Ifound the Irishman I was looking for in one of the clubs where they usually hung out, the same club where Salvatore had tried to shoot him in the head. Just to be sure, I pulled a pair of binoculars from the glove box of the old, beat up Chevy I’d borrowed, then glanced down at the picture Luca texted me and compared thisstronzo’sneck tat to the one in the photo—a shamrock with the year 1992 along the stem. Not very original, but it was enough to confirm I had the right guy.
Parked down the street out of range of the cameras, I watched him walk inside. He was alone. Hopefully, he would leave the same way after consuming half his body weight in some good Irish whiskey. It would make my job easier. And I was impatient to get it done and see Luna.
A few hours later, the bouncer helped him out and put him in an Uber. I smiled, started the car, and followed them to the other side of the city where the Irishman lived in a high-rise condo near the capitol building.
Perfect.
Swinging into a guest spot, I parked, pulled a baseball cap over my eyes, and met the Irishman and his driver as he was helping him to the front door.
“Why the hell do you do this to yourself, man?” I asked as I reached for him. “It’s okay,” I told the driver. “I can take him from here.”
“You know this guy?” he asked. But by the way he was happily handing him off to me, I knew it wouldn’t really matter what my answer was.
“Yeah,” I told him. “He’s my neighbor. I’ll get him upstairs.”
“Cool. Thanks.” Without a second glance, he let him go and walked back to his car.
Inside, I dragged the Irishman to the front desk. “Hey, Tony.”
“Hey.” Never taking his eyes off the monitor, my associate I’d called earlier tapped away at the keyboard.
“Any problems getting in here tonight?”
“Nope.”
“Good.” I didn’t ask where the real concierge was or what he’d done with them. I didn’t care. As I waited, I awkwardly pulled on a pair of gloves without dropping my “neighbor” on the floor. The guy was pretty much out of it, which would be a blessing for him. He wouldn’t see what’s coming.
A few seconds later, Tony hit enter and nodded. “You’re good. We just had a glitch with the cameras. You’ve got eight minutes until they come back online.”
“Perfect.” Rummaging around in the Irishman’s pockets, I found his keys. “What’s his condo number?”
Tony found the number, and I half carried, half walked the Irishman to the elevator.
Four minutes later, I watched as he accidentally took his own life by falling over the balcony. His skull exploded upon impact. I left the patio door open, tossed his keys on the coffee table, and locked the door to his condo, pulling it closed behind me. When I reached the lobby, a woman was screaming and crying at Tony for him to call an ambulance.
Outside, I walked around the block until I was directly beneath the Irishman’s balcony. The body was there, broken and bloody, one leg twisted at a strange angle. Even with the early morning hour, I was slightly surprised there wasn’t a crowd gathering. Keeping my face shielded by the cap in case anyone was watching, I knelt by the body and rearranged his leg so it looked normal.
“Godspeed to hell,” I told him as I took off my gloves and ran my fingers through the blood spreading out beneath his head. “I’ll see you when I get there.” For we would all end up there in the afterlife. I had no doubt.
I heard the distant wail of sirens as I walked back to the car.
It was after three in the morning by the time I made it back to Gino’s. The entire house was dark and quiet, with only the three guards from earlier watching the perimeter.
I edged closer to Luna’s window. By the light of the partial moon, I could barely make out a lump on the bed where she slept curled up under the comforter. Slow and easy, I removed the screen and eased the window up a few inches.
She didn’t move.
Opening it the rest of the way, I crawled through the opening into her room, bringing a rush of cold air with me. I looked around for the container of food I’d left for her the night before so I could remove the evidence, but I didn’t see it. I hoped she’d hidden it somewhere and that it hadn’t been found.
As I set the screen back in place without fastening it and shut the window in case one of the guards happened to wander by, I wondered if she’d managed to talk the chef into giving her some of the lunch she’d helped with. I hadn’t had time to make her anything tonight, but I would make it up to her tomorrow.
Quietly, I walked over to the bed. Luna slept on her side, hugging the extra pillow. The skin around her eyes was red and puffy, as though she’d been crying. The sight tugged on something in the middle of my chest. Something I didn’t recognize. I frowned as I tried to identify what it was, but eventually, my attention was drawn back to Luna.
Earbuds were in her ears, and I found myself curious to know what she was listening to. A cell phone was on the nightstand. I tapped the screen and a Spotify list popped up with the sounds of a rainstorm playing, set on repeat. I was surprised Gino allowed her to have a phone.
Holding it to her sleeping face to unlock it, I opened the home screen and scrolled through her calls and messages. The last call was to someone named Logan. Her brother. All her texts were to him also. Didn’t she have any friends? It would be better if she didn’t. It would make things easier if no one would be looking for her.
It didn’t occur to me to wonder why I’d had that thought.
