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I shake my head. “Frank is investigating.”
“Who…found him?” Juno asks delicately.
“Frank did.”
“Has Frank—” Juno begins again, but I hold up a hand.
“Come on,” I say, with a small smile. “You know the rules, Juno. Family business is Family business.”
It takes a second, but Juno accepts it. She can hardly argue with me about it. If I started questioning her about Bianchi business, she’d be outraged. But then Lyssa, the blonde Syndicate member, leans forward. “Mrs. Colombo?—”
“Brie.”
“Brie. Hadria Imperioli—Hades of the Styx Syndicate—sends her condolences. Now, unfortunately I don’t have time to be delicate, although Iamsorry about your husband. But Scarlett and I are here on a particular mission. Juno suggested that it might be more useful to us to talk to you instead of—well, the new Don.”
I actually appreciate her upfront approach. I like practical women. But I should probably call Frank back in if they want to talk business. Still…if this mission they’re on is confidential, Idon’t know if I can trust Frank to keep quiet about it. “What did you want to discuss?”
“We’re hunting a female assassin. We have reason to believe she may be connected to your husband’s death—and maybe the attempt on your life, too.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “An assassin?”
Scarlett speaks for the first time. “She works for a woman known as ‘Grandmother.’ Grandmother has been training female assassins for several decades, and we believe she may have been embedding them in organizations such as yours, all around the country—maybe the world. Your husband’s name was on a list we acquired.”
“And you think Terry was killed by one of these women?”
Lyssa shrugs. “We don’t know for certain. But we need to rule it out. How many women would have had access to Don Colombo during the last few years?”
The faces of the women who work in the casino flash through my mind—cocktail waitresses, dealers, a few pit bosses. But they’re all familiar, all vetted. “The women on our staff have all been here for years, vetted by the Family, and…” I spread my hands. “They’re loyal.”
“These assassins are very good at playing a part,” Scarlett says darkly.
“What about his lovers?” Lyssa asks bluntly, and I have to laugh, both at her frankness and at the question.
I glance at Juno, who gives me an almost imperceptible nod.Yes, these people can be trusted. “He had no female lovers.”
“You’re…sure about that?” Lyssa asks, cocking an eyebrow.
“Terry kept it quiet, but he was gay. As am I. We had an arrangement.”
Scarlett is the only one to react, an involuntary, understanding “Ohhh!” escaping her. Lyssa just shoves a pen and paper into my hands.
“We need a list of any women around him,” she says. “And any other women who could have had unquestioned access to your husband. Hairdressers. Stylists. Doctors.”
“Only women?”
“Only women.”
I’m already scribbling down a few names, but I glance up as something occurs to me. “Eva Novak is in town.”
“Eva Novak is not the person the Syndicate seeks,” Juno says. “I have known her for many years. We attended the same finishing school in the Alps.”
Finishing school? Okay. “Eva might be clear,” I say after a pause, “but she has a new bodyguard or associate or something—a woman named Nik. Dominika Kusek.”
“I’ll have Johnny de Luca run a background check on her immediately, along with all these other names.” I nod, grateful for Juno’s resources and connections. Then she asks the question I’ve been dreading: “So, Brie…whoisthe new Don? Joe Buccino is in custody, so…”
This is dangerous territory, but I wonder if Frank has already spilled to her. “Frank’s got me playing figurehead while they sortout the succession,” I tell her, without detailing the politics of it all.
Juno’s brow furrows. “That’s not ideal. Perhaps?—”
