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said. “Guy worked for you as hired muscle. Collections, sending personal messages, keeping people in line, that kind of thing. Loyal, vicious, all the usual requirements.”
    Farrell nodded, but he was silent so long Luca started to wonder if he was going to say no. For all he knew Farrell was as anxious to keep his distance from New York as everyone else. A moment later, he spoke.
    “I’ll do it.”
    “Thanks.” Luca tried not to show his relief. Having Marco on the inside would be another layer of safety for Isabel — and another layer of backup for himself. He reached into his pocket for a pen and scrawled Marco’s name on a napkin, followed by Diego’s. “This is the man who’s going to call you. I need you to vouch for Marco. Tell Diego that Marco’s been with you awhile, that you’d trust him with your life in any situation. If he mentions me, say you’ve heard of me, but you don’t know me personally.”
    He pushed the piece of paper across the table. Farrell took it and put it in his pocket. “Something tells me this isn’t all business.”
    “Not entirely,” Luca admitted.
    Farrell shook his head. “You guys never fucking learn.”

7
    “ W hat do you think he’s up to?” Isabel asked.
    “I don’t know,” Luca said, squeezing her hand.
    They’d left the house early to pick up Sofia from school. Luca had insisted on taking her to lunch, and they’d stopped at one of the little Cuban places by the beach, then wandered onto the sand where they walked hand in hand. She didn’t get out much, for obvious reasons, and it was nice to do something so normal for a change. She could almost forget she was being held hostage by her brother. Could almost forget she was in the impossible situation of choosing between a good, healthy life for her and Sofia and the horror of having Diego release the video he’d made of Hector and Juan raping her.
    At least now she knew that’s what it was. For a long time, she found ways to blame herself, aided by the echo of Diego’s voice the morning after it happened.
    You shouldn’t have had a drink with a room full of men, punta.
    You know you liked it.
    I saw the way you looked at Juan…
    By saying them, Diego seemed to make these things true, and Isabel had spent the last year wondering if maybe he was right. Maybe she deserved what had happened to her. Maybe she’d even asked for it.
    But she knew now that it was just another one of Diego’s lies. Just another way to keep her under his thumb. She had been drugged. Raped. Violated further by Diego’s video of the assault. There was a kind of relief in the knowledge. At least it wasn’t her fault. It was liberating, and it made her want to fight harder for the life she knew she and Sofia deserved.
    “Have you heard any more about the new guards?” Isabel asked, looking out over the water. A woman stood in the shallow surf with a toddler, lifting the baby into the air every time a little wave rolled in. Isabel could hear the child giggle even from up on the beach. “About your friend, Marco?”
    “Not yet,” Luca said. “Diego’s playing it close to the vest, and I’m keeping my contact with Marco to a minimum. But I know someone who will vouch for him when the time comes, and I sent him to the man who found me the job. If Diego has put the word out, Aldo will know, and he’ll send Marco.”
    “You won’t be able to let Diego know he’s a friend,” Isabel said. “That would make him an enemy of Diego’s.”
    “I know,” he said. “And you’ll have to act like he’s your enemy, too. Like any of the other guards.”
    That was most important of all, Isabel knew, because any friend of Isabel’s wasn’t only an enemy of Diego’s, but a target for his mercurial wrath.
    She smiled up at him. “Except you.”
    He leaned down, kissed her so they staggered a little in the sand, then steadied her with his big arm. “You weren’t crazy about me in the beginning,” he reminded her.
    She laughed.