“I want you to call off your guns, right now. Before the shooting really starts and a lot of people who
don?t have anything to do with this get wasted.”
“You want we should stand in the middle of the boulevard and invite that fuckin? Nance to have target
practice on us, that it?” his voice rasped.
“I?ll take care of Nance,” I said. “I got more reason than you. He?s tried to kill me twice.”
For some reason that impressed Graves. He said, “I?m not real clear on what it is you?re offering me
to do for what.”
“If you hang up your guns, I?ll see to it that the Taglianis do the same. Then all you have to do is sit
back and let the Feds put the rest of the Tagliani clan away and it?ll be all yours again.”
“And the Feds?re just gonna leave rue alone, right?”
“That?s the way it?ll work out,” I said.
“And what it is, you?re just doin? this because you?re a fine, upstanding dude that does good work,
right? Shit, man, what you take me for? I wasn?t out pickin? cotton when the brains were handed out.”
“Look, I know about your deal „with Mr. Stoney and I don?t—”
“1 ain?t got no deal with Mr. Stoney ,“ he said. “He don?t deal, man, don?t come grubbin? around wit1
his hand out lookin? for part of the action, shit. That ain?t his style. Me and Mr. Stoney have an
understanding. If I fuck up, I get hammered. If I don?t, everything?s velvet.”
“What I?m saying is, I?m after Tagliani. I don?t care how you and Mr. Stoney run the town. It looked
pretty good to me in the old days.”
“You talked to Mr. Stoney about all this?”
“He?ll figure it out by himself,” I said. “Personally, I think you?re getting suckered into this gunfight
with Tagliani.”
His smile vanished, but the voice didn?t change.
“1 don?t get suckered, dog lover. That ain?t my style.”
“You want to listen?” I said bluntly.
He put his leg back on the floor and leaned over the table toward me. “Okay,” he said, “we?ve come
this far. Just don?t piss me off.”
“They need a fall guy for the whole enchilada.”
“Who needs?”
“Maybe Chevos. Maybe Costello. 4aybe even Bronicata, although I doubt it. Whoever knocked aver
twelve Taglianis so far this week. Somebody had to go down for it and they?re setting you up to be the
guy.”
He leaned back in his chair, making a church steeple of his fingertips, and stared up at the dark
