Page 42 of The Best Trick

I could practically feel our minds spinning on the subject as we sped down the road. What would it be like to have a dog? How awesome would it be? We really never could have one, considering the life that we led. A dog would make us vulnerable the way it made Denko vulnerable.

“I know we can never have a dog,” I said. “It’s not like I don’t get that, but it would be fun to pretend. We could take her to the dog park and stuff.”

Thor looked at me sadly.

“You have to admit it would be fun,” I insisted.

“It would be fun, goddess.”

“How well do you guys know Don Pedro?” I asked.

“Not well,” Zeus said. “But Don Galvano knows him. We'll start there.”

SIX

We pulled up to the ornate gates of Don Galvano's gorgeous art deco-style mansion in the Palisades. The same elderly guard was manning the booth just as he had been so many months ago when we were last here, but he was a lot friendlier this time around. Part of it was that we actually had an appointment this time, and also, we were on the Don’s good side these days, thanks to the fact that we’d solved the mystery of his stolen Corvette. Some guy had tried to frame Don Galvano’s future son-in-law for the crime, and let's just say we saved a lot of Galvano family strife by uncovering the true culprit.

We parked and walked up the marble steps to his mansion. I’d worn one of my favorite green maxi skirts with a cute white top. My guys looked amazing: Thor wore a fine white linen sports coat and slacks, Zeus was in all black, and Odin was in an ugly, too-small, piece-of-shit suit, part of his quest for people to take him seriously as a tough guy instead of mooning over his runway model looks.

As usual when Odin wore an ill-fitting, piece-of-shit suit, all it did was make women think,wow, maybe I like guys who wear ill-fitting piece-of-shit suits after all.And you could see the guys thinking,I should try to wear an ill-fitting piece-of-shit suit—who knew they looked so good.

We were to wait in Don Galvano’s super-masculine study with its black globe and ornamental wall sword.

A few minutes later, the Don trundled in with his big belly and big bald head on prominent display. His usual sour expression softened as he regarded us, like maybe we’d graduated to friends status. “Still doing the PI shit?” he barked.

“You know it,” Zeus said, taking the man's outstretched hand in a warm grasp. We all shook hands.

“Check this out.” The Don pulled out his phone and showed us pictures of his son-in-law, Diego, and his daughter, Maria, at their Mafia destination wedding in Sicily. “This family will always be grateful to you,” he said. “Though I'm guessing that might be part of why you're here. Visit out of the blue...”

“We have reason to believe that Don Pedro kidnapped a dog,” Zeus said, cutting right to the chase. “He'd be holding this dog as leverage regarding an upcoming case.”

Don Galvano nodded. “I know what case. Man's in some trouble.”

“Have you heard anything about him nabbing one of the feds’ pet dog? We're interested in finding that dog.”

“Really,” the Don said, eyeing us with interest, but not a whole lot of surprise. Don Galvano was a man of a thousand deals, a man who did what it took to get what he wanted.

“Any light you could shed on it would be extremely appreciated,” Zeus said. “Where Don Pedro might be keeping such a dog, what his plans might be, which of his people might be guarding such a dog.”

“I haven't heard anything about him having someone's dog. But then again, it's not as if Don Pedro tells me what he's doing. You know he and I are not friends, right?”

“We know you're not friends,” Odin said.

“I’ll have to reach inside his organization to get this kind of information,” the Don said.

Zeus looked solemn. “We understand it's a big ask. We'd be extremely grateful.”

The Don seemed to think about this for a bit. “Let me reach in, then,” he said. “I'll call you.”

We thanked him and got out of there.

“Do you think he has an informant inside Don Pedro’s gang?” I asked once we were rambling down the road in our shiny Jag.

Odin said, “I'm thinking he probably has a guy in there, like his own guy. Is that what it feels like to you?” he asked Zeus.

“That's what it feels like to me,” Zeus said.

“Agreed,” Thor said. “He's got a guy in there. And he’ll consider us even after he does this favor.”

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