Page 115 of Guarding Grace

I ignored the jibe. “Lucas wants a review in his office in five.”

“Good. I’ve got something.”

“What?”

“You’ll see.”

I made the rounds to tell Duke, Jordy, and Winston about the meeting and had enough time to make myself a cup of coffee before we got started. I made it to the conference room just in time to beat Jordy and not be the last one in.

Lucas swiveled to address the squawk box. “You there, Zane?”

“Yup,” came the response over the speaker.

“Hold fast,” the boss said. “We’re waiting on Jordy.”

“How are you sleeping?” Duke asked.

“Better,” was Zane’s response.

Winston lifted a brow. He also thought there was a story there.

“I’m not late,” Jordy grumbled as he closed the door behind him.

Lucas checked his watch and shrugged. “Close enough. Terry, summarize the attack last night for us.”

I did, including that Zane had been sent to guard Grace’s neighbor.

“If we’re doing that again tonight,” Zane said, “I nominate Constance. That old lady complained the entire time about not wanting a man in her space.”

The group chuckled.

“That won’t be necessary,” Lucas said. “Terry and I visited with Tall Tony this morning, and Tony agreed to back off. The interesting part is that the attacks on Grace were run by his son, Victor?—”

“A real piece of shit,” I interjected.

Lucas nodded. “He didn’t run them by his dad, and that fuckup got him sent back to Italy.” He pointed at Jordy. “And…”

“I confirmed that Junior is already in the air to JFK, connecting to Rome.”

“Wow,” Winston said. “Daddy doesn’t mess around.”

“I didn’t know early enough to affect the current flight, but I reseated him for his second leg,” Jordy noted. “Middle seat in the last row of the plane, right by the lavatories.” He threw a jelly bean in the air and caught it in his mouth like a fucking seal.

More laughter, and Winston fist-bumped Jordy.

Lucas pointed. “Constance, you have something?”

She nodded. “My Secret Service contacts are buzzing about a newround of counterfeit hundreds popping up in town. One guy that was caught on camera passing the bills is a runner for the Russo family.”

“That doesn’t mean Russo is printing them,” Duke pointed out. “He could be buying them, though.”

“That’s a risky play for them,” Lucas said. “Their entire strategy is to avoid federal entanglements, and counterfeiting is a federal case.”

“They could be the middleman,” I suggested. “It’s the final distributors passing the bills to merchants who end up getting caught.”

“Could that much bogus money be what’s in the case?” Zane asked.

Duke shrugged. “It makes more sense than drugs.”