural caution, the same way he’d gone in circles to my parents’ place to shake off any tail. But then he took a hard right, with screeching wheels, and accelerated way too fast down a residential street.
“What is it?” I demanded, grabbing at the side of the car. Once this was all over, I promised myself, I was never going to be in a car again. I’d lived most of my life happily taking subways or buses, and right then it seemed like the better choice. Every time I got into a car, something bad happened.
“We got a tail. A ways back, but sticky.”
“You want to shake him off?”
“Not a question of shaking him off. This guy is coming for us. He’s just waiting ’til he has a clear run.”
“Comingfor us? Wait—how can you tell?”
“Because it’s a Hummer, no plates.” He took another hard turn and I slammed against the side of the car.
“What should I do?”
“You feel like hanging out of the car and shooting that assault rifle at them?” I stared at him and he gave a chuckle. “Yeah, I figured not. You don’t do anything, A. You just hang on and let me do my job.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Teo
Ihanded Aidan the burner phone, and tried like hell to remember the number I wanted while he waited for instructions, bouncing his knee up and down in a nervous tic. The Hummer was getting closer, and I didn’t think Uncle Jim, assuming that’s who it was, was going to care much about collateral damage. At least the streets were pretty empty. Past two in the morning, midweek…we were lucky there.
I only had one chance that I could see, and if the Boss was wrong, it was pretty much handing our asses to the Donovan men on a platter. Still, I had to trust that he hadn’t misjudged the situation. Besides, there had been something about those militia guards at Innisfree that didn’t ring right for me. I just couldn’t imagine Tara Donovan building up a personal army like that in the short time between her sister Maggie’s death and now. Then the Boss’s words:it’s a little more complicated than you think, Vitali.
And most of all, I remembered the professional respect of O’Hara when we’d talked. I hadn’t sensed any enmity, not beyond the natural distrust of two men from two rival Families. And one thing was for sure, the Donovan security detail, so far as I’d seen them, weren’t armed to the fucking teeth like those soldiers at Innisfree had been.
“Okay. Call this number,” I said to Aidan, after dragging it up from my memory. The Boss insisted we memorize all phone numbers and I could see why, now. “And pray like hell,” I added. Aidan put it on speaker, punched in the number I recited, and then held it up to my face.
We got an answer fast. “Who’s this?”
“Vitali. I need O’Hara.”
“You got him.”
“I’m coming in hot from the west—”
“Yeah, I got the sitrep from Ms. Donovan.”
