Dark Secrets(77)

Vin shook his head. "His friend," he said, nodding toward Daniel.

"Max? Max pissed off Alan?" Faith asked, squinting, not seeing how that made any sense.

"Max accused him of skimming. It was fine until Max said he had proof and went to reach into his jacket. He obviously had been skimming and he panicked and lost it." He recounted it almost casually, like it wasn't a crazy situation. For him, maybe it wasn't. When you had been the leader of an organized crime syndicate for a good three decades, it was easy to become jaded to that kind of thing. "He was weak to begin with. Hired him when he was twenty because his mother begged my mother to make me give him a leg up," Vin recalled with a scoff.

"Where's Salvatore?" Faith asked. "Still at the station?"

"Yeah. I had already been questioned for a while so the lawyers got me out easily enough. They had just gotten to Salvatore. He shouldn't be too much longer. Giovani?" he asked, looking around. 

"Surgery floor," Faith provided.

"Anthony," he said, swallowing a little hard, eyes going sad. "The stomach..."

"He got here way before the fifteen minutes passed, Vin," Daniel surprised them by butting in. "They should be able to repair the damage."

Vin nodded, but there seemed to be nothing hopeful about him. He seemed resigned to the worst. It must have been hard to be hopeful when you watched a lot of men die. That was the life, but it was clear Vin had never really considered it might happen to his own sons. "I am going to go sit with Gio. Send Salvatore up when he gets here," he said, giving them both a nod and moving away.

"Everyone has been briefed," K said, finally showing his face again and Faith got the distinct impression that he maybe purposely disappeared for as long as he had, like maybe he wanted to give Faith and Daniel a chance to talk things out. He had been the more hesitant one at the diner the night they gave her the information on Daniel in the first place, the one to try to encourage her to think things through. "Took a lot of convincing to keep Ellie at home."

"Thanks for calling everyone. Is Corey alright?" she asked, knowing that, behind Ellie, she was the most likely to be worrying herself sick.

"No, I'm not fucking alright," Corey's voice said, coming up behind K who shrugged in a very 'what can you do' way. "Jesus Christ. You know, it's not every damn day that a man in a hot pink G-string and hooker boots and nothing else walks up and asks you if you heard about all the gunshots at the bar across the street. And the damn cops won't give out any information about those injured."

"I'm fine, Cor," Faith said, giving her an encouraging smile.

"No, you're not fine. You need hazard pay for this shit. Seriously. I am getting my attorney to draw up fucking papers or something for Vin. This is unacceptable. Whose blood is all over you two?" she asked as if finally calming down to notice such a thing.

"Anthony and his partner's." Her perfect face dropped immediately. "Anthony is in surgery. Max is pinching nurse's asses or something and loading up on Jell-O."

Corey took a long breath, nodding. "Okay, well, come on," she said, gesturing toward her oversize purse. "I have something to change into... don't give me that look, it's not made of leather or spandex or fishnets," she said, shaking her head.

"Go on," K encouraged. "Daniel and I need to have some words anyway," he added, his face completely blank, unreadable.

"K..." she said, her voice reasoning.

"It's fine, Faith," Daniel said, giving her a squeeze before letting her go and she was mortified to realize she felt almost a little unsteady without him there supporting her. But that was insane so she shook it the hell off and moved away with her friend toward the bathrooms, wondering if there was going to be another person bleeding in a couple of minutes.

And if so, who?





SIXTEEN





Danny





"I like that you're here for her," K said as soon as the women were out of earshot and Daniel got the distinct impression that he had made no effort to keep Corey from tagging along like he had with Ellie. He wanted her there so he had an excuse to talk to him alone. Hell, he probably even encouraged Corey to bring the change of clothes. He had an eye for details like that. "But I got a problem with you disappearing like that," he added.

"She didn't want..."

"Bullshit," he cut Daniel off. "Bull-fucking-shit and we both know it. She likes you. And I know you haven't known her all that long, but she doesn't like men easily and she almost never trusts them fully. She's seen too much shitty stuff from men in her life. I don't blame her for being cautious. But she wanted to trust you and you shit on that and you needed to be a man and own up to it and instead you hid away until tonight. Explain that shit to me."