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in defeat.
    Within seconds, a pounding on the back door had me bolting upright. My heart hammered wildly as I switched off the lamp and waited. More pounding, then the thumping of bodyweight being thrown into the door. Move, you idiot!
    I ran out into the garage and frantically searched for somewhere to hide. My eyes roved right and left—I couldn’t open the roll-up door fast enough to escape onto Jefferson, and the only other hiding spots were the basement or—gulp—a hearse. When a gunshot blasted through the back door, busting the lock, I squeaked in terror and took a running dive into the hearse with no back end. I yanked on a curtain from the window and the whole rod came down. Burrowing underneath the black velvet and curling into a ball, I was starting a Hail Mary when I heard slow footsteps. Then creak of the office door.
    Silence.
    When the footsteps started up again, they seemed to be coming toward me. I curled tighter into myself, my body stiff with terror. The intruder came closer. I stopped breathing.
    Then, for five agonizing seconds—nothing.
    Finally, I could stand it no longer. I opened my eyes and peeked out.
    Joey stood at the back of the hearse, aiming a pistol at me.
    “Tiny?” He dropped the gun and gawked. “What the hell are you doing?”
    “It’s a long story,” I said. “Which I might tell you, if I can ever breathe normally again.” I hoped I hadn’t wet myself. Why the hell did everybody have a gun all of a sudden?
    Joey tucked his into his waistband and reached for me. “Well, I’m glad you’re not dead. I’m staying at Bridget’s tonight and when I heard noise down here, I looked out the window and saw a body being carried out and put into the back seat of a sedan.”
    I let him drag me to the edge of the hearse by my forearms and pull me out. My rubbery legs threatened to buckle. “Yeah, that was Daddy. He’s not dead though. Yet. ” I put both hands on my stomach, which was still pitching.
    “What?” His voice cracked on the word.
    I took a breath and explained, starting with the phone call and ending with my swan dive into the back of the hearse.
    “Jesus. Your dad mentioned there might be some trouble.” He scratched his head. “Who were the guys? Did you recognize them?”
    “There were five at least. The older one who did the talking was well dressed and maybe in his forties. Dark hair. Didn’t look like the type to do his own dirty work. Two younger guys were with him, and a couple goons.” I decided not to tell him that one of the younger guys was the fancy suit I’d been talking to in the alley.
    “Did you get names?”
    I hesitated. Naming names was against the rules; it got people into trouble. But I thought I could trust Joey. “One of them might be called Angel.”
    “Angel DiFiore, that son of a bitch.” Joey nodded in recognition. “That’s the older one. The younger two were probably his sons, Enzo and Raymond.”
    My mouth fell open. Enzo was Angel’s son ?
    “Angel is an associate of Tony Provenzano,” Joey went on, “the bastard who put the hit on Big Leo Scarfone and got my father killed.”
    I sucked in my breath. “Was Angel involved in those murders?”
    “He wasn’t put on trial, but that don’t mean he wasn’t.” Even in the dark, I saw the fury in Joey’s stance. “He came from Brooklyn a while back, and his operation was on the west side of Detroit, but now he’s over here with his sons, muscling in on the east side rackets. He’s pissing some people off.”
    “How do you know so much?”
    He shrugged. “I got ears.”
    “Is he a bootlegger?”
    Joey shook his head. “He runs a club, lottery, races, and a bunch of other things you don’t want to know about.”
    A series of clanks from the alley made us both jump. “Let’s get out of here.” I grabbed his arm. “Can you come home with me?”
    “Been waiting years for you to ask me that.”
    I almost choked. “Please.”
    We walked back at a fast clip, and I