Lorenzo was the oldest, head of the San Francisco family and leader of the shadow riders in the Northern California and Oregon regions. His brothers Franco and Brio were twins, followed by triplets, Santo, Matteo and Lucio. The last twins born were female, Zenita and Zeta. Lorenzo had his hands full with his younger siblings, all reputed to be fast in the shadows as well as quick, independent thinkers.The latter was a trait one wanted in a shadow rider but maybe not so much in a sibling one was responsible for.
The outside luxury box next to Taviano, Nicoletta, Ricco and Mariko held their LA cousins Severino, Veila and Remigio. Santo, from San Francisco, was in the shadows watching over them. Matteo remained unseen in the shadows guarding Taviano and the others in their box. Lorenzo guarded Geno and his brothers. It was up to Franco to ensure no one got into Stefano’s box. Lucio watched over Val and Emme’s box. And in the last luxury box holding Max, Tore, Vico and Marzio from LA, their cousin Brio, from San Francisco, remained in the shadows, guarding them.
Geno knew Zenita and Zeta were excellent, skilled riders. He was certain they could protect anyone—just nothisAmaranthe. He couldn’t shake the idea that he was failing her by not being with her every moment. It made sense that the two women would shadow her. They could be in her dressing room and would be able to stay close. He was uneasy, and it took discipline to stay in his seat rather than pace up and down in the hallway as he would like.
Brielle had checked on the survivors in the Boutler family and any known associates. She had sent her findings to the family and continued to track them, sending updates if anything changed, such as she could tell they were on the move.
Rogan Boutler was the man who had murdered the Australian girl. He was sixty-six years old and had been a shadow rider in inland Queensland for a number of years. He’d been married and had three sons, Parker, Owen and Neil. His wife, Irene, died in a hunting accident. She had fallen from a cliff into a ravine. Rogan left Queensland with his three boys within weeks after her death. The boys had been in their early teens.
It seemed to Geno that the wives of the Boutler men ended up dying in tragic accidents that no one could quite believe of a shadow rider. Brielle questioned the accidents as well. In any case, Rogan was dead. Vivian Brown, theAustralian woman Rogan had murdered, was twenty-six years old and distantly related. Rogan had started up a family genealogy site online, and she was one of the interested parties who had joined. She’d begun corresponding with him and asking all kinds of questions about the family.
Brielle said both Rogan and his brother, Lewis, seemed to be very charismatic and would post videos talking to their followers. Those videos were viewed over and over, hundreds of times, by the same younger relatives as if they were mesmerized. Geno believed in psychic gifts. Rogan and Lewis seemed to possess the ability to bind followers to them. Not all joining the genealogy site became fanatical followers; in fact, many seemed to be refusing to have anything to do with the two men once they left the site.
Brielle had added a few names she was keeping track of—men and women she believed might aid Rogan and Lewis in their plan for revenge against the shadow riders, but Rogan’s sons, Neil, Owen and Parker, were in New York. Not only were they in New York, but they were close to the theater. Not in it, but close. It wouldn’t take much for them to catch a shadow, slip inside and murder their assigned targets and leave.
Lincoln, Lewis’s son, was also in New York. He’d lived there for seventeen years. Like his cousins, he wasn’t married. He was part owner of a thriving art gallery and illustrated graphic novels. From what Brielle could tell, he lived quietly, dated Fiona Alley, an artist whose work sold very well. They kept their relationship out of the spotlight and attended few public events together. At her showings, they were never seen together.
Geno considered why Lincoln would put an ocean between his father and himself. Why he would live so quietly, almost as if he were living in the shadows. He had dated the same woman for years but didn’t live with her and didn’t appear in public with her, as if hiding that relationship. Late at night, Geno had discussed his conclusions with Amaranthe, and she agreed with him. Lincoln wanted his familyto forget all about him, just as Rowina Boutler had hoped would happen when she married in Greece. Still, Brielle kept a close watch on Lincoln and Fiona.
Cooper and Calen Boutler, sons of Eric, had arrived in New York a good six months earlier. They frequented one of the internet cafés the hackers used. Now that Amaranthe was able to see photographs of them, she realized she had seen each of them separately on more than one occasion in the business district near a coffee shop she sometimes stopped at before going to work.
It was a sign that the Boutlers were entrenched in the Ferraro territory as well as in Little Italy. The times she saw the two men, they had teenagers with them, and the boys or girls were following their every word with rapt attention. It seemed one of the gifts some of the Boutler members inherited was charisma.
Finding a way to track Cooper and Calen hadn’t been easy. Amaranthe and Salvatore had slipped into the shadows and waited for them to go to the internet café, knowing they were using it to direct the others in the conspiracy and to get their orders from Lewis Boutler.
