"nicky carlotti," dino says. "niccolo carlotti. say it. say it!"

"nicky carlotti," peter repeats, "jesus, dino, he was my friend too, just don't, please --"

and then the closed bathroom door bangs open, and edmund's there, a gun in his hands. "you get away from him," he says, his voice shaking, but his hands are steady. "you get the hell away from my brother, you fucking mafia asshole."

"edmund," susan says before she can help herself.

"you didn't check the goddammn window?" dino spits at someone.

"the kid's not going to shoot anyone," gino says.

"you get the hell away from peter," edmund says, "you leave my sisters alone, you --"

"edmund, jesus," is all peter says.

dino puts the gun back against peter's jaw and peter closes his eyes, then opens them again. his throat moves shallowly, he's shaking.

"get the hell away from --"

"i'm going to pull the trigger," dino warns, and then edmund shoots him.

lucy screams, and susan thinks that she might have too, but afterward what she sees is peter on his feet with dino's gun in his hands, staring down as dino lifts his fingers to the spreading stain on his chest. peter points the gun at gino. "you get the fuck away from my sisters," he orders. "get him out of here. get out of here."

and then, belying that, he moves forward and grabs edmund's arm, hustling the three of them out the door in front of him. "you stay away from us," he says, walking backwards with the gun pointed into the room. "you stay the hell away from us." to susan, "get them in the car and drive."

everything they own is in that room. she doesn't look back.

in the back seat, on the highway, peter has to pry edmund's fingers away from the gun. "it's all right," he says, "it's all right. ed, look at me. look at me." and in the rearview mirror susan can see him cup his hands around edmund's face, holding him steady, and that edmund is crying silently.

peter is the one bleeding from a dozen different places, and she's never seen him so calm. lucy twists around in the passenger seat to look back, wide-eyed.

"you did the right thing," peter tells him. "you did the right thing. you had to do it. say it."

edmund licks his lips and swallows. "i did the right thing," he croaks. "i had to -- pete, i had to! he was going to kill you, he was going to kill su and lu and he was -- he was --"

"yeah, he was," peter says, "and i'm sorry, i'm sorry --" and he pulls edmund into a hug, and susan, watching, sees the way he flinches when edmund falls into him. three of the fingers on peter's left hand are broken.

"we have to go to a hospital," she says. "peter --"

"keep driving," he says. "just keep driving."