While I wait, I attach a silencer to my gun, twisting it into place with short, sharp movements.
At a quarter to ten, Zana emerges.
I recognize her immediately from Nico’s description. Curly hair tumbling past her shoulders. A beautiful face with sharp, intelligent eyes. She’s wearing a simple black dress that hugs her curves, and she moves with easy confidence.
A bodyguard flanks her. A big man, heavily muscled, no doubt concealing a gun beneath his jacket.
Once they’re out of sight of the main entrance, I slip out of my car and approach them silently from behind. They’re on home turf, and they’re not being careful. The bodyguard hears me a second too late. He starts to turn, but I’m faster. I raise my gun and put a bullet through his skull.
The silenced shot makes barely a whisper. The bodyguard drops in a bloody, untidy heap.
Zana stumbles backward, her heels catching on the uneven pavement, and goes down hard. She lands on her hands, palms scraping concrete, and stares up at me with wide eyes.
For a moment—just a moment—I see fear.
Then it’s gone, replaced by something that looks almost like interest.
“Cristiano Montoni.” She says my name like she’s tasting it. “I thought I was meeting your annoying cousin.”
“Andreas is dead.” I level my gun at her face. “Your fault.”
“Mine?” She doesn’t try to get up. “I merely provided Andreas with opportunities to demonstrate his true character.”
“You turned him into a traitor.”
“Please.” She actually rolls her eyes, despite the gun pointed at her head. “Andreas was practically begging to betray the Montonis. A little flattery, a few promises, and he was ours. It was pathetic, really. Like training an eager puppy. By the way, how was your cozy little meeting with Silas Cross? Such a handsome, capable man. I do like the rugged ones.”
My eyes narrow at the sudden change in subject. “How did you know about that?”
Her smile widens. “I have many little birds, Don Cristiano. Pretty, colorful birds who sleep with all the dangerous men in this city, and then fly home to tell me everything they know. Likewho comes to your office, and which Montoni casinos are most vulnerable.”
My hand clenches on the gun.
“What I believe,” I say quietly, “is that your father’s goons need to stay away from my territory. Diamond Grand. Obelisk. Any Montoni casino. If I see Sokolis anywhere near my businesses again, I’ll break the wings of every pretty bird I can get my hands on.” I lean down closer. “Including yours.”
Her smile doesn’t falter. “Is that a message for my father?”
“That’s a promise from me.”
“I’ll pass it on. Help me up, Don Cristiano.” She extends a hand toward me, elegant even sprawled on dirty concrete, and her eyes gleam in what I suppose is meant to be an enticing manner. “And if you’re lonely, I’ll keep you company. I’m sure you spill all kinds of juicy secrets with a woman’s nails in your back.”
“I’d sooner fuck my dead mother.”
I holster my gun and turn away, leaving her on the ground beside her dead bodyguard.
“That’s not a no to helping me up!” she calls after me. “Rude, Cristiano. Very rude.”
I drive home in silence. My hands grip the steering wheel as I turn Zana’s words over in my mind.
Pretty, colorful birds who sleep with all the dangerous men in this city.
She knows about Silas Cross. Which means she probably knows what was discussed. Her network of spies is more extensive than I thought.
And if she knows about that, what else does she know?
My father probably would have killed her as a message to her father to stay off his territory, but I’m sane enough to realize that murdering thekrye’sdaughter would send him on a warpaththrough Malus, right to my front door. I’ll have to come up with some other way to deal with the Sokolis threatening my casinos.
The city thins out as I drive home. The neon and the noise fall away, replaced by quiet streets, dark houses, and the particular stillness of a city in the small hours. I pass the corner where Mina used to catch the bus to school on rainy days. The sidewalk where she tripped and sprained her ankle. The street where she used to buy clothes using her meager allowance.
