She sank into the chair and took the glass of water from Alfieri Ferraro. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I really can’t tell you much. I’ve had nightmares all of my life, but I didn’t think it was real.”

“Have you already discussed your nightmares with Ricco?” Shaun Holmes, from England, asked. His voice was exceedingly gentle, as if she were a fragile flower.

She nodded. “Yes. Not in great detail, but he told me what happened.”

“Your dream,” Shaun persisted. “Does it change?”

“Only to add or subtract more detail. Someone wakes me up and takes me to the closet. They put my brother, Ryuu, in with me and tell me to keep him quiet. I hear screaming and threats. There’s blood. It’s running under the crack in the door.”

She was suddenly there, in that tiny, cramped closet, shaking. Terrified. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, making her gag. “Ryuu whimpered and I clapped my hand over his mouth. He sank his tiny little teeth into me.” Involuntarily she rubbed the pad of her finger over the little scars there.

Ricco slid his hand down her arm to take her hand, his finger tracing over the scars. Somehow she found it soothing.

“A big boy drags Ryuu out of the closet and throws him. He cries. I’m afraid. There’s so much blood everywhere, but the big boy is stomping on Ryuu and he’s screaming. I have to do something but I’m so scared. I rush the big boy and kick him as hard as I can the way my father taught me. It makes him very mad.”

“Stop.” Ricco’s voice was very soft. “Stop right now and come back to me.”

She blinked rapidly and found herself looking into Ricco’s dark eyes. She took a deep breath, gulping at air in an effort to try to recover. She’d been in that closet so many times. It was real and vivid and a place she couldn’t seem to ever escape. Ricco’s thumb gently brushed at the tears on her face she hadn’t known were there.

“We’re done with this. She has memories. You can doubt it all you want, but she doesn’t need to relive them for you.”

“Forgive us, Mariko.” Marcellus’s voice was gentle. “We’re not putting you through hell for our own amusement.” He didn’t look at Ricco when he said it, but he was making a point.

It didn’t seem to matter to Ricco. He’d made his. Marcellus sighed. “Are you willing to take a DNA test?”

Ricco stirred again, and for the first time there was anger spilling into the room. “She doesn’t need to do that.”

“There is a great deal of money involved. An entire estate, Ricco. As with all families of riders, if there are no survivors, then the estate goes to the league. There will be a demand for proof from every lawyer, including hers.”

“I have no problem with that,” Mariko stated.

Marcellus nodded approvingly. Ricco pressed her hand to his thigh, his fingers stroking over her skin, making her heart beat fast.

“How were you contacted concerning your brother?”

“A note was on the floor of my room when I returned from a mission. It said they had Ryuu and would kill him if I didn’t kill Ricco Ferraro. They gave me three weeks to get the job done.”

The council members exchanged long looks. “Why didn’t you do it?” Alfieri Ferraro asked.

“A rider doesn’t kill another rider, and I certainly wouldn’t do so without thoroughly investigating him. I found Ricco to be a good man. I couldn’t trade his life for my brother’s. In any case, it made little sense to do so. All they had to do was kill Ryuu after it was done and then me.”

“Our investigators will help look for your brother. Every family will send their people,” Shaun added. “Do you believe the Saitos or the Itos are involved? And what about Nao Yamamoto?”

“I know that Nao’s parents sent him out of the country immediately after. They said it was to give him the best medical care available. He runs one of their companies and he inherited everything when his father died.”

“We looked closely at him,” Ricco said. “He seems the likeliest candidate, but he’s lived here years and has never made a move against us. Still, it’s too coincidental that Mariko, the child I saved, would be sent to assassinate me. The note was found in her room. It wasn’t mailed to her. Someone went into her home. Whoever is coming after us knows to have their mercenaries shoot into the shadows. We aren’t neglecting investigating Nao Yamamoto, but Stefano and I are making a trip to Japan to interview Osamu Saito.”

That was the first she’d heard of it and she snapped her head up to look him in the eyes. He pressed her hand tighter against his thigh. She read his silent signal and didn’t comment, but she was going to have a lot to say to him when they were alone. A. Lot.

The interview went on for some time until finally Marcellus rose, indicating it was over and they were free to go. “Our doctor will be in shortly to take the necessary tests for DNA and then we’re finished here.”

Mariko nodded. The council, like Ricco, seemed convinced she really was a Tanaka. They hadn’t said so, but she was adept at reading people, and every one of them believed her to be from the legendary family. She didn’t know what to feel about that.

She was extremely happy the rest of the Ferraros were gone when they emerged from the office. She felt drained and not able to face anyone. Only the bodyguards waited to escort them back to the house.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Mariko was quiet on the way back to Ricco’s home. He glanced down at the top of her bent head as she sat beside him in the backseat of the car. “I was going to tell you about the decision to go to Tokyo as soon as we got home. Stefano makes up his mind fast. He wants to talk to Osamu.” There was no guilt or remorse in his voice, only a quiet explanation. “We both feel there is a high probability she’s involved.”

She felt there was a high probability as well, although she didn’t want to believe it. She looked down at her hands – at the scars from Ryuu’s biting her. She hadn’t thought about his tiny little teeth in years. She thought she made up the closet incident to explain the scars.

“Why does she hate me so much?” It came out a whisper. She turned her head to stare out the window at the glittering lights of the city as they drove through the streets. The day had passed while they laid his father to rest, had a reception with the townspeople and then the separate meeting with the riders. She hadn’t even been aware the sun had set and night had fallen. Now, suddenly, she felt that the sun had set on all of it, her newfound confidence in herself and her secret desire that Ricco Ferraro hadn’t been rescuing her when he proclaimed to the world that they were to be married – that somehow he could miraculously become a one-woman man.