The sheet bobbed up and down in rapid succession. Big Tony closed his eyes and leaned against the headboard. He moaned, his body shaking from the o.r.g.a.s.m.

"Jesus, Charlene. You ... are so d.a.m.ned good at that."

He held up the sheet and peered down at the woman between his legs.

She sighed heavily and laid her head on his stomach.

"Come here, sweetheart," he said, stroking her long, bleached blonde hair with his hand.

She raised her head to look at him and then crawled out from under the sheet. She climbed over his legs and flopped down next to him on the bed.

"Hand me my cigar, honey."

Charlene picked up the half-smoked b.u.t.t from the ashtray and handed it to him before grabbing a cigarette of her own and lighting it.

He watched her oversized t.i.ts rise and fall as she took a deep drag from the cigarette. With her head tilted back, she blew the large plume of smoke toward the ceiling. She laid the cigarette in the ashtray and reached down to pick her purse up from the floor. She unzipped a side pocket and pulled out a tube of lipstick and a small compact. She snapped open the lid and smeared the bright cherry red cream across her lips.

"Why you need that s.h.i.+t for?" he asked.

She grabbed a wad of gum stuck to the nightstand and tossed it in her mouth. Her lips slowly turned upward into a broad smile. "Because you rubbed it all off," she answered, sliding her hand under the covers to stroke him.

He grabbed her hand to stop the motion. "No more, Charlene. I need to get going."

The smile left Charlene's face. "Ah Tony, you just got here."

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and turned to look at her. "I got places to go, people to see," he said.

She slid up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She laid her head on his shoulder. "But I haven't seen you for over two weeks."

He disentangled her arms. "Stop whining. You know I don't like it when you whine." He picked up his trousers and pulled them over his legs. "Why don't you make yourself useful and get me something to drink?"

She reluctantly got out of the bed and threw a robe on while he continued to get dressed. "Uh, Tony, I got something I been meanin' ta tell ya," she said with a nervous laugh as she poured him a gla.s.s of scotch.

He came over and took the drink from her hand. "Yeah, well, what is it?" He watched her pour herself a gla.s.s of orange juice. "What the h.e.l.l you drinking juice for? You on the wagon again?" he asked, half smirking.

"That's what I been meanin' ta talk to ya about."

"Well, spit it out. I don't have all d.a.m.n night."

"Um ... um, I don't know how to say this."

"Just f.u.c.king say it already," he said impatiently.

Charlene took two steps back, and b.u.mped into a chair. "I'm ... I'm pregnant," she mumbled.

"You're what?"

"I'm pregnant, two months pregnant, to be exact."

"You stupid f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h!" he yelled. He looked at the gla.s.s in his hand and then slung it against the wall, shattering it to pieces. He turned and grabbed Charlene by the shoulders and shook her. "How could you be so stupid?" he yelled, his voice shaking with rage.

"Please, Tony. It's not like that," Charlene protested.

"Please, Tony. It's not like that," he mocked. Without warning, his arm shot out, and the back of his hand made a cracking sound as it connected with Charlene's face.

She screamed and fell back in the chair. "I ... I want to keep the baby!" she yelled back at him, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He took a menacing step toward her and brought his hand up to strike her again. She put her hands up in front of her face to block the blow. "Like h.e.l.l you are. You're gonna get rid of it. That's what you're gonna do."

"But Tony, it's a living, breathing being growin' inside me. Can't I keep it?" she pleaded.

"I don't give a rat's a.s.s if it's the King of Egypt." He grabbed her hair and yanked her effortlessly out of the chair. He brought his face within an inch of hers. "You listen to me, Charlene, and you listen real well, because I'm only gonna say it once. You get rid of this thing, or ... I'll get rid of you!" he snarled, flinging her back down in the chair.

He grabbed his coat off the back of the sofa and jerked the front door open. "I meant what I said, Charlene," he said over his shoulder and then slammed the door shut behind him.

Sonny looked up from the magazine as the back limo door opened. Big Tony slid in the seat across from him.

"You all right, Tony?" he asked, frowning.

"Just take care of her and do it soon," Big Tony answered, slamming the door shut with enough force to rock the car.

Rheyna opened the refrigerator door and looked inside. "What do you want to drink?" she yelled.

"I'll have a beer," Laura yelled back from the bathroom down the hall.

Rheyna grabbed two bottles, twisted off the caps, and tossed them in the wastebasket next to the stove. She looked at the a.s.signment folder lying on the counter and felt a twinge of excitement. Although she knew the a.s.signment could be dangerous, maybe even deadly, she was so looking forward to it.

