hallway.
“By the side door,” Nario says quietly, giving Carlo a look. “Ubert bringing the car around?”
“Men and their business talk.” Sil loops her arm through mine and pulls me ahead of them. Lowering her voice, she whispers, “I really do appreciate tonight, Hazel. I’m sorry if I seemed a little … uh, manic. Things have been stressful lately and I was just so happy to have some female company—”
“Sil, you were fine. I had fun. It was awesome. Really.”
She lets out a relieved breath. “Sometimes, I can be a little too much, I’ve been told. So I haven’t scared you off?”
I plant a big, sloppy kiss on her cheek, feeling emboldened by her outgoing personality. “Does that answer your question?”
She laughs, giving me a playful slap. “Don’t make a habit of that, Hazel. You’ll get the men all excited.”
“Oh, God,” Nario asks from behind us. “What’ve we started, Carlo?”
When we get to the side door, Nario makes to stride ahead of us and Sil rolls her eyes. “He’s only a gentleman when he feels like it,” she confides. “But I will say goodbye here, Hazel. I hate to leave those little rascals alone with the guards for too long.” She gives me two very proper kisses on the cheek, way less sloppy than mine.
“You have to teach me those roller-skating tricks,” I tell her. “It looked like magic.”
“It’s a date.” She winks.
Once she’s done, the three of us walk outside. Ubert is leaning against the car, but he stands up at the creak of the door. He nods to Nario and the two men clasp hands.
“I hope Cecilia isn’t driving you too crazy,” Nario laughs. “I know what—”
“What do you know, Italian fuck?” The Irish accent is deep and gravelly.
I turn to see four men stumbling around the corner, all of them clearly drunk. They swagger right over to the car. Carlo’s arm comes across my midsection—where the baby is—and moves me behind him. I make to push his hand away. There’s no way I’m about to shiver in the shadows while these assholes ruin my night.
But Carlo gives Ubert a look and straightaway, he’s on me, meaty hands pulling me to the rear of the car. I struggle in his grip. “Relax, miss,” he whispers, eyes fixated on the men.
“You got your pistol?” Carlo whispers.
Nario nods almost imperceptibly.
“Does this seem like a clever idea to you, Irishmen?” Carlo growls. “You must know what happened to the last fucks who disturbed Sartori in his home.”
The leader has a mane of red hair spilling down over a leather jacket. He holds a jagged beer bottle in one hand. It winks in the moonlight. My hands are over my belly, imagining all the horrible things he could do to our baby with that bottle.
“Maybe we just wanna say hello.”
Nario snorts. “Hello,” he says. “Do you want to throw a fucking slumber party, too? Carlo, did I ever tell you I used to do speed-shooting competitions?” His hand is near his hip. Carlo groans as though he’s told him many times before. But they’re just putting on a show. “Yeah, got a few silver medals, I don’t mind saying. Four targets, shit, that’s nothing.”
“Relax, relax,” the guy growls. “We just wanted to say hello. To let you know that Fergal’s keeping a seat warm for you. I’m not fucking around, dago, he’s got this electric chair, bought it from some jail out west. We’re gonna watch you fry.”
I wonder if they’ll look over here. I wonder if the men will say anything to me. I want to run out there and gouge my fingernails into their eyes. We were having such a nice night.
“And you wanted to try and intimidate Nario Sartori,” Carlo laughs. “By letting us know you know where he’s living. Doesn’t that seem like a waste of time to you, Nario?”
“Oh no, Carlo. I’m intimidated. I’m scared.”
The Irishman laughs strangely, eyes flitting over the shadows. They rest on me for a moment, but then the moment passes and I wonder if he was really looking at Ubert.
“What makes you think it’s you we’re trying to intimidate?” He grins as he swaggers away.
Even when they’re gone from sight, Nario doesn’t take his hand from his hip as he pulls out his cell phone and starts barking orders. Carlo returns to me, nodding at Ubert as if to thank him for not letting me get involved. He wraps his arms around me and I hug close to him, my heart hammering way