Page 109 of Guarding Grace

Tony’s lips curved up in a smile. “It would be a bad idea to open it.”

“Understood.” Lucas shot me a glance. It was one of the kaboom-type cases.

“You need to stop coming after Grace Brennan.” Lucas looked at Victor. “And everyone around her.”

“We only requested to talk to her,” Tony said in a cool monotone.

“It wasn’t a request. You attacked her and threatened her neighbor.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of this,” Tony said flatly.

“I am unhappy because we made this abundantly clear to your son yesterday in this very room. You don’t want me unhappy.” There was a chill in Lucas’s voice. “Grace Brennan is Terry’s woman, and she has no part in this.” Lucas pointed a strong finger across the desk. “She is completely off-limits.”

Tony shot a look in Victor’s direction.

“I’m handling it, Papa,” Victor spoke up.

“After we talked with him,” Lucas continued coldly, “he sent Maria and a man named Lorenzo to abduct Grace.”

Tony spun on Victor, his face no longer impassive. “You sent people to take somebody without my permission?” His face turned redder by the second. “You tried to take a Hawk woman?” His voice reached a crescendo. “You call that handling it? Out of my sight right now.”

Victor recoiled, abject fear on his face. “But, Papa—” he spluttered.

“Now,” Tony bellowed.

When Victor didn’t move fast enough, Tony nodded at Baldy, who yanked Victor’s arm and marched him out of the room.

I bit back a chuckle. The little twerp deserved it.

“My apologies, Lucas,” Tony said, his poker face returning. “My son overstepped his bounds. I gave no such instruction.” He waved at Mustache Guy. “Paulo, leave us.”

Mustache Guy looked perplexed for a second. “Are you?—”

“Now,” Tony commanded. Apparently, leaving the boss alone with guests was uncommon. “You too.” He shooed me away with a hand motion.

“She’s his woman. He stays,” Lucas countermanded. “Terry, hand over your weapon.”

Tall Tony nodded at Paulo.

I lifted my weapon, wondering whether Tony knew Lucas could be instantly deadly, even without a weapon.

Mustache Guy took my gun and left us alone with the boss of the Italian mafia.

Tony didn’t speak until the door closed. “Lucas, this Boyle cockroach ripped me off for product worth ten million, and my customer is very fucking unhappy that he didn’t get what he ordered. I can’t go soft on this.”

“She is not a part of it,” Lucas said firmly. “Not even close.”

“The street says otherwise. You join me in hunting down this weasel, and we will stay away from her for a week.”

“Not good enough,” Lucas said. “She’s not a part of this.”

“After the week, you bring her here to answer some questions so I don’t have to send people to bring her to talk to me. Questions, nothing more.”

“She doesn’t know anything,” I said, unable to hold back.

Tony shifted his evil glare to me. “You don’t know that. She doesn’t even know if she knows something important. And, she’s the one who knows the most about her cousin. That boy has nobody else. He must have said something that will lead to him.”

Tony shifted back to Lucas. “Starting today, you have one week. After that, the bounty on Boyle doubles—dead or alive. Nobody rips me off and gets away with it.”