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Once we were away from the conservatory, farther from the house, he turned to face us again, keeping his voice low.

“There’s a new Don Bianco,” he said. “I received a message this morning, asking to meet.”

“Do you think they suspect…” Jack’s voice trailed off and they both looked at me.

“No one saw me.”

“In some ways, that almost might be as bad as leaving a calling card.” Don DiNardo rubbed his chin. “You aren’t known as the Ghost for nothing.”

I shrugged. That was true, but it also meant they couldn’t prove anything, which was the most important thing. Ivy was the only real evidence, the only one who could pin the deed on me, and I wasn’t sure anyone would recognize her. She’d already put on some weight, filling in her hollowed out cheeks to a rounder shape, and her hair was completely different. The biggest change wasn’t physical though.

It was something about how she held herself. It was visible, but it wasn’t the way she looked. I couldn’t describe it if I tried, only that even without the hair, the clothing, the makeup, she looked like a completely different woman than the one I’d taken from Don Bianco’s house.

“Who is the new don?” Jack asked, sliding a glance at me. “Maybe he’ll be grateful for the position.”

“Well, that’s why we’re out here now,” Don DiNardo admitted. He hadn’t told us why he’d wanted to come by the conservatory. “I’m hoping Ivy and Hailey will know more about him than I do. All I know is that he’s the son of the former don’s cousin, yet he swooped in from Wisconsin almost as soon as the position was vacant, and has already taken his place at the head of the family. Rumor has it, he poisoned the majority of Don Bianco’s closest men to ease his way.”

Both Jack and I frowned. Poison was not our way. I was happy to a shoot a man in the head, but poison?

There was something sneaky and underhanded about that.

Yet at the same time, I couldn’t hold any sympathy for the men who had died in such a manner. They certainly had deserved it.

Jack glanced back at the conservatory. “Let’s go see what the women know then.”

Ivy

As much as I didn’t want to stop what I was doing—the conservatory was coming along so nicely and there was this insatiable urge in me to finish it—I also didn’t want to find out what Tomas would do if I didn’t. Surely he wouldn’t spank me in front of his don and the others… and yet I was not as certain of that as I wanted to be.

So I had to give instructions to the men who were helping put the room to rights and then step aside to speak with the don, and hope it didn’t take too long. I folded my hands together in front of me, twining my fingers together and pressing them against the apron covering my new dress. All of my dresses were new, so Aunt Serena—which was what she insisted I call her now—had gotten me the apron to go over them.

“I’ve received a message from the new Don Bianco that he wants to meet,” Don DiNardo said, looking back and forth between Hailey and me, as if to gauge our reactions to the news.

I couldn’t help myself—I tensed and clenched my jaw tightly against the gasp that wanted to release.

A new don?

That shouldn’t be possible.

Everyone who might have had the allies to step up into the position should be dead.

Who had I missed?

“The new Don Bianco?” Hailey sounded more worried than shocked. “Who is it?”

“Dante Battista, though he’ll still be called Don Bianco.”

Hailey’s mouth dropped open. “Uncle Dante? I thought he hated…”

Her voice trailed off as everyone looked at her. She shook her head.

“He’s not really my uncle. He’s some sort of cousin.”

“But you knew him as Uncle Dante?” Don DiNardo pressed, his gaze keenly focused on her. Better her than me, because I’d never heard the man’s name before. Which was worrisome.

I didn’t like not knowing things.

Don Bianco’s grandson Leonardo had gone missing here in New York and he’d been the closest relative Don Bianco had. There had been a few second cousins of Leonardo around, each with their own little band, but they should all be dead now. I should have gotten them all. The urge to shift on my feet was growing stronger but I had to stay still and not draw attention to myself.