When Roy carried his brother downstairs, he found his father and mother with their arms around each other, their mouths locked together. His mother grabbing the back of his head, pulling him into her. This happened a lot. They would find themselves in a room and just crash into each other. She was always the first to break it, backing away, wiping

Science took out the Walther. “He’s good as got.” Taco looked at the gun and laughed, “Where’d you get the antique, homie?” Science looked off toward Roy. “From him.”

The whole thing billed to the city. Savannah now a “financial consultant” to the mayor’s office.

“Yeah, but they all puppies, tiny Gs. Sons of sons.”

my literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who has far more important clients, yet still somehow manages the patience to answer what I’m sure are the dumbest questions he hears on any given day. Bless you both.

“Didn’t you?” Albert looked at Bob and the two of them started laughing at the thought of the old couple pulling strings. But Roy could see that Danny was telling the truth; that Danny’s instinct to protect Roy had been as genuine as Harvey’s was calculated. But there was still no escaping that the man was the law and had come to put them all down.

If Albert knew that Roy was alive and well, his first move would surely be to wipe out everything Roy cared about, regardless of who else might get blown away in the process. It was the “who else” Roy worried about most. And for that reason alone, he had to get to Dodger Stadium before Albert did.

Sophia, Lukas, and Stella, along with my wife, Jennifer, have for many years put up with a level of madness, mania, and interference on my part that no one should ever have to deal with. I can only hope that your certain knowledge that my love for all of you is constant and unbounded is somehow mitigating. It’s been a lot of fun so far. For me, any

She looked up from her purse and said, “That’s really up to you.” She lit her smoke, sat back, and looked at Roy. “He’s at home now. His home. Not some foster hell hole with a dozen other filthy kids. Which is where he’ll go—where you’ll both go—if I go to prison.”