I’m so sorry I find the sudden death of an acquaintance a little disturbing, buddy. I think it but I don’t let the words out of my mouth because actually, I’m shit-scared that any second Nick Fontana might decide itwould’vebeen easier to let Gatti kill me, and just finish the job himself.
I grab the butt plug, inch my way off the bed, and dash past Nick—and the lump on the floor—and go into the bathroom. Nick watches my naked ass on the way past, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s wondering if he left any inconvenient DNA on my possibly-soon-to-be deceased body, or if killing just makes him horny.
Neither option is optimal.
I lock the door as quietly as I can, and then I stare at myself in the mirror, mouthingOh shit, oh shit, oh shit,until my breathing slows down. I feel like I do just before every opening argument, when I need to go to the courtroom bathroom and lose my shit for a minute.
My eyes are all bloodshot and as I watch my reflection, my nose starts to bleed, just a little. Gatti backhanded me hard before I could even ask him what the hell he was doing, coming into my room, and then he started…
Trying to kill me.
I know I’m what they call an abrasive personality. It’s useful when you’re a defense lawyer, because when you start cross-examining people, either before they get in the stand or after, they’re already on guard. They’ve been talked to by the other side, given the 4-1-1 on how to keep their temper. But it’s only when you get under people’s skin that you learn the truth.
Guess I got under Gatti’s alright.
I start chuckling. If I keep chuckling, I’m going to get hysterical. So I turn on the water and dunk my whole head under the stream, letting the cold of it shock me back into reality. I pull up and look at myself in the mirror again, almost suspiciously. Am I going to puke? I always thought I would if I saw something like…I just saw. But my stomach contents seem like they’re going to stay right where they are.
The door handle rattles. “Unlock the door, Harvard.”
“Only if you promise not to kill me,” I say back, before I can really even think about what I’m saying.
“I just killed someone else tosaveyour life, dumbass. Got one body to take care of, and I’m not gonna make this night any harder than it has to be.”
I consider that, and then I unlock the door, cold water dripping down my naked back as we look at each other. My ass is still throbbing from our interlude before. Nick is standing with his arm raised, leaning against the door frame in such a way that I can’t see the corpse behind him. It’s almost gentlemanly of him.
“One dead body is careless, but two is a problem?” I ask.
He snorts out a disbelieving laugh. “Did you ask that guy to come see you tonight?”
“No.”
“Seriously, I need to know if you did.”
“Listen, Fontana, I might be a slut, but evenIam not going to set up a second one-night stand three minutes after the first one leaves.”
His eyes flick over my face. “I don’t think you’re a slut.”
“Well, I am. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”
He shakes his head. “Okay. Whatever. Can we concentrate on covering up a crime, here? Can you do that for me, Bianchi?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure that I can.” It’s the first genuine thing that’s come out of my mouth for a while, and it probably isn’t what Nick wants to hear right now.
He pushes me back into the bathroom and holds me up against the wall, but not in a threatening way. Somehow it’s comforting, like between the wall and Nicky’s hands, they’ll hold me up against the weight of the rest of the world pushing down on me right now. “It’s your job, though,” Nick says softly, almost tenderly. “Isn’t it? Covering up the shit us Morellis do?”
“I nevercover upanything. I make a cogent legal argument that a judge or a jury can agree with. That’s all.”
“Well, here’s an argument for you. This was…this was self-defense by proxy.”
“It’s called ‘use of physical force in defense of a person’ and it’s not the fuckingpoint. It doesn’tmatterwhat the law says about it, because if those people downstairs find out—”
“Letmeworry about the Family stuff. Okay? Can you live with that, just for tonight?”
He’s coaxing me, almost friendly, and I really hope it’s not so he can betray me later on. “Maybe.”
“Because we have to deal with this, Carlo. Fast. Clean. Now.” He cups my face in his hand and makes me look at him.
I swallow. “Itwasthe use of physical force in my defense. So…maybe we should just say that?”
