Stefano shook his head. “The Tanakas only had Akiko. They had a very famous line and it was regarded the world over that no one was left.”

“That’s not true,” Ricco said. “There was a little sister and brother. I was there. They came to the tournaments to cheer Akiko on. They came with their father. And the girl was in training. You should have seen her take down Nao with that double kick. I’m telling you, she was a Tanaka. So was the baby boy.”

“It wouldn’t make sense that this child would want to assassinate you when you saved her and her brother,” Taviano said.

“What did she say her last name was?” Vittorio asked.

“Majo, and the kanji characters mean ‘female devil.’ The name was given to her. She said, and I heard truth in her voice, that her mother was an American. She’d been told that her mother was a whore on the streets. Later she abandoned her children and disappeared. Mariko believes that to be true.”

“Tanaka married an American woman. She left him, and their shadows were torn apart. She didn’t remember her children or marriage or anything about riding shadows, and he was lost to all of us as a rider,” Stefano said. “But there was no mention of any child other than Akiko that I can remember; however, if Vittorio heard about more, then it is probably so. The lineage was remarkable. Admired and respected despite what the family thought about his marriage. Surely a son and daughter would have been welcomed by every rider family.”

Ricco shook his head. “Akiko was looked down on by every family, all riders and her own grandmother because she was mixed race. The grandmother, in particular, treated her horribly, and all the families followed suit. Although Akiko was mixed race, she looked more like her father. If Mariko is a Tanaka, she obviously looks more like her American mother. Still, when I asked about what happened to the two remaining children, Yamamoto told me a family took them in.”

“It still wouldn’t make sense for the girl to come after you. It’s pretty hard to forget the boy who saved your life,” Giovanni objected.

“She was three, Gee,” Francesca pointed out. “What do shadow riders do?” she asked softly. “They carry out justice. It’s ingrained in them. It can’t be personal, right? You call in other riders to cover anything personal. If Mariko is a rider, then someone called her in. Someone investigated, and someone called her in. The fact that she didn’t carry out her assignment in the prescribed way means she isn’t convinced that you’re guilty and she’s conducting her own investigation. What other reason is there for her waiting to try to kill you? She didn’t have to come out into the open. She could have slid into the shadows like you all do and it would be over. You wouldn’t have seen it coming.”

Except Ricco was always vigilant. He made certain of that. Made certain there were unseen alarms that would be tripped by anyone moving around his house at night or during the day whether they slid out of a shadow or not. For several years he’d been convinced someone, a shadow rider, had slipped into his home on numerous occasions. He’d invented a screen to hook under the doors of his family to prevent riders from sliding into their bedrooms unseen. The weird feeling that an intruder had visited had ceased when he began using the screens.

“Francesca is right,” Emmanuelle said. “Why take a position unless she needs to know more?”

“Say that’s all true,” Taviano said. “Who sent her? Someone had to have contracted with her people in Japan, Ricco was investigated and she was sent. Whoever sent her must believe he’s guilty of killing the Tanaka family just as Yamamoto threatened. Maybe the findings were turned over to the new council when Yamamoto died?”

“This has to go before the international governing family,” Stefano decided. “Or we’re going to find ourselves in a war.”

“If you go to them, we may find ourselves in a war anyway. The moment the new council in Japan comes under the governing family’s investigations, they’ll feel dishonored. They’ll believe Saito and Ito. Both will lie. They’ll have to. The culture is very different from ours,” Ricco objected. “I know I’m asking a lot, because every one of you is at risk, but I know this woman is mine. I know I was born for her. I need a chance. I’m asking all of you to give me that chance.”

Stefano sighed and looked around the room at his siblings and wife. “Ricco, more than risking us, because I doubt anyone is that stupid to come after our family, you’re asking all of us to allow this woman, a trained assassin, to remain in your home with you.”

Ricco nodded. “I know what I’m asking. I need this chance.”

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Taviano said. “Ricco’s been through enough and I’ll stand with him.”

Stefano looked at Vittorio. “You?”

“I’ll stand with Ricco, but I want added protection for him.”

“The last thing I need is my brothers or sister standing in the shadows while I’m trying to seduce a woman,” Ricco said, faint humor coming to the surface. That was his family, in the worst of circumstances, siding with him and making him want to laugh.

“I’m in,” Giovanni said. “I could use some pointers, Ricco. You’ve always been good with the women.”

“As if you need any help,” Emmanuelle said and threw a wadded-up napkin at her brother, striking with deadly accuracy. “I don’t like it, but I’ll help. I’m befriending her, Ricco, and if she so much as blinks wrong toward you, I’ll break her neck.”

He was a bit startled by the intensity of his sister’s attitude. She meant it. Even smiling at him, she meant it. He inclined his head.

“If I get a vote, I’ll help, too,” Francesca said. “I can be her friend and tell her why I adore you.”

“Of course you get a vote,” Ricco said. “You’re family.” He looked to Stefano. They all did, waiting for the verdict.

“I’ll contact our cousins in New York and Los Angeles. If a war is starting they need to be aware as well. I’ll contact the international governing family and ask them to keep the investigation quiet, but not for long, Ricco. If someone is after you, we’ll need to know who it is. And we’re starting our own investigation as well. I don’t much care whose toes in Japan I step on.”

“Thank you.” He should have known his family would back him.

“You were fourteen years old, a kid, Ricco. They were adults. Their children fucked up and they would have had honor if they’d faced that with courage. Instead, they tormented you and threatened you. God knows what they did to this girl and what they’ve told her. We’re going to find out what happened to Tanaka’s other two children. There has to be a trail, elders who knew about them. God help them if they turned over those innocent children to the Saitos and left them in their care. Those three families would have kept the details of their sons’ deaths secret. They told everyone they’d died in a car accident with the Tanakas. There’s a trail, and we’ll uncover it.”