Chapter 20 - The Lingering Shadow
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The banquet stretched into the late hours. The guests were laughing, smoking cigars, and enjoying the opulent dessert spread.
Dominic leaned back in his chair, watching Sophia converse happily with the capos' wives. He felt a small tug on his sleeve.
He looked down. Lily was standing next to his chair, her bear crushed against her ribs. She was wearing her velvet dress. She was not looking at him.
She was looking down the long table.
"What is it, little one?" Dominic asked softly, a strange, cold prickle creeping up his spine.
Lily held up her right hand.
She pinched her thumb and forefinger together, leaving a small space between them. The shape of something no bigger than a thimble.
"A little bottle," she whispered.
Dominic froze. His blood turned to ice. The lively chatter of the room faded into a deafening silence in his ears. He didn't move. He barely breathed.
"Where?" Dominic rasped.
Lily's small arm came up. Her finger went out, traveling down the length of the walnut table. Past the silver candelabra. Past the laughing faces.
She pointed to the far corner of the room, near the terrace doors, where a man in a dark suit stood in the shadows. He wasn't one of Dominic's men. And he was staring right back at them.
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"There," Lily whispered. "He put it in Mommy's glass."
Dominic's eyes violently snapped to Sophia, who was just raising her wine glass to her lips.
