“Hey!” Hudson began indignantly.
“What I’m saying is, I’ll go down with you,” Gio said with a grin. “Uh,” he added, turning to Finch with a respectful manner. “If that’s okay by you, Mr. D.”
“Please, Mr. D,” Hudson begged. “Give me a chance to clear my name, that’s all I’m asking.”
“Fuck me sideways,” Finch muttered. “Fine. You go together, and youstaytogether. Gio, if that door down the bottom is open, lock it up and come back here. We’ll send Luca after whoever it was when he gets here.”
“Sure thing,” Gio said, then crooked a finger at Hudson. “Come on, then, Blondie.”
“Don’t call me that,” Hudson said crossly, but he went after Gio.
“Close it behind us,” Gio said over his shoulder, but Finch was one step ahead of him, the panel door already sliding softly shut.
CHAPTER
SIX
Hudson had only beenin this passageway once before, and he was relieved to find that the twinkle lights strung along the roof were still there and still working. The initial passageway was tight and claustrophobic, and much chillier than the warm office had been.
Gio led him to the end of the passage where it opened out to the rickety staircase landing, then held up a hand in the universal sign forStop.
Hudson stopped. He was very close to Gio, could even smell the guy’s hair wax when he raised his nose to give a small sniff. Gio had really good hair. Most of the Italians did. Hudson’s was too long and floppy, he knew that, but it never seemed to hold with hair wax the way other guys’ hair did. And every time he had it cut, it still grew back too fast to its original length.
Connie had always teased him about it.
Gio made aCome forwardmotion with his hand and started walking again, and Hudson crept forward with him.
He didn’t want to chance talking, but when Gio said, “So, you really didn’t take the money?” in a conversational tone that sounded louder in the stairwell, it made him jump.
“No,” Hudson snapped back. “Why would I?”
Gio paused and gave him an incredulous look.
“Not everyone is motivated by greed,” Hudson told him primly.
“Okay, Gorgeous. You keep telling yourself that,” Gio chuckled, and went down the first few stairs, gun at the ready.
Gorgeous?Hudson was so surprised that he stayed right where he was.
“Uh, you coming?” Gio asked, glancing up. “This wasyouridea.”
Hudson quickly stepped down. It was better to be close to the guy with the gun, just in case therewassomeone hiding in the recess below.
“Careful,” Gio said sharply as the stairs rattled. “Fuck me, this place is a deathtrap.”
“Mr. D wants to renovate the stairs. He just hasn’t gotten around to it yet.”
Gio looked quickly over the stair railings into the dark below. “Yo, for reals, if anyone’s down there, I’m about to kill you. So, like, come out. And I won’t. Uh, kill you.”
If Hudson didn’t know better, he’d think Gio was very slightly nervous. But Gio Carlucci never got nervous. Hudson knew that because he knew the kind of men who were assigned to Finch’s bodyguard roster. They were all hard, through and through, the kind of men who didn’t hesitate to run toward gunshots rather than away.
Hudson was just fine with being the running-away kind of man. Finch had told him once that it was the smarter way to be, that Finch himself was the same. “People like you and me, we have other skills,” he’d told Hudson with a wink, although Hudson hadn’t yet found out what his own skill might be.
Being a patsy, suggested the voice in the back of his head. Because right now, wasn’t that true? It looked like he was being set up by someone. Pretty effectively, too.
“There’s no one here,” Gio said in a normal tone of voice. “Anyway, if someone came through here to get the cash, wouldn’t they be more likely to take the whole box?” He kept his gun aimed, but he made the turn on the stairs faster. Hudson followed, and sure enough, by the time they reached the bottom, the stairwell was very obviously and depressingly empty. The door was shut and still locked fast—Gio rattled it to make sure the lock held.
He looked at Hudson, then reached out to grab him by the arm. “Hey, you okay?”
