Page 88 of Guarding Grace

“Now we wait and let him stew. Attempting to kidnap you was a very risky play. My bet is that he didn’t run it by his papa, and if that’s the case, he’s got a bigger problem.”

Deb nodded.

Grace’s eyes narrowed. “And if he did get his father’s okay?”

“Get dressed and let me worry about that.”

After I kissed her forehead, she did as I asked—this time without argument.

I waited until Grace had closed the bedroom door to turn on Deb. “I told you to not say anything.”

Deb snorted. “I’m not going to let some idiot say shit about you.”

I sucked in a calming breath. “While I love that you support me, I can take care of myself.”

She patted me on the shoulder. “I know you can. But the asshole needed a dose of sister power.”

She didn’t get it. “This Victor guy is the kind of whack job you don’t want to interact with at all.”

She spun and walked away. “Right, be quiet and paint my nails or something else female-approved.” My pain-in-the-ass sister stopped before she reached the hallway. “Remember, you owe me a look at that medal.”

“Right,” I said as she rounded the corner to leave.

“Bye, Grace,” Deb yelled before she descended the stairs.

“Bye,” was Grace’s reply.

I dialed Lucas to let him know Victor had made contact.

After a full recounting of my less-than-cordial talk with the younger Russo, Lucas agreed that we needed to wait to hear from Tall Tony himself.

Then he switched topics. “The guy with the neck tattoos is definitely a Marku foot soldier,” he told me. “But the driver is a question mark. All we figured out before we had to let them go was that he’s Korean—not a talker.”

I circled the table. “Prints?”

“I was hoping they’d match someone in the LAPD gang database, but they don’t, and they’re not in AFIS either, which leaves us with a good possibility and a bad one.”

Based on Marku’s history, I suspected where Lucas was going with this. “The bad one being North Korea? More missile technology?”

“It’s possible, but I don’t want to go there yet. The more likely option is that he’s a local that Marku brought in for more muscle.”

I leaned against the counter. “What makes you think that?”

“Russo is a dirtbag, but not that kind of dirtbag. He doesn’t have any way to get his hands on something like missile electronics. These days, the FBI is mostly focused on the Russians. Russo would stay a million miles away from anything that would cause the FBI to shift their focus to him.”

I nodded to myself. “Plus, it doesn’t make sense that Elliot would be entrusted with something like that.”

“Agreed. Jordy will keep digging for chatter. You just keep our girl safe.”

“My girl,” I corrected him.

A moment of silence followed. “You’re going there, huh?”

“I’m already there. She’s mine.”

“Hmm… Has she bought into that? She’s in a pretty vulnerable spot right now.”

“She’s mine.”