Several years earlier, Giovanni and Taviano had made a tiny tracker that could be inserted under the skin of a rider. They’d turned it over to their cousin Damian to find the right element so the device could be in a rider and could also travel through the shadows. At the time, they thought to put it in the young trainees so they wouldn’t lose any of them. Now, they were able to use it on Cooper and Calen, inserting the tiny device into their skin as they brushed past them entering the shadows. Both men had to feel the slight sting as if an insect had bitten them. The needles were thin enough that no evidence was left by the time the two men were once again out of the shadows.
Clearly, Lewis was the leader of the conspiracy against the shadow riders. Now that Rogan was dead, more than ever, Geno believed he would be determined to kill every shadow rider he could. By bringing his cousins together ina crowded theater, he made them appear to be easy targets. The Boutlers would believe that the Ferraros would be enthralled with the performance of Geno’s fiancée, arrogant and secure in the knowledge that they were shadow riders, and no one could get to them. Brielle was still trying to unravel Lewis’s actual location. He was communicating with his nephews but in short bursts, difficult to pinpoint when the transmission was being bounced all over Europe, the United States and Canada. She and Bernado, Val and Dario’s other investigator, were working on ferreting out his location together.
Amaranthe had easily solved the problems they had with the Archambaults. Geno, Stefano and even Elie had been agonizing over when to give them the report on what was transpiring, but Amaranthe simply raised an eyebrow and said she was sending in her report immediately and Geno and Stefano should do the same.
She pointed out that not a single Boutler was an active shadow rider taking rotations. They had trained when they were younger, but they were no longer working. In fact, they had faded from most people’s memories. This was an attack by nonriders on multiple shadow-riding families. It didn’t matter why. The present generation had no knowledge of crimes committed by their parents or grandparents and wasn’t responsible for what other family members had done in the past.
There was a brief rustling at the heavy velvet curtain behind them. Instantly, Geno was out of his seat and in front of his brothers, gesturing for them to give him room. They did, standing, spreading out to allow themselves fighting room as well. They had ensured no shadow could find its way into the boxes other than the one Lorenzo stood guard in.
Priscilla Clake, wearing the uniform of an usher, came hesitantly into the box looking strained. She stopped the moment she saw Geno looming in front of her. Nervously,she glanced first at Salvatore and then Lucca before her gaze tracked back to Geno. Clearly, she was terrified.
“I have to talk to you, Mr. Ferraro,” she whispered. “You’re going to think I’ve lost my mind, but please listen to me. I would have gone to Miss Aubert, but I couldn’t get near her, not before her performance. I don’t have much time. Someone is going to try to hurt her. Or you. I know something bad is going to happen tonight. These horrible people have been blackmailing me and a couple of the other girls.”
There was a little sob in her voice. She pressed her hand over her mouth and made a visible effort to pull herself together. “They insisted I usher tonight. That means they’ll tell me I have to do something I’m not going to like. If I don’t do what they tell me to do, they’re going to put a video they have of me all over the internet. I’m not willing to let them hurt your family or Miss Aubert. I just don’t know how to stop them. When I heard Ms. Marchel had been murdered and Jenny implied you had killed her, I knew it was them. And I knew they told Jenny to get everyone to believe it was you. That’s what they wanted us to do, get everyone to believe you were stealing from them.”
Geno nodded his head. “Thank you, Priscilla. It had to have taken a great deal of courage for you to come up here and tell me all this. I’m glad you didn’t try to stop these people on your own. Have you met any of these people face-to-face?”
She shook her head. “Jenny has. Several times. She’s bragged about it. I didn’t want to. I knew as soon as I sent the video that I’d made a big mistake.”
Geno deliberately dropped his voice another octave and used a much more compelling tone. “Everyone makes mistakes, Priscilla. When you’re young and someone does their best to persuade you there’s only one way out, you believe them, but it isn’t true. When this is over, we’ll help you resolve the situation.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t find a way to stop them.”
“If you’re right and they’re that ruthless, they would have no problem harming you. It’s best you just do your work, enjoy the show, and if they contact you again to do something you find uncomfortable, come up to the box immediately and stay with us. Don’t talk to them or say anything to any of the other ushers. Just come straight to this box.”
Priscilla nodded. “I have to go. I know they’re watching me. They’ll send Jenny to ask why I came up here.”
“Did you bring your cell phone?”
“Yes. We’re supposed to have them off, but the watchers said we need to have them on but on vibrate so they can send messages to us.”
Geno held out his hand. He put a number he used occasionally into her phone and sent her a text asking her to come upstairs, that he wanted her to take a gift to Amaranthe’s dressing room. He handed her a small box. “They won’t allow you to take it to her, but a guard will take it from you and give it to her. I was going to give it to her after. Tell Jenny I spotted you in the crowd.”
