“Let him in,” I said before Zo could announce him.
Paulie stood and buttoned his jacket, which did nothing to hide the bulge under his arm. “Do not fuck with me on this.”
Before I could decide if I should feel threatened or not, Brower came in. He looked naked without his security detail and trail of press.
“Danny DA,” Paulie said with a thick coat of disrespect.
“Mister Brower, come with me.” I indicated the door.
Before Paulie could protest, Brower and I were on our way into the lot. I didn’t want to argue with Paulie in front of the DA, and I didn’t want to shame him by asking him to leave.
“I know what you’re here about,” I said as we walked behind the building. We barely had room to walk two abreast. Oil cans stacked against the chain-link fence blocked the view of the graffiti’d cinderblock wall on the other side.
“You have no idea,” he replied.
“One man’s trash,” I said, smiling. “You threw her away.”
“Don’t tell me she’s your treasure. Let’s skip all that. Let’s not pretend you have a bone in your body that can feel anything. No one has time for discovery.”
I didn’t care what he thought about me, or his opinion of my intentions with Theresa. I didn’t even know how I felt about her. But oddly, I couldn’t read him.
“You have something,” I said. “So why not just tell me what it is?” I tried to act casual, as if he had nothing on me.
“I know about your sister. I know there were four men who gang-raped her.”
He did it on purpose. He used words that opened my glands and filled my bloodstream with violence. I wanted to choke him, and he smiled as if he knew it. He was trying to weaken me with my own bile, and I was letting it work.
“That was in Napoli,” I said. “It’s not your business.”
“Four Neapolitans from a rival family. Three are dead, and you took their territory.”
“I already thanked God for striking them down.”
“You lit a candle to yourself,” he said.
“You going to arrest me? In the back of my property? No. You didn’t come here unarmed, by yourself, to take me in.”
“I came to make a trade.”
“This should be good.”
“Do you want to hear it?”
I wanted to check him for a wire was what I wanted to do. I wanted to walk away, because there was no good end to this. He wasn’t offering me anything that would benefit me. It wasn’t in his nature. But I wanted to hear it, because it would tell me more about him than about me, and he was not to be underestimated.
I reached inside my jacket, and Daniel didn’t stiffen or flinch, as if he knew I wouldn’t pull my gun on him. He was confident of it even in his bones. That in itself was cause for concern.
I took out my cigarettes and lighter.
I poked out a cigarette for him, and to my surprise, he took it. I lit his, then mine, watching him for signs that he didn’t smoke. But he blew a ring.
“I know what I did,” he said. “I know, in the end, it’ll fuck me. People don’t vote for men who can’t be monogamous. They think it means I’m not focused. Well, fine. Just fine. I’ll fix what I can and fuck the rest. But Theresa takes it on herself. She thinks there’s something wrong with her. And this is a problem for me, because there’s nothing wrong with her.”
“I agree.”
I’d gotten to him, because his lips tightened. I knew he was imagining us together, and that made me happy. I’d fuck her again just to see that look on his face one more time.
“I know men,” he said. “I know how we are. She’s not some whore. She’s not a tool in your drawer. She’s sensitive, and she’s been hurt enough.”
“By you.”
“By me.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” I asked.
“Here’s what you’re going to do about it. You’re going to take whatever happened yesterday and file it under stuff in the past. You’re going to politely refuse to see her again. You’ll leave her the hell alone, and she’ll find someone else.”
“How noble of you.”