The thought of getting out of Was.h.i.+ngton and moving to a new location was a welcoming thought. For the past three years, she had been safely coasting through life, not really living, and this a.s.signment was her chance to start over.

She went into the bedroom and changed into an old pair of sweat pants before grabbing the folder and brown bag filled with cheeseburgers and fries off the counter. She laid the folder on the coffee table and unwrapped one of the burgers. She didn't realize how hungry she was until she sunk her teeth into it.

As she ate, she looked around the room. Her thoughts turned to Jenny, and how she had traded in the efficiency apartment for the little white house and picket fence. Well not exactly-the house was actually a two-story yellow row house in the 1700 block of Seaton Street near DuPont Circle and the picket fence was only twelve inches tall, and six feet long, counting all four sides. Jenny had used it to enclose a tiny flower garden she had planted in the backyard. Overall, the house was quite small, considering its hefty price tag. h.e.l.l, you could fit the whole house inside the Castrucci garage with room to spare.

The decision to purchase it was made six months after the two of them had met, and Jenny had been the love of her life for twelve wonderful years. They were introduced after Jenny had helped Stacie organize a gay fundraiser.

Stacie was Laura's better half, and the two of them had secretly conspired to fix Rheyna up with Jenny at their annual barbecue. She and Jenny had hit it off immediately, went on their first date shortly thereafter, and were inseparable from that day forward. She laughed aloud as she thought about lesbian dating etiquette. First date was dinner; second date was picking up the U-haul truck.

She lost Jenny to breast cancer three years ago. By the time they discovered the cancer, Jenny was already in the final stage of the disease. She would never forget the day Jenny died; it was the most excruciating pain she had ever felt in her life, and a part of her died that day as well.

She remembered it as if it were yesterday. Jenny had laid her hand on Rheyna's cheek and said, "I know this will be hard for you, Rheyna, but I want you to promise me you won't give up on love. Promise me that you will be open to loving someone else. You are the most wonderful woman I've ever known, and it'd be a shame for someone else to not know what I have known for all these years."

Rheyna didn't know who was crying harder-her or Jenny. With tears running down her cheeks, she had promised. She laid her head across Jenny's stomach. Jenny had stroked her hair and told her how much she loved her. She told Rheyna that everything would be all right, and then she was gone.

That was three long, hard years ago. After Jenny's funeral, Rheyna was so devastated she completely lost track of time. The next six months were and still are a haze. She went through life on autopilot. She had taken the obligatory three-day leave of absence for bereavement.

Laura had suggested she take a few weeks, or even a month off. She couldn't do it-she needed to work. It was her only solace. It offered her a temporary reprieve from her thoughts, and it kept her out of the house-Jenny's house and hers.

She was not sure what would have happened if it hadn't been for Laura and Stacie. They each took turns stopping by to look in on her. They made sure she was eating properly and getting enough sleep, but mostly, they stopped by to be her friend. She knew she made Jenny a promise that day and sometimes, she felt guilty because she didn't keep it. She tried at first, went out on a couple of dates, and finally gave up when she realized she was looking for Jenny in those women. It wasn't fair to them or her.

She looked around the room, at the pictures on the wall, and all she saw was Jenny. She hadn't changed anything in the house since Jenny died. Her clothes were still on the hangers in the closet, just as she left them. She also stopped sleeping in their bed. It was just too painful, so eventually, she moved her things into the spare bedroom. On most nights, she slept on the couch, finding comfort in the small consolation of having something familiar up against her back.

Laura dropped down on the couch beside her. "I can't believe you started without me," she said, the sound of her voice jarring Rheyna from her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Dinner," Laura said as she took a sandwich from the bag.

"Oh, that. Sorry. I guess I'm a little preoccupied."

Laura dipped a fry in a blob of ketchup. "I have no idea why," she teased.

Rheyna finished her sandwich and went over to the fireplace. She busied herself with igniting the logs while Laura continued eating. She stared at the fire, mesmerized by the multicolored flames shooting up toward the flue, each fighting, and straining to drink the last bit of oxygen in the air. She personally thought that curling up on the couch with a book by Karin Kallmaker in front of a roaring fire was the ultimate in relaxation.

When Laura finished eating, Rheyna cleared the trash off the table and opened the folder. "Okay, let's see what we have here," she said and spread the contents out. She put the doc.u.ments in one pile, photos in another, and the miscellaneous items off to the side.

Taped to the inside cover was a set of keys to her new home, along with a white envelope. She removed the keys and envelope, and laid them to the side. She picked up the set of photos and glanced through them before handing them to Laura. The photos were exact duplicates of the ones they had seen earlier.

