Page 75 of The Woman in the Hollow
“I’d be a lot more interesting if I were.”
“You’re plenty interesting just as you are. But no. Not everything is confidential. Some shit is. But general things, you can ask about that.”
“Your mom…”
“Isn’t involved. The wives or sisters either. They’re not completely in the dark. For example, my ma knew she was being followed recently by one of my guys. And everyone is going on lockdown for the time being.”
“What does lockdown look like?”
“Mostly, trying to consolidate living quarters so we use fewer guards to protect everyone. So Valley is staying with my mom and Dom is going to be there with them.”
“Is he mad at me?”
“Dom?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would he be?”
“Because I was, you know, digging around.”
“Dom can be a little rough around the edges, but he’s a reasonable guy. He understands that you had no idea what you just stumbled into.”
“Really? Because I think a guy who just got out of prison might be really pissed off that I was going to go to the police.”
“He definitely doesn’t want to go back to prison. But that shit would fall on me, not him.” My stomach twisted violently at the mental image of Dante being dragged away in handcuffs. “You okay?” he asked, brows pinching.
“I… yeah. I’m sorry about that.”
“About what? Wanting someone you thought did a terrible thing to go to prison? That’s a pretty normal reaction.”
“Maybe. But you guys have been nothing but nice to me.”
“Babe, you found abody. I think we can all agree that you were out of your depth there.”
It was just then that there was a slam from upstairs, making me jolt and yelp. I suddenly remembered the gun. On the nightstand. Since I’d been reasonably sure I wouldn’t need it.
“Stay here,” Dante demanded, grabbing something that may or may not have been a piece of lead pipe, and ran up the stairs.
Fearlessly.
Ready to… whack someone over the head.
While I hid in the basement.
I shrank back against the wall, my legs suddenly too weak to even think about trying to find somewhere to take cover. Mybody finally seemed like it hit its max. It didn’t have it in it to run for my life again.
Besides, there was nowheretorun. The basement had no exit, save for the steps I was looking up.
The door whipped open.
My heart sank to my feet.
But then there was Dante, holding the pipe to his shoulder like a baseball bat.
“You can come up, babe,” he called. “It’s my cousin.”
Cousin.
