Page 35 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Terry

As I drove to meet Lucas, with Grace still on my mind, my phone rang. Lucas’s mother’s name appeared on the screen.

Shit. I should have called her, but I had forgotten. I pressed accept. “Hi.”

“Can you speak?” she asked softly.

“I’m driving and alone, so yes. How can I help you?”

Her voice remained soft. “I need to meet with you this morning.”

“Right now, I’m on my way to a meeting with Lucas. I can come over when I finish, if you like.” I’d been to the Hawk house many times.

“No,” she said quickly. “Text me, but don’t call, and we’ll arrange to meet.”

Something was up if she wanted to stay away from the house. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.”

She’d already warned me not to talk to anybody about this, and the whole cloak-and-dagger aspect worried me. The remaining miles to the Russo restaurant went by slowly as I wondered what could be up. It couldn’t be anything good.

Slowing the Porsche after I rounded the final corner, I found Lucas right where we’d met before.

I passed a guy leaning against a building and smoking, parked behind Lucas’s Porsche, and joined him. “Where are the others?” Last time, we’d gone in as a group.

“Duke and Winston have our two guests three blocks away,” he explained.

“It’s just the two of us going in this time.

Tony called the meet, so by his code, we’re protected.

Last time, we were arriving uninvited, and you never know how they might have felt if we’d interrupted something like him banging his mistress. There’s a difference.”

“Handguns?” I asked, not knowing these rules.

“As the guest, I can’t carry, but as my protection, you can. Just be aware that he will have two guys or more in the room who are fast on the draw, and their sole purpose is to take you down if you even twitch, so keep it holstered unless I yell the code word.”

“Which is?”

“Gun, of course.” He laughed and slapped me on the back. “Don’t worry. Don’t flinch, and you’ll do fine. One more thing—today I’m introducing you as my brother, so don’t object.”

I nodded. After Syria, I felt like a part of the Hawk family anyway. They had taken me in as one of their own. But his comment reminded me again that I owed his mother a discreet meeting later.

Lucas looked up and down the block, then started off, pulling a paper and pen from the pocket of his leather jacket. I followed as he wrote a note and then pocketed it.

When we rounded the corner to the restaurant, the same two guards were outside. Once more, they opened the door for us without hesitation. But I reminded myself that this time we’d been invited, while last time they had expected us courtesy of a leak in the LAPD.

I followed Lucas inside, where it was darker than I remembered, and the smells were more pungent, but the same two interior guards greeted us as well.

“Mr. Hawk,” the taller one said.

“Tony is expecting me,” Lucas announced, lifting his arms to be patted down.

The tall man was thorough. “You too.” He pointed at me.

“No.” Lucas spun on the guy with a finger inches from his face—a finger I knew could kill the man, but did he know?

He backed away and nodded. “This way.”

We followed him into the same back room as before.

The room didn’t reek of cigar smoke this time, which was different. The man behind the desk was a match for the photographs of Tall Tony. Behind him were the two guards from yesterday, Baldy and Mustache Guy .

Baldy flinched when he noticed Lucas. His arm probably still hurt from last time.

The surprise was that Victor was also there.

“Have a seat, Lucas,” Tony said. “It’s been a long time.”

Lucas sat, without offering to shake the mobster’s hand. “This is my brother, Terry.”

I stayed standing.

Tony nodded before concentrating his glare on Lucas. “You took my niece, Maria. Where is she?” He pounded a fist on the desk. “You said you’d bring her.”

I might have flinched, but Lucas didn’t. “She’s nearby, but first we need to talk. I understand you’re looking for Elliot Boyle.”

“We are,” Tony confirmed. “Are you interested in helping? Ten grand, no questions asked, if you find him for me.”

“And you’re looking for a certain metal case.”

The twitch of his eye gave him away. He hadn’t expected us to know that. “We are, but why would that concern you?”

“Just in case we find it.”

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.”

“I accept,” Lucas said and rose from his chair. “We’ll be looking for him as well.”

“And my niece?” Tony asked .

Lucas pulled out his phone and dialed. “You can let them go… She what?” He looked at Tony, holding the phone away from his ear. “She bit one of my men. Are you sure you want her back?”

Tony laughed. “Let me think about that. She’s a spirited one.”

“He’s not sure,” Lucas said into the phone.

We could all hear the shrill shriek on the other end.

Tony gave in to his smile. “Sure, I’ll take her.”

“You can let them out,” Lucas said. Then he pocketed the phone and stood.

