ina'

ossed, my thoughts louder than the thunder outside. The mansion had felt colder since the interrogation in the cellar. Not physically-no,

Luca... Luca had gone quiet. Controlled. Still charming, still deliberate. But there was a distance to him

sn't

e he was innocen

ide. Black. Sleek. O

't one

away from

hed from the hall

the v

Luca called.

ough-tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in a slate-grey trench coat soaked

ook at me. N

oked a

ke hell," sh

like trouble

e turne

is

nodde

cal. She wasn't sizing me up the way most peop

ndering ho

r I was wi

she said. "I kn

and measured, like someone used t

r?" I

itched. "Among

t th

at don't go

mir

d her

a's

changed in

he'd been my father's shadow in the years before his death. Cleaner. Scout. Executioner. No one

ter the funeral. I h

ed, once we were

her coat and tossed i

than you are," she said. "And because

ght my a

ho

He's shopping for allies. And h

orma

r than

r legs. Her body never r

he said. "Someone f

t like a blo

owly. "That's

said. "And Va

added, "Or at lea

thing cracked. The moment this family lost its spine. If someone had fo

destroy eve

is he?"

t two leads-one in Na

We go to Na

"I go to Naples

ed up

yet," she said. "But h

ing, she added: "Y

narrow

ou lik

e to like he

led. A r

," she said, then stood

ina'

aza had a way of owning space that I recognized. Power wit

through a collection of foreign newsp

ing," I said fr

up but did

you rea

" she said.

o you want

'm not the one who wan

each other

. You don't flinch when someone mentions blood.

n't r

she asked. "Is

ide. "And wha

he said. "Th

t the tension between us stayed

erous. But n

d of woman who picked

ed her, it me

sure that was

a's

e in the wine ce

your father's pet ghost

ything," I said. "She's her

the g

abou

ht questions, but not

m. "You think

se. And someone alr

e'd seen Ricci's name. She knew Valerio was tie

like I was a puzzle she

of what she'll

e afraid of what you'll

n't a

n't wrong abou

a's

hadn't

with back-alley whispers and quiet, lingering deaths. The

t inside, a former smuggler turned bartender, owed me

d him in the back, pouring chea

he said.

e edges,

look. "You

re i

d the net two

he

y. He had som

ho

oked like trouble. Blonde. Quiet

stopp

rom my coat. Slid

er

ded once. "Yea

el

was she doin

ina'

old Luca e

ths before I came here. Not about the photo of Valerio and the woma

I was here

s bigger

had died for. And I had questi

th had been orchestrated

s last known contact.

a's

rang at

ce was cle

nk," she said. "And sh

od wen

ho

Valerio. He

s usi

s already

hung

since Marco died, I fel

And