Joe jumped to his feet and went to her.
“Look out, Joe,” she yelled.
He spun around and saw the man he’d kicked in the balls kneeling on the floor, raising a gun in the air.
“Don’t shoot. Take my gun.” The man tossed his gun away toward Joe.
“Mae, are you all right, are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. I’m fine. Are you?”
He didn’t answer her, but he took her face in his hands and kissed her as all hell broke loose when Detective Harvey and his men came crashing through the door.
* * *
Joe heldone arm around Mae as he drove her to the station to give their statements. Because Joe had killed Sal, Harvey insisted they needed an official interview at the station. When they arrived at headquarters he and Mae found themselves in the same interview room they’d been in the first time they’d visited.
He was lucky he had one of Sal’s men was still alive for a witness, according to Harvey. The detective was mad as a dog that he wouldn’t get to collar Sal on the larger matter of weapons dealing.
“Is Sunny all right?” Mae asked.
“She’s shaken. Has a busted face, but she’ll live. She was smart to get out the back door. Surprised one of my men when he found her coming around front.”
“What else do you need to know, detective?” Joe was ready for this night to be over. He’d already written everything down and answered every question more than once separately from Mae. An officer brought her in at his insistence.
“You have an interesting work history. Ex-military doesn’t even cover it. You never went to college.”
“I went for a year. Left.”
“You own some coffee shops in the Boston area.”
“We’ve been over this.”
“So how did you manage to take out three armed men? You work out? Martial Arts?”
“Special training.”
“With who?”
“If I told you—you know the line.”
“Don’t be a wiseass.”
“There’s no law against it.”
“We’d all be in jail,” Harvey scoffed.
“East Coast, eh? You planning to head back any time soon?”
“Yes.”
“You can go, but we’ll need you back to testify at trial. We got Sal’s man to give us some names, so he gets off but the rest of them go down. Your testimony will be a bit part.”
Joe agreed.
“What about the old man’s stash of money?” Mae asked.
“My theory is that Antonio Vito’s mistress, Lisa Diego, took off with it and it’s been long gone for years. We checked. She’s deceased. The only one left who could legitimately lay claim to it is Gina Vito, the widow. She wants to look for it, she’s welcome to it.”