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Gennaro was contemplating his next move against Fratelli when the door to his office swung open, and Rosa stuck her head in.

“You have a call.”

“Rosa, for the last time! Knock first, will you?”

“Line one,” she said.

He bit back a retort and asked, “Who is it?”

“The weird guy.”

“What weird guy?”

“West Coast accent.”

“West Coast?” He paused for a moment, thinking.

“You don’t mean Stefan Howard, do you?”

She shrugged, then left.

“Son of a—” He closed his eyes and reminded himself that once he had Fratelli’s cash, he’d never have to deal with his sister again.

He punched line one and picked up the receiver.

“Yeah?”

“Mr. Gennaro, it’s Stefan Howard.”

“What can I do for you, Stefan?”

“I just got back from my trip out of town, and I wanted to see if you were able to take care of my request.”

“Working on it.”

“Working on it? I thought you’d be done by now. Was there a problem?”

Conveniently enough, there was a good reason why Gennaro couldn’t have gone after Barrington over the weekend, not that he’d been planning on doing it in the first place.

“Your friend was in England,” he said.

“He was?”

“I’d be pretty bad at my job if I didn’t know where my target was, wouldn’t I?”

“Is he still there?”

“No, he’s back now,” Gennaro said.

“My people are waiting for the right opportunity to…”

His voice trailed off as he realized the answer to how to put more pressure on Fratelli was right in front of him.

Barrington and Fratelli were friends.

If Gennaro put the lawyer in his crosshairs, he could take care of his needs and Stefan’s at the same time.

“Hello?” Stefan said.

“Are you still there?”

“Sorry, um, I just got a text,” Gennaro lied.

“Rest assured, your request will be dealt with very soon.”

“This week?”

“That’s the plan.” Or at least it was now.

“Fantastic! Please let me know as soon as it happens.”

“I will.”

Gennaro called Toomey next.

“Are you back in town?”

“As of a couple hours ago.”

“Are you working on anything right now?”

“I got nothing lined up until Friday.”

“Perfect. I have a job for you that starts immediately.”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to keep tabs on someone.”

“Who?”

“Stone Barrington.”

“The guy Baker and I jumped?”

“That’s the one, which means you need to make sure he doesn’t see you.”

“I don’t think he ever got a good look at me, so that won’t be a problem.”

“Just be careful, all right?”

“I will, don’t worry about it.”

“I want to know where he is at all times,” Gennaro said.

“He’s at home, you tell me he’s at home. He goes somewhere, you tell me what route he’s taking and where he ends up.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Consider me on the job.”

After they hung up, Gennaro found Baker’s number in his contacts, but stopped himself before he made the call.

Instead of bringing a freelancer in to do the actual job he had in mind, he could think of two other choices for the role, and he wouldn’t have to pay either a dime.

He punched Dominic’s number, and as soon as Dominic was on the line, said, “What class driver’s license do you have?”

“The regular one.”

“You mean just for cars?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Manny?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Are you with him?”

“He’s next door.”

“Go ask him.”

“Hold on.” When Dominic came back on, he said, “Manny’s got a Class B.”

“Perfect. Put him on the phone.”

At the same time Dominic was handing his phone to Manny, Pinkie Ramirez received a call from Toomey.

He put it on speaker so Miguel could listen in.

“Good morning, Toomey. What can I do for you?”

“Good morning, Mr. Ramirez,” Toomey said.

“Sorry to bother you so early, but I had a call I thought you’d want to know about.”

“Do tell.”

“Ricky Gennaro just hired me to keep an eye on that lawyer whose phone I grabbed last week.”

“Stone Barrington?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t say. Just told me he wants to know where Barrington is at all times.”

“When do you start?”

“I’m heading into Manhattan right after I finish talking to you. I figure he’ll probably be at his home, which he also uses as an office. If he’s not, he’ll be there at some point.”

“How long are you supposed to keep this up?”

“He didn’t say, but he knows I have another gig on Friday, and that didn’t seem to bother him. So, I’m guessing a day or two at most. Sorry, that’s all I got. I figured you’d want to know he has something going on, though.”

“You’ve done good. Real good. Keep calling me if something comes up. If you can’t reach me, call Miguel.”

“You got it, Mr. Ramirez.”

“When this is all over, you come see me. It’s time we bring you on full-time.”

“Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.”

“Talk later.” Pinkie hung up and looked at Miguel.

“What do you think?”

“I think I really want to know what Gennaro’s up to.”

“It’s good to know we’re in sync,” Pinkie said.

“Very much so.”

“Then I’ll leave it in your hands.”

It was noon by the time Stefan checked into his new hotel.

It was the cheapest place he could book, and he was still paying close to two hundred a night.

The room wasn’t any larger than his old prison cell, either.

The only thing that made it tolerable was knowing that as soon as he and Sara were back together, he’d be living the high life.

After washing up and changing out of his travel clothes, he headed out.

He hadn’t picked up a new rental yet, so he took the subway to a station a few blocks from Sara’s building.

It had been five days since the last time he’d seen her with his own eyes, and he didn’t want to make it six.

It would have been nice if he hadn’t had to miss all that time.

But skipping his monthly meeting with his parole officer in Los Angeles would have been a bad idea.

He spent the better part of the afternoon across the street and just around the corner from where Sara lived.

From there, he could keep an eye on her high-rise without drawing attention.

He saw plenty of people go in and out, but not one of them had been her.

He decided she must be someplace else.

While he could think of a few possibilities, one stood out from the others.

He hailed a cab and took it to Turtle Bay.