of him, then? If you didn’t kill him or torture him?”
Carmine started wrapping the money. “He’s never going to cross another Pulvirenti. Beyond that…” He shrugged, glancing up at Danny. “Good luck to him.”
Danny looked dubious.
Chuckling, Carmine shook his head. “Don’t worry about him, Danny. I made sure he understood that he’d made a mistake. A big, big mistake. And that it would be unwise of him to do it again.” He paused to wrap some string around the bundle, and as he tied it, he added, “I scared him good. I won’t tell you that I didn’t. But I didn’t hurt him.”
“Did you want to kill him?”
Carmine tilted his head. “Why?”
Danny shrugged. “It’s just strange to me, this thing where men kill other men over money. I ain’t slept right since I killed Ricky il Sacchi.”
Carmine studied him. He’d been a part of this life for so long, it was strange to encounter someone who still didn’t have the stomach for murder, even when it was the lesser of two evils. Or maybe it wasn’t so strange. Just not something he ran into very often anymore. There’d been a time in his life when Carmine himself had been as horrified as Danny was. When he’d have lost sleep after killing a man even in defense of someone else.
Some gangsters thought men like Danny were soft, but Carmine wondered now if a little more softness would do them all some good. God knew there was already too much blood running in the streets these days.
But that was something for him to ponder next time he was lying awake in his own bed, so he just cleared his throat and gently said, “It’s a rough business.” He handed over the bundle of cash. “And yes, to answer your question, I wanted to kill him. I thought about it.”
Danny looked at him through his lashes. “But you didn’t.”
“I told you I wouldn’t.”
“That’s all?”
Do you think I could look you in the eyes and lie to you the way I can lie to anyone else in this city?
“Does it need to be more complicated than that?”
“I suppose it doesn’t. I just…” Danny swallowed. “You left him alive…because of me?”
Carmine nodded. “I’m a man of my word.”
“Oh.” They stared at each other, the silence heavy and strange.
I’m a man who can lie to my mother’s face, but not to you. What are you doing to me?
Breaking eye contact, Carmine cleared his throat. “So. As long as you’re here, would you care for a drink?”
Danny moistened his lips. He hesitated, but then he tucked the money into his overcoat. “All right. Thank you.”
Carmine tried not to let his relief show over Danny accepting the invitation. It would only extend his visit by a few minutes, but he’d take what he could get.
After he’d poured them each a glass of brandy, he handed one to Danny and raised his own glass. “To trusted associates.”
With a quiet chuckle, Danny clinked them together. “Cheers.”
As they drank, Carmine realized that they were standing much closer now than they’d been a moment ago. He didn’t know if he’d moved or if Danny had, only that they had definitely been farther apart before.
And he…liked it.
Ever since the Great Flu, Carmine had disliked standing close to people. He detested crowds, and he preferred meeting people in his office so he could sit behind his desk and put space between them. The bathhouses were the only place he could really relax into someone else’s proximity, and that was the feeling he had with Danny now. Not the need to step away, but the powerful desire to draw him in. They were standing close, and all Carmine could think was closer. Even when they stood near enough to shake hands or exchange a stack of chits or a bundle of cash, he wanted to draw Danny toward him.
He didn’t, though, and they drank in comfortable silence, exchanging looks now and then that did more to make Carmine’s head spin than the brandy in his glass. He was probably seeing what he wanted to see in Danny’s eyes, but every dizzying glance and every ghost of a smile made him wonder. Especially now, when their conversation about Vincente seemed to relax Danny more than he’d ever been in Carmine’s presence. As if the last bit of lingering wariness that had still hung on from the start had finally melted away tonight.
Had it made that much of a difference to him, Carmine leaving Vincente and the