Laura looked at the photo of Salvatore Anastasia's funeral and shook her head. "It must have been really bad."

"What?"

Laura tossed the photo down on the table. "The reason Ma.s.sino skipped the funeral," she answered.

"Yeah, I'd like to know his reasons myself."

"Maybe you'll get a chance to find out."

Laura picked up the photo of Terasa and Caroline and shook her head. "She's just too G.o.d d.a.m.ned hot. Women who look that good should be illegal. If I were a few years younger, I'd-"

Rheyna laughed. "If you were younger, you'd what? You're happily married and you're not supposed to have thoughts like that."

"I'm not dead, you know, and I can still dream, whether I'm married or not."

Rheyna laughed at the expression on Laura's face and then s.n.a.t.c.hed the picture out of her hand. She looked at the photo. She was instantly captivated by Caroline's eyes. "I wonder if there's such a thing as being too attractive."

"I don't know. I'm sure it has its perks, especially when you have brains and money to boot. I think I read somewhere that she's a doctor. She have her own practice yet?" Laura asked, reaching across the table to grab several sheets from the stack.

Rheyna rummaged through the doc.u.ments she set off to the side. She pulled out the one with Caroline's information. "It says she graduated nine months ago and opened her own clinic one month later." For some reason, Caroline being a veterinarian didn't surprise her in the least. If anything, it made Caroline more attractive, if that was even possible.

"Okay, how you wanna do this? Do you want me to just go down the line and explain the terms, or would you just rather read them yourself?" Laura asked.

Rheyna looked at the doc.u.ment in her hand. "I'm pretty comfortable with most of them, but I think you giving me a verbal refresher will be good."

"Okay, next question. You want technical or laymen's terms?"

"I'll take laymen's terms for five hundred, Alex," Rheyna said in a deep voice.

"Very funny," Laura chuckled.

"Funny aha ha,' or funny aqueer'?" Rheyna asked.

Laura shoved her, almost knocking her off the couch. "You're not right, but since you asked, funny aqueer'."

"Lay it on me, teach," Rheyna said, pulling herself upright.

"Okay, here is the simplest explanation I can give you. You can sum up the entire organization's hierarchy by comparing it to a corporate business and the United Nations. The Boss, which would be Ma.s.sino, is the CEO. Next is the Under Boss, who we think will be Failla, and he's the President or a.s.sistant CEO. The Consigliere, that would be Valachi, is the In-House Counsel. The Capo, which would be Castrucci, is the Manager. The Soldiers and a.s.sociates are the worker bees-these guys are the n.o.bodies, drug dealers, loan sharks, etc.-and the Picciotto, referred to lovingly as a hitman, is Farino, who we all know as Human Resources," she said with a laugh.

"As for the world famous Commission, they're like the United Nations, with each crime family boss equaling a foreign country. Is that simple enough for you?" she asked as she stood to stretch her legs.

Rheyna nodded. "I think that sums it up pretty well."

"Good. I'm gonna get another beer; you want one?"

"Yeah," Rheyna said as she picked up several doc.u.ments and glanced through them. She skimmed over the detailed reports and tossed them into a pile.

Laura came back with two beers. She twisted off the caps and handed a bottle to Rheyna.

"Thank you," Rheyna said without taking her eyes off the photos.

Laura was silent as she watched Rheyna systematically go through each one and commit the faces to memory. After several minutes, Rheyna tossed everything into a neat pile.

Laura walked over to the fireplace. She bent down and picked up a piece of wood from the bra.s.s log holder, pulled back the fire screen, and tossed it in. She turned to look at Rheyna. "I wish I had that gift of yours."

Rheyna leaned back on the couch and took a long drink from the bottle. "Trust me when I say having a photographic memory isn't all it's cracked up to be. More times than not, you remember things you'd just as soon forget."

Laura eyed her without commenting. There was no need. She knew exactly what Rheyna meant. She sat down on the couch, and laid her hand on Rheyna's knee. "How are you doing?"

Rheyna looked at her. "You know, Laura, I've always known that La Cosa Nostra was run like a well-oiled machine, but-"

"I'm not talking about the mob, Rheyna." For emphasis, she poked Rheyna in the chest with her finger. "I want to know how you are doing and I want the truth and-"

"I'm fine, Laura." Rheyna laughed at the expression on Laura's face. "Why do you always do that?" she asked.

"Do what?" Laura asked, her right eye narrowing, her left eyebrow shooting upward.

Rheyna pointed at Laura's eyes. "That eyebrow thingy you do."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, whatever, and you don't need to worry about me so much."

"I always worry about you, and if I didn't care so much, it wouldn't matter-now would it?"