He knew his cousins Renato and Romano Greco were already conducting their investigation into Mariko, but this information was vital. He pulled his phone from his pocket and texted Romano one-handed. He kept the other firmly on Mariko. She could pull away if she wanted, but she would have to make that decision on her own.

Anyone could come to the Ferraro family and get an audience with the greeters. His mother, Eloisa, and father, Phillip, had acted as greeters since the death of his grandparents. They were former riders and could hear and compel the truth. Once in a while someone slipped through that shouldn’t, but it was rare. Whatever the problem that needed to be heard, at first the visitor merely talked about his life, mundane things that allowed the greeters to get a feel for his voice, respiration and heartbeat. Once that was done, the greeters would ask the visitor to state his reason for contact. They would listen with no response and then stand up, dismissing the visitor without comment. That way, if they were under investigation by law enforcement, nothing could be recorded or said that might confirm anything illegal was going on.

The greeters would turn their findings over to the investigators if they felt the visitor had a legitimate claim against someone. There were two teams of investigators. One would study the crime and the person or persons accused, while the second set of investigators would examine those making the request and look into everything about them. They didn’t want any mistakes made in their business, so there were checks and balances every step of the way protecting the family as well as those making requests.

If Mariko was a Tanaka, and her brother was in trouble, then Ricco was in far more danger than he’d first considered. Could someone blackmail a shadow rider? Shadow riders were human and they could make all kinds of mistakes, so yes, they could be blackmailed. They were born with serious flaws, just as everyone else was. He added that to the text informing his cousins. Find her brother immediately. Get everyone on it.

Ricco glanced down at Mariko as he guided her out of Biagi’s café and down the sidewalk so he could show her the neighborhood. He loved their community and the people in it. He wanted her to feel that same sense of camaraderie he always felt. If Mariko was a Tanaka, she might not have been better off with her own family. He’d met her father, a shell of a man, but then, he was no longer capable of riding shadows and carrying out their work.

Ricco had a small taste of what it was like to be sidelined. He found himself restless and moody, edgy even. Not that he wasn’t like that most of the time, but he was even more so without being able to do what he was born to do. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be a rider unable to ride permanently.

Tanaka had married a woman who had eventually destroyed him. She’d left, and in doing so, she’d torn the shadows apart, rendering Mariko’s father incapable of riding the shadows and carrying out justice for his people. The price her mother had paid was forgetting she had ever been married and had children. She remembered nothing about the Tanaka family or what they did. It was a heavy price for making a mistake in choosing one’s life partner – or being forced to take one for the sole purpose of having children like his own parents had done.

“Ricco.” Lucia Fausti waved at him from the doorway of her shop, Lucia’s Treasures.

Ricco immediately picked up the pace. Lucia was the perfect person for Mariko to meet. There was no one he knew sweeter than Lucia other than, possibly, his sister-in-law, Francesca. Lucia stepped onto the sidewalk, holding hands with Nicoletta, the teen she’d taken in when the Ferraros had asked her. Lucia and Amo hadn’t even hesitated. They’d lost their daughter to cancer when the child was three. Their son was murdered after coming home from serving in two wars and countless hot spots around the world, coming out of a theater with a date. Instead of being made bitter, the couple were closer than ever and truly wonderful human beings.

“Lucia, Nicoletta. This is Mariko.” He deliberately put his arm around Mariko’s shoulders, wanting everyone watching them to know she was under his protection.

“Ricco, so good to see you,” Lucia greeted.

He kissed both of her cheeks. She was always warm and soft. A good woman. He smiled at Nicoletta. “And you, tesoro, how are you doing?” He leaned down to brush both cheeks with his lips. Lightly. Making certain not to touch her anywhere else.

Nicoletta took a breath, but she didn’t step back until he straightened, and when she did, she stepped to the very edge of the sidewalk. “I’m good.”

Two words, but at least she spoke. Up until that moment, Ricco had never heard the teenager say a single word. She still didn’t quite meet his eyes, but her head was up instead of down. Her hair was glossy and thick, a beautiful, shiny color, so black it was nearly blue where rays of the sun hit it. He wanted the world to know this girl was also under Ferraro protection. They would shield her fiercely from any trouble.

“It’s so lovely to meet you, my dear,” Lucia said, reaching with both hands for Mariko’s. Her eyes were alive with true happiness. She smiled from Ricco to Mariko. “Nicoletta is a treasure to my husband, Amo, and me. She just took a job at the flower shop helping out Signora Vitale. Her grandson, Bruno, needs help. The shop is thriving but he can’t make the arrangements and the deliveries, and they lost their helper.”

Ricco sighed and glanced at the girl, who looked a little defiant. The Ferraros wanted her in school. The teen was extremely intelligent and needed to know that. She hadn’t been to a school since her parents had died and she’d been given to her step-uncles.

Deliberately, Ricco turned his back just a little on Lucia, knowing that if he gave her visual cues, her maternal instincts would have her answering for Nicoletta, and that wasn’t the best for the girl. The teen needed discipline and training. She needed to recover enough to face the world. Enough that she would have confidence in herself to do whatever was necessary to protect herself and those she loved.

“Nicoletta, I believe you gave your word to my family that you would go to school. Where in your plan, helping Lucia here and working at the flower shop, does that give you time to work with tutors to catch up with your education?”

Mariko, probably sensing the girl’s discomfort, shifted slightly out from under the hand on her back, that one physical connection between them. He caught her hand, enveloping her smaller fingers and holding her still, although he kept his attention on the younger girl.

“Nicoletta?” he insisted when she remained silent, looking to Lucia to answer for her. He kept his voice low, but the note of authority couldn’t be denied.

“I want to work,” Nicoletta said, looking more scared than nervous. “I don’t want to be a burden on Lucia and Amo.”

“You could never be that,” Lucia said immediately. “We love having you. We want you to think of our home as yours always.”

Ricco heard the ring of truth in her voice and for a moment wondered if they’d made a terrible mistake. Amo and Lucia had suffered so much loss already. If they grew to love Nicoletta and she didn’t return their feelings and left immediately, he didn’t know how the couple would be able to cope with another loss.