“Shut up, Róisín,” Tara and Finch said in unison with an identical scowl. I saw then how they must have been as children, as Róisín glared back. For the first time her perfect calm was disturbed, a still pond suddenly disturbed by a scattering of rocks.
She stood up with a bounce. “Well, I’ll go and find my earplugs,” she said. “Car crashes, shoot outs, screaming matches—it’s hard to sleep with allthatgoing on.” She stalked out of the room.
Tara and Finch did not watch her go. They were back to staring each other down instead.
“I think I’ll go up as well,” I began, but Finch turned on me.
“No. We need a referee.”
“A ref—?No,” I said, holding up my hands. “This has nothing to do with me.” I desperately wanted that to be true, and Finch knew it.
“Oh, yes it does. You’re mixed up inbothour business, Priest Boy, whether you like it or not. And besides, won’t it be good practice for you? Listening to family disputes, mediating? All that shit?”
I looked apologetically at Tara, but she looked thoughtful in the same way Finch sometimes looked thoughtful: careful and canny, her delicate red-gold brows drawn together.
“Perhaps that would be useful,” she said. “Finch and I…wedohave things between us that need to be said.”
“We sure do,” Finch drawled.
He was looking for a fight, especially after what Teo had said to him. I didn’t want his sister to take the brunt of his bad mood without someone to defuse the situation. “As long as you both agree,” I said nervously. “I’d be happy to help you come to some kind of…”
“Détente?” Finch supplied.
“Resolution,” I corrected.
Tara came around and sat in the armchair Róisín had abandoned, her knees together and her hands on them, her back straight as a poker. “I think it’s time we spoke plainly.”
“I should remind you both,” I said quickly, “that I am not bound by any confession seal. You understand?”
“You mean you might tattle on us?” Finch asked. He smirked. “Bet you won’t, though. Will you? You of all people know sometimes it’s better to leave the law on the outside.”
I didn’t like that at all, though I could hardly argue with it. I’d kept my own mouth shut when Sam Fuscone had been killed in front of me, after all. Father Benedict had been there that afternoon too, and he’d said his piece eventually. Only he’d said it not to any established law enforcement agency, but to a rival mob Family: the Clemenzas.
It seemed to me more justice had been done by Luca D’Amato that day thancouldhave been done by the law courts. I’d never confessed anything about that day, even when pressed by Father Raphael.
I’d never felt the need.
“I’m just saying, you might want to fudge some of the details,” I said now.
“Don’t worry,” Tara said. “Nothing like that should come up.”
Finch whirled around on her. “What are you talking about?Yesit will. This is all about Maggie. That’s what the problem is between us. You can’t forgive me for killing her.”
I sucked in a breath. I knew, vaguely, what had happened to Margaret Fincher Donovan. But Finch had never spoken in detail about it.
Tara’s face was blank. “What are you talking about? That’s not—”
“I saved your damn life,sister,” Finch ranted on. “And if you’ll remember,youwanted to kill Maggie! It was your idea in the first place! You came to Vegas, you said, ‘Hey, why don’t we knock off Maggie—‘”
I resisted the temptation to put my hands over my ears and was thankful when Tara interrupted. “Yes, and I accept that it had to happen,” she said firmly. “I know you saved my life, you and Luca. And I—I amgratefulfor that, Howie. How could you think I’m not?” She stood up, went to him, and put her hands on his shoulders, pressed her forehead to his. Finch stood there, mouth ajar, puzzlement crinkling his nose. “But that’s not why I’ve kept distant from you.”
Finch had put his arms around her in a half-embrace, even as she moved back a little to look into his face. “Then…what is it?”
“I’m head of the Family, now. That comes with certain responsibilities.”
“I don’t understand.” Finch sounded soyoungto me then, such hurt in his voice.
“I can’t…” She sighed, looked down. “My position is tenuous. Just like Maggie’s before me. She ruled the Donovans with fear, but I refused to behave that way. I’ve won allies with my approach, but there are still…factions.”
