“If we get Shepherd off the street,” he said. “A lot of people’s lives will be better, Sebastiani.”
“If,” Bass repeated pointedly. He nodded through the glass at the sack of a man sunk in on himself in the uncomfortable metal chair. “Until then this is what I do to people.”
“On my orders,” Merlo pointed out.
“Yeah, well, I guess we’re both assholes.”
Merlo hooked a finger into his tie and pulled it loose from his collar. A dry smile sketched over his mouth. “I know people who’d agree with you,” he said. “But none of them are here to do the job their way instead. Until they are, us assholes just have to do the best we can with what circumstances drop in our lap.”
“After this,” Bass said. “I think I might go and join them for a while.”
“After this you’re due some downtime,” Merlo agreed. “It’s been a hard job.”
“No, it’s not,” Bass said. “That’s the problem.”
It was perilously close to the sort of admission that could get your legend retired and you pulled off the streets. Once this was over, maybe that was what Bass needed, at least for a while until he got his head straightened back out.
Merlo picked up the prop folder of evidence from the table, officiously stamped and stuffed with cold, graphic images of the Brothers’ sins. He tucked it under his arm and glanced briefly at the door to make sure it stayed closed.
“Will it be a problem?”
“Not for you.”
That was apparently good enough. It wasn’t as though they had anyone else he could put in. Merlo glanced at his faded reflection in the glass, made a face, and straightened his tie back up.
“Are you going to observe?”
“For a bit,” Bass said. He fished his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it. A few messages from Shepherd. One from Tag. Instinct twitched his thumb toward Tag’s name, but he resisted. He might have gotten more entangled than he expected from answeringSureto aWanna fuckfrom a stranger, but he didn’t need to be pathetic about it. “Then I’ll need to go show my face at The Sheep’s Clothing, protest I did my job when they can’t find Cochrane to bring him to heel.”
Merlo nodded. “You’ve done a good job here, Sebastiani, and I know that Frome wants to get more locals in the ranks here in Plenty. If you wanted to stay, I’d put a good word in.”
It was simultaneously the last fucking thing Bass wanted and a tempting offer. He settled for a shrug.
“Might not be too good for my health,” he said. “Unlikely as it sounds, Shepherd does have friends.”
“I’ll put a word in wherever you settle,” Merlo said. “Just didn’t think you were the type to be scared out of somewhere.”
Bass quirked up the corner of his mouth. “I don’t think I’m the type to take that bait either. Besides, pretty sure my boss in New York expects me back.”
Merlo acknowledged the failed gambit with a smile and headed into the interview room. As the door clicked closed, Nathan pushed himself up off the table. He wiped his hands over his face and blustered preemptively as Merlo pulled out a chair to sit down.
“Before I say anything, I want some guarantees in writing,” Nathan said. He jabbed his finger against the table to underline the demands he spat out. “I want protection. My family is to be relocated to a location of our choice, and I get immunity from prosecution for anything I did under duress.”
Merlo sat down and laid the folder out neatly in front of him.
“Just for you?” he asked as he opened the folder and started to lay photos out in front of him. “So Ms. Lowry is still going to take the rap for her attempt on Jason Morrow’s life? I hope her commitment to paying her debt to society goes over well with the judge when it comes to sentencing.”
The high, defiant flush washed out of Nathan’s cheeks. He opened his mouth to say something, but when no noise came out, he closed it again. Merlo waited patiently as he pushed a photo across the table. Nathan looked at it and then looked away. His throat worked as he swallowed hard.
“Rebecca didn’t want to…. We had no choice,” he said. “I take full responsibility for that. Rebecca just wanted to protect me.”
“Mr. Morrow had threatened you?” Merlo asked. “Ms. Lowry had to mow him down in the street in defense of your life?”
Nathan touched his nose. “Shepherd threatened me. He threatened us both,” he said. “Rebecca didn’t want to be involved in any of it. She’s in the hospital right now because she couldn’t cope with what happened to that man.”
“What you and your wife did to him, you mean?” Merlo corrected smoothly.
“Yeah,” Nathan said after a second. “I guess I do. It wasn’t anything to do with Rebecca, though. She didn’t want to do it, any of it, but I owed Shepherd. He said this is how I could pay him back. It wasn’t achoice,I couldn’t say no.But we couldn’t afford for me to go to prison either. The hospital would fire me. I could lose my license.”