I bit back a laugh.

“One week,” Tony emphasized as we left.

Outside the office, Mustache Guy had removed the clip from my SIG, and he returned my weapon in two pieces. We left the building, and I slammed home the clip and holstered the weapon as we turned the corner to the side street.

“Why’d you agree to that shit?” I asked as we turned toward our cars.

Lucas looked straight ahead. “Soldier, you’re a fuckup.” Suddenly he grasped my shoulders. “I told you to keep your mouth shut. You fucked up. Do you hear me, soldier?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered. “Sorry, sir.”

“As of now, you are to spend one-hundred-and-ten percent of your time on finding Elliot for them.” He stabbed me in the chest with that dangerous finger of his. “Do you understand me, soldier?”

“Understood, sir.” I even added a salute.

“You better,” he said as he bleeped the locks on his Porsche.

I did the same to mine, climbed in, and started the engine as he drove off. Then, I pulled out the paper he’d slipped into my pocket.

Getting chewed out by the boss sucked. After reading the note, I shot Grace a text.

Grace

I stopped at Peyton’s desk after we broke from our morning status meeting and I found the message on my phone.

TYRANT: I have to go into the office. I don’t know how long .

She was struggling with her necklace. “I hate this clasp. It keeps getting stuck in my hair.”

I set my phone down. “Want some help?”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

I tried to untangle the knot.

“Ouch,” Peyton complained when I pulled on the wrong end of a single hair.

“Sorry.” I leaned over and squinted at the problem. It wasn’t a simple task with my nails as long as they were.

“Let me try.” Zane appeared next to me.

Catching Peyton’s smile, I moved aside. “Sure. Just be gentle with her. I can’t afford the time to train a new assistant.”

For such a big man, his fingers were surprisingly nimble as he worked the problem and freed her hair from the clasp. “All done.” He swept her hair around her neck and over her shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“Who’s Tyrant?” he asked, glancing at my phone screen.

I picked it up quickly.

Peyton grinned, but obeyed the glare I sent her way and kept her mouth shut.

I escaped to my office without answering his question. Through the glass I might have noticed an admiring gaze my assistant aimed at the big man as he walked back to his post.

Then I did something completely out of character and sent the tyrant a text.

ME: Thinking about you.

That was a mistake, because I felt less good when a minute later a reply hadn’t come. What was I thinking?

Terry

Before driving off, I reread the piece of paper Lucas had passed me.

When I call, play along. Start toward Grace and then U-turn to the office when I tell you .

I hadn’t seen anybody watching us, but Lucas’s code that we could be overheard had been clear. He, of all people, knew never to call an ex-Marine like me a soldier. Marines were called Marines and nothing else.

The meaning of the note was clear. He thought one or both of our cars had been bugged, and they may have been listening on the street as well.

All it would take was a parabolic mic from a window or rooftop.

Since he wanted me to make a U-turn, he was also concerned about being followed or them having a tracker on my car.

I stashed the note and pulled away from the curb, turning right at the light on the way to Grace’s building.

Lucas’s call arrived less than two blocks later.

“Are you going to fly straight, soldier?” he said as soon as I answered.

“Yes, sir.” If I said anything else, he would assume I hadn’t gotten the note.

“That was one hell of a meeting. Tony is a scary motherfucker.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Like I said, we need to put every effort into finding this Elliot asswipe. Do you have any leads on him from your girl?”

I guessed that playing along meant no . “Sorry, sir. No.”

“Then you better develop some pronto, because I want that ten grand he’s offering.”

Now we were clearly in deception mode because Lucas had made it quite clear that he would never work for any of the criminal organizations in town.

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, then. I’ll see you back at the office. Don’t dawdle.”

“I have an errand to run first, but I’ll be in as soon as I can. I’ll text when I’m on the way.”

“Roger that.” He disconnected.

This meant leaving Grace’s safety in someone else’s hands for now.

I hit the steering wheel, hard. I should be with her . Deciding I should be an adult about the situation, I pulled into the next gas station and parked to compose a text to Grace. I didn’t dare put down how I felt, so I made it simple.

ME: I have to go into the office. I don’t know how long. Zane will stay with you until I can get there.

Then I texted Carol Hawk.

ME: Done with my meeting .

Her response was quick.

CAROL: Longwave Park 30 min?

ME: I’ll be there

Lucas and Duke’s mother needed my help, and it couldn’t be good if she wanted to keep it from her sons.