“Sunnyvale.”
“Did anyone approach you about joining their crew, like with Dex?”
He shakes his head, then frowns down at my list as he adds, “But I was doing something similar to Jagger.”
Everyone looks at him as he explains. “It’s kind of a long story, but I was looking into someone named The Raven. I suspected him of being in charge of all the organized crime happening in the area. I may have taken out some of his men, trying to track him down.”
“The Raven?” I clarify as I add it to the list.
He nods, but it’s Sly who speaks next. “I was just trying to get rid of the vile trash who lived in Bracken Hill. I’d noticed an increase in murders and rapes, and the police didn’t seem to be doing much. Since I had a talent for taking out the trash, I took things into my own hands. I don’t think it was organized, but I have no idea. I never thought to ask questions before killing them.”
He looks a little guilty as he admits that, and I make sure to add points to his column, too, before patting his thigh in what I hope is reassurance.
I don’t believe for a second that he’s a bad guy, that any of them are. They only killed people who deserved it, I’d bet my life on it. Maybe I’m being naive, but I choose to believe I’m a realist.
Glancing at everything I’ve written down, I take a few minutes to scan the lists. All four stories had too many similarities for me to believe they were mere coincidences.
“Well, the obvious commonality here is that you were all framed. But there’s another big one here.”
“What’s that?” Dex says, leaning forward to get a better look at my paper.
I point to each name as I read it. “Il Nero, Conte Noir and the Raven.”
“What about them?” Pete asks, tilting his head to stare down at the page.
Jagger signs a single word, and I nod.
“What did he say?” Pete asks.
“Black. All of these names are different forms of the same thing. Il Nero means the black or dark one in Italian. Conte Noir means Count Black in French.”
“How do you know that?” Pete asks, sounding genuinely amazed at my linguistic skills.
I shrug, trying to downplay it so they don’t think I’m weird. “You know I’ve studied other languages, right?”
“I know you sometimes say things in Spanish, but I didn’t realize how extensive your knowledge is,” Pete admits.
“You said your brother started you on it when you were younger, and it was something you actually enjoyed, so you took it upon yourself to learn more,” Sly says.
Knowing that he remembered me telling him that has me offering him a smile. “That’s right.”
“Okay,” Pete says, tapping my list to get us back on track. “So those two are forms of black, and The Raven is obviously a black bird.”
A small gasp escapes me the second he says it.
“What’s wrong?” Sly asks, leaning forward to get a better look at my face, just as the waitress arrives with our meals. I stay silent as she passes out our plates, but inside my mind ispractically screaming. Jagger and Sly each hold a thigh, grounding me as my mind spirals in disbelief.
The second she steps away, they all lean toward me. “What is it?” Sly asks. “You’ve figured something else out.”
“Do you remember me telling you that Robert and I have different last names?” I ask, and they all nod. “In our family, it was tradition for the daughters to take their mother’s maiden name, and the sons to take the father’s. So I’m Wren Rivers, but he is Robert Blackburn.”
Saying it out loud, it sounds so much like black bird; it sends goosebumps down my arms. The worst part is that I don't think it’s a coincidence. I ask Jagger for the phone and pull up the map.
“Ok, so this is Bracken Hill,” I say, pointing to a town on the map. “This is Brookstead,” I say, pointing to another. “This one is Greybridge, and over here is Sunnyvale.”
Then I point to the town located directly in the center of them all. “And here, in the middle, is Iron Springs. That’s where I live. Well, where I used to live.”
“Fuck,” Sly whispers, his gaze moving from my phone to my written list. “He’s been hiding under all these different names this whole time. With a territory like this, he must be one of the biggest mafia heads in the entire country.”
