"Actually, it wasn't my idea at all. The design's mine, but I based it on someone else's." He can still see that damn green apple floating in front of his face, bobbing right around an infuriating smile and blank lenses.

Faye's got no idea who Chapel the Evergreen is, so it shouldn't hurt to tell her the basics, right?

He slants a sidewise grin at her, amused and actually a little flattered by her interest. Hey, she's a girl who likes guns, and that's fine by him. "You like it?"

He could tell her anything she ever wanted to know about the Punisher--that part isn't a secret. He knows every inch of the cross, designed it himself, built it with a little bit of help. Each trigger and buckle is as familiar to him as his suit or his glasses; it all fits him perfectly.

"As for why--well, it's a dangerous world we live in." How he got it is another story entirely, but it isn't one he'll just volunteer--at least not all of the details. Some things are better left to himself, and who knows better what ought to be said than a minister?

Yeah, right.

He made a deal with the devil didn't he? This is just his fiddle of gold.