Page 201 of Ricardo

But she does not like it.

That is in her, too. The instinct to give people one more chance to be better than they are. It should make her vulnerable.

Somehow, in Julia, it makes her sharper.

Mario’s gaze moves over the ballroom with no obvious haste. “Rusk stays comfortable until we are ready.”

“Ready?” Julia asks.

Mario’s attention returns to her.

There is a pause.

It is small, but it exists.

Julia feels it. Her chin lifts.

Mario's eyes meet mine. There's a silent question in them.

I give a barely imperceptible nod. She's stronger than she looks.

“Off-site,” Mario says. “Private.”

Julia gives a small sharp inhale. She knows what that means.

She has figured out long ago who we are.

She does not ask any more questions.

Lorenzo returns then, Diego beside him.

Diego Conti is usually the easiest of my brothers to hear coming. All charm and grins, trouble often close behind. Tonight, in his black tuxedo, he's been roving the room and laying it on thick.

But whatever he might have said dies when he sees Mario’s face. The charm slips back, and his attention sharpens, moving from Mario to me, then to Julia, then across the ballroom.

Mario says, “Edoardo and Alessio?”

“Already moving,” Lorenzo answers. “Edoardo is near the east exit. Alessio is by the staff corridor. Neither obvious.”

“Good.”

Julia’s eyes flick briefly toward me.

She is inside the Conti machine now. She sees the inner workings of the way we operate. Here's us talking about taking a man back to a private place and extracting information from him by any means possible, and not altogether sure he will survive the questioning.

Part of me wants to know whether that frightens her, whether it changes anything for her.

Her fingers tighten around her clutch, but she does not step back.

“We do this once dessert is cleared,” Mario says. “When people start moving. Dancing, bathroom, phone call, smoke, early departure. I do not care which excuse presents itself. We take the opportunity when it comes.”

“And if he stays until the end?” Lorenzo asks.

“Then we create an opportunity.”

“Jeannette Salazar is already looking to leave,” Julia says.

Mario’s gaze follows hers.