Page 169 of Guarding Grace
I held out my hand. “My reward for the case?”
“Fuck that,” Tony spat. “I meant for the case in one piece.”
“Tony,” Lucas said ominously. “If you welch on this with my brother, you disrespect me. Do you really want to treat my brother that way?”
Tony gritted his teeth. Nobody threatened more effectively than Lucas Hawk. “Okay, already.” He nodded to Baldy. “Get him his fucking money.”
Baldy moved to a painting on the wall. He pulled it to the side, revealing a safe.
“One more thing,” I said. “It goes without saying that you will leave my woman, Grace Brennan, alone and forget you ever knew her name.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Tony said as he picked up one of the printing plates and examined it. “Shit, these are fucked.”
“We have one more thing to discuss,” Lucas said.
Tony looked up.
“In private,” Lucas added.
Tony tossed the block back into the suitcase. “I think I’ve heard enough today.”
“Not quite enough,” Lucas pressed. This wasn’t something we wanted the lower levels of his organization to hear.
Tony stared at Lucas for a moment.
Lucas didn’t flinch. “Fine, but don’t blame me when it blows up on you.”
Tony couldn’t let that pass. He nodded to Baldy. “Out.”
This time Lucas handed his weapon to Baldy as the entire group of them filed out.
Tony waited until the door closed. “What?”
I started. “The heist of the case was planned by Marku and a member of your organization as a way to get that merchandise for free. Marku figured he’d get his deposit back from you when it wasn’t delivered.”
“I don’t believe it,” Tony said.
Lucas had warned me that would be the tough guy’s first reaction.
“I’ve seen this a million times,” he protested. “You try to weaken me by getting me to turn on my own.”
“We’re not your competitor,” I challenged.
He scoffed. “A million times, I tell ya.”
“Okay. If you’re sure it couldn’t be true, then we’re done here.”
He hesitated. “How do you know this?”
There it was. The crack we’d expected—he didn’t trust all his people.
I pulled out a single sheet of paper and offered it. “Electronic communications like this email.”
He read it slowly. The email that laid out the basics of the plan had been written by Paulo, but Tony wouldn’t be able to tell that from the Gmail address it had been sent from.
Tony’s face turned redder the farther down the page he got. “Who is this fucker?” He pounded a fist on the table. “Who?”
“Paulo.”
