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The next day, Alicia’s temple was black and blue from where Mario had struck her She was seated on the couch in Darien’s home with Jake’s arm around her Darien, Tom, Lelandi, and Peter offered her ents sat down to talk with her

One was a pretty blond with a short bobbed haircut and a smart black suit-skirt and pretty hazel eyes Thea black suit Both were probably in their early thirties and both professional, yet instead of appearing as though they wanted to grill Alicia, they seemed…

She wasn’t sure Sympathetic, ured they would tie her into Mario’s death and his henchman’s, too Peter had rounded up the men who had been the diversionary force for Mario at Jake’s home and turned them over to the federal authorities because they’d been involved in killings across state lines, racketeering, , and even lucrative Medicare scams But a couple of the men had to heal from their bullet wounds before they appeared in court, Danny being one of the herself as Agent White and theConstantino and his htened his arm around her shoulder in a warm embrace

"Your father, Antonio Frasero, started the work"

"He… orking for you?"

"Yes, as an inforoods on him That little black book you found in your mother’s safe-deposit box? It had all the records we needed to put the whole lot away for life"

Again she looked at Jake

"I gave it to Peter to give to the authorities," Jake said "The sheriff ot ave hiht up with hiive him a life sentence for his own crimes He’d only been married to your mother for a couple of years, and you were not even two years old They agreed he’d work for us so he’d stay out of prison"

"Butother men"

"Only undercover They were Feds whose job was to make it appear Antonio wasn’t her husband or too close to her while watching out for her We knew Mario would go after her if he thought Antonio was selling him out"

"Which Mario did"

The woman took a deep breath and exhaled "She loved your father and didn’t want to see anybody else any longer She wanted to pretend she was Antonio’s lover when she was really his wife We couldn’t convince theht she knew about Antonio’s working with us and had the You wouldn’t have anything to do with Antonio, so we figured you were safe But then when your ent White shook her head

"Why didn’t you protect Alicia when you must have known Mario would want her dead?" Jake asked, his voice sounding irritated

"We couldn’t keep track of her We put bugs on her car four times, and each tied her apartment, but she never returned hoe and vanished We only learned of it when you had the clerk contact the police to say she had disappeared We assuured she was safe"

"Until?"

"She was connected to Ferdinand Massaro’sher as to Mario’s locations He was one of our inforue We think it had soent White cleared her throat and said to Alicia, "In any event, we just want to say that even though your father started out on the wrong side of the law, he helped to put away several ould have continued their cri all the records he did And we have you to thank for handing over the little black book that made it all possible"

"My ent White said syive up on hione on while she was growing up The men who had been herto be sos

Had her father ever thought she was ht the guys Alicia hadto do with the Mob But now Alicia understood why her father had wanted to keep his distance from her, probably to keep her safe but also to keep her fro who he truly was--all about his checkered past And yet, somewhere deep down, she suspected he wished he could have been the father to her that he s been different

She cleared her suddenly gravelly throat "Thank you for telling ent Stone stood "Just for the record, Miss Greiston, Mario Constantino and another of his henchmen were found dead in a ravine over a hundred roup of hikers At least that’s what the anonymous caller told us Wild anih to positively identify them The initial coroner’s report stated that they fell off the cliff to their deaths as they were atte fro a card from his suit pocket, "don’t hesitate to call"

Alicia took the card and sent in disbelief He gave her a wolfish smile back But she hadn’t s such a distance from her…