It fucked her up, and I knew she needed time. But I couldn’t leave her home alone, and didn’t want to spare any men to watch her, and so she came with me.
“What are you going to do to him?” Cara asked as we sat outside of the house. It was a simple row home in Fishtown. There was nothing special about it, and that was the point—it was supposed to be anonymous, a place to hide.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
“I’m not sure I can watch you kill him.”
“I’ll warn you before I do then.”
She chewed her lip then sucked in a breath. “Okay, okay, yeah. I can do this. Let’s just go get it over with, okay?”
I pushed open the door and stepped outside. She followed me into a humid night, the air sticky and dripping. I walked up the front stoop and looked to my left where German and Yuri stood under a neighbor’s awning watching silently. German wanted to go in and finish Maher himself, but I had too much history with the man for that.
I knocked hard three times then tried the knob—it wasn’t locked. I stepped in with Cara on my heels.
The place was furnished like a safe house. The couch looked like it’d been picked from the trash and the coffee table was scratched and beat up. The TV was years old, and there was no kitchen table, nothing on the walls. It was bare bones, as basic as necessary, and the downstairs was empty.
“Maybe he’s not here,” Cara said.
I only nodded at the coffee table. There was an empty bottle of whiskey lying on its side. “He’s here.”
I went upstairs. Cara followed slowly. I checked the first room and found nothing, only a mattress on the floor. The bathroom at the far end of the hall was empty, and there was only one more room, the door shut tight.
I knocked again.
Maher answered. “You might as well come in and get it over with.” His voice sounded tight, like he was in pain.
I glanced at Cara and opened the door slowly.
Nothing happened. I hesitated then stepped into the room, gun gripped in my hands.
Maher was on a mattress with his back propped up by pillows. A phone lay beside him and a gun beside that, but his hands were empty. He sneered at me, his skin sallow and pale, big bags under his eyes, sweat rolling down his forehead.
“Took you long enough,” he said.
“My guys found you a little while ago. I wanted to come talk in person.” I nodded at the gun. “You going to use that?”
“Only on myself.” He made a face and gestured. “Go ahead and take it if you want.”
I walked over and grabbed it. He didn’t move to try to stop me, only watched placidly as I tossed the gun aside and kept my own trained on him.
“I guess things aren’t going great for you.” I glanced down at his leg. It was wrapped in dirty bandages. Another dirty bandage was pulled tight across his chest. “Have you seen a doctor?”
He laughed then coughed painfully. “Doctors won’t see me. And I know if I go to a hospital, I might as well kill myself. Lionetti will get me there.”
“What about your family? Turned their backs on you?”
“I never got permission to do any of this shit and you know it. As far as they’re concerned, I was acting on my own and deserve all this shit.”
I rocked back on my heels. Cara hovered behind me, over toward the door. “What should I do with you, Maher?”
“Kill me, I expect.” He showed his teeth. Yellow and crooked. “It’s what I’d do to you.”
“I don’t doubt it.” I narrowed my eyes. “Why were you so intent on this?”
He sighed and leaned his head back against the pillows. His wounds must be bad, possibly infected, and he was likely in terrible pain if the doctors wouldn’t see him. No wonder that bottle of whiskey was empty.
“Lionetti wants you bad,” he said, his voice a hollow version of its normal growl. “They think that dossier’s the end of them.”
I tightened my grip on the gun. “What’s that mean?”
“Existential threat. You know what I’m saying? The Lionettis think that dossier can bring them down.”
“Destroy the Lionettis?” I couldn’t fathom it. They were strong—one of the biggest crime families in the city with connections that ran deep.
But if the dossier represented the base of their power, then maybe—
“Damn, Luke, that’s always been your problem.” Maher laughed then sucked in a breath through his teeth. “You’ve never been much of a thinker. More into breaking down doors and punching people in the face.”
“Explain what you’re talking about, Maher.”
“The Lionettis think that if they lose control of that dossier, then they lose control of everyone inside of it. Then what do you think would happen?”