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The effect is immediate. Katy’s face crumples, her bravado vanishing in an instant, and she slumps in her restraints, looking small and lost. “How did she die?” she asks, her voice barely audible.
Lyssa steps closer, her voice cold. “I killed her.” She pauses, letting that sink in. “And now you’re going to die, too. But how painful that death is…well, that’s up to you.”
I glance at Brie, wondering if this will be too much for her. But her beautiful face is still and unreadable.
“We have some questions,” Scarlett says. “If you answer them, we’ll grant you a merciful death.”
“And if you don’t, you’ll die screaming,” Brie says matter-of-factly. “So let’s begin. Did you kill my husband, Salvatore Colombo?”
I’m blinking in surprise at Brie, but Katy says nothing.
Lyssa steps forward and grabs a handful of the short hair, yanking on it roughly. “If you know me,” she says, “then you know the kind of pain I can inflict. Do you really want to go through all that for a woman who’s already dead? Grandmother had a list of names. Salvatore Colombo. Juno Bianchi. Hadria Imperioli—should I go on?”
Katy gives a tiny half-smile. “I know the list you mean.”
“Is it a hit list?”
A snort of laughter escapes Katy, catching us all off guard. “A hit list? Of course not. It was aproblemlist. The people she had the most difficulty embedding an operative with.”
I feel Brie stiffen beside me, her breath catching. I resist the urge to reach for her hand, keeping my focus on Katy. “What do you mean?” I press.
“Grandmother likes having insurance. She sent us out wherever she could. But that list…they were the tough nuts to crack, so to speak. I was initially sent to seduce Terry Colombo, but he was…resistant to my charms.” She shifts her gaze to Brie. “Guess he preferred the bimbo type.”
I raise a hand to slap the hell out of her, but Brie tugs it down. “Don’t bother,” she says, sounding amused. “Let her think what she wants. She’ll be dead soon enough.”
But the death threats don’t seem to have much effect on Katy. Lyssa and Scarlett have filled us in on a few of the things this Grandmother has done over the years, and I wondered privately if Eva knew of her.
Hadtradedwith her.
Because it wouldn’t sit right with me if she had. This Grandmother—her tactics, her training through abuse—it disgusted me to hear about it. I hope it would disgust Eva Novak just as much.
“So that was your mission?” Scarlett asks, trying a softer tone. “Get close to the Don. But it didn’t work.”
“No.” Katy’s smile fades. “Plan B was to get close to Brie Colombo, find a way in through her. We found her house here at Solara, and I was embedded as a staff member for years, hoping she’d bring her husband out to the house, or give me a clue about how to get closer to the man himself.”
“You’ve been watching me for years?” Brie sounds as shocked as I feel.
Katy’s laugh is hollow this time. “Grandmother is patient. And so am I.” Her eyes narrow as she looks back at Lyssa. “Maybe that’s why you were such a failure for her, Wolf. You lacked that patience.”
Lyssa just grins. “I was patient enough to kill her, in the end.”
Brie speaks up again. “Did you try to assassinate me in Las Vegas? In the alleyway and at the Golden Sands casino?”
Katy’s blank stare is answer enough, but she shakes her head for good measure. “My orders were to watch you, not kill you.”
The pieces aren’t fitting together. If Katy wasn’t behind the assassination attempts, then who was? And—“If that’s true,” I ask, “what the hell made you shoot a goddamn rocket launcher at Brie’s living room tonight?”
“I told you. When I recognized Lyssa, I thought…I thought I might be able to kill her. Gain Grandmother’s favor.”
Lyssa’s laugh is sharp and humorless. She turns to Brie. “Any more questions?”
Brie’s voice is cold, controlled. “Just one. And I want an answer this time. Did you kill Don Colombo?”
Katy shrugs. “No.” The simplicity of her answer, the lack of hesitation, tells me she’s speaking the truth.
But if Katy didn’t kill Don Colombo, and she wasn’t behind the attempts on Brie’s life, then we’re back to square one. The real danger is still out there, and we’re no closer to finding them.
Scarlett breaks the tense silence. “So therearemore like you? Hanging around the fringes of other organizations, like the Bianchi Family?”
