Page 53

Ten minutes earlier, Gennaro paced his living room, his blood pressure skyrocketing.

In just a few short hours, he would be on his way out of the country with a million dollars in cash and access to twenty-four million more.

Today was the most important day of his life.

He should be excited, but instead he was livid.

Where the hell were Dominic and Manny?

He’d been trying to reach them since last night to inform them that the schedule had been moved up and that he needed their help.

But every single call had gone straight to voicemail.

Knowing those two bozos, they’d probably partied too hard last night in anticipation of their coming payday and were sleeping it off.

From the hallway, he heard the door to his sister’s bedroom open and close, followed by her footsteps coming his way.

“I’m heading out,” she said when she reached the living room.

He glanced at the clock.

It was two minutes until ten.

“It’s not time yet.”

“For what?”

“We talked about this, remember? The thing you’re picking up for me?”

“Relax. I have some errands to run. I’ll get it while I’m out.”

“Dammit, Rosa! You need to be there at a specific time. You can’t just show up whenever you want.”

“You said around noon, right? I’ll make sure I’m free then. Where am I supposed to be?”

“It’s in Manhattan, but I’ll text you the exact location later.”

“Manhattan?” Rosa scoffed.

“Fine. What am I picking up?”

“A briefcase.”

“What’s in the briefcase?”

“None of your business.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“You’re not getting into dealing, are you? I don’t want to have anything to do with that, if you are.”

“For God’s sake, Rosa. It’s not drugs. It’s just some business papers I need. All you gotta do is bring the case to me, okay?”

“You swear you’re not dealing?”

“I swear. You know I’d never do that.”

“You better not be lying to me,” she said, then turned around and left.

The only thing that kept him from following her outside to remind her that she worked for him and not the other way around was knowing that he only needed to see her one more time before she was out of his life.

He focused back on the task at hand and tried to reach Dominic and Manny again.

But like before, their voicemails kicked in without the line ringing.

He slammed the receiver back onto its cradle and instantly the phone began to ring.

He snapped it up.

“Where the hell have you been?”

There was a pause before a voice that was neither Dominic’s nor Manny’s said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Brady Carter, Mr. Gennaro. We talked last week?”

“Brady Carter?” Gennaro said, confused.

“I told you about Fratelli.”

Gennaro rolled his eyes.

“I’m a little busy right now.”

“I just hadn’t heard from you, so I thought I’d check in.”

“And I thought I told you to sit tight, didn’t I?”

“Well, um, I guess.”

“I’ll let you know when I find him, okay? Until then, stop calling me!”

Gennaro could hear Carter starting to apologize as he slammed the phone down again.

That guy wasn’t going to get a dime from him.

His problem from before Carter called remained.

Since neither Dominic nor Manny were answering their phone, he would have to find someone else to drive him around today, so he could concentrate on what he needed to do.

And if they weren’t going to help, they didn’t deserve a cut of Buono’s money.

That made him feel a whole lot better.

He thought about who he could get to fill in on short notice, and the first name that popped into his mind was Toomey’s.

Out of everyone Gennaro had worked with lately, he had been the most reliable.

He called him.

“Put him on speaker and see what he wants,” Pinkie said.

Toomey connected the call and said, “Hello?”

“Hey, Toomey. It’s Ricky Gennaro.”

“Good morning, Mr. Gennaro.”

“Morning. Listen, something’s come up that I need help with—are you available today?”

Toomey looked at Pinkie and Miguel, both of whom nodded.

“I’m free all day,” Toomey said.

“What do you need?”

“Great. I’m looking for a driver slash bodyguard. Should only be for a few hours.”

“I can do that. You expecting trouble?”

“No, but better to be safe than sorry, right?”

“Always. What are you paying?”

“Your usual rate is what again?”

“A grand a day.”

“How about I pay you two.”

“That’s very generous. What time do you need me?”

“Is thirty minutes from now too soon?”

“I should be able to do that. We using your car?”

“I was hoping you could bring one. Something nondescript, you know, that’ll blend in.”

“I can arrange that. But it’ll cost an extra five hundred.”

“Not a problem.”

“Okay, then I’d better get a move on if I’m going to get there on time.”

“Thanks, Toomey. See you soon.”

Toomey hung up.

“Huh.”

“What?” Miguel asked.

“He usually grumbles when he has to pay my regular rate.”

“That’s because he’s overestimating his net worth,” Pinkie said.

“Don’t worry about it, though. Whether he pays you or not, when this is over, I’m giving you a nice bonus, and a full-time gig working directly with me and Miguel.”

“Thank you, Mr. Ramirez.”

“Miguel, we got a car Toomey can use?”

“We do. I already texted one of the guys and it should be here in about fifteen.”

“Excellent. And Rios is still on Rosa?”

“He just checked in. Looks like she’s headed for the subway.”

Pinkie smiled.

Rosa had expected her brother to send someone to keep an eye on her, so she wasn’t surprised to pick up on the guy following her into the subway station.

She didn’t recognize him, but her brother would have had to be a complete idiot to use someone she knew.

He might not have been as smart as he thought, but a complete idiot he was not.

The guy following her, on the other hand, was.

His attempts to pretend he was not interested in her were almost comical.

She boarded the first southbound train that came in, noting that her tail had also done so at the other end of the same car.

At the third stop, she waited until the last moment before stepping off.

As expected, the idiot her brother had hired didn’t even realize she’d left until the train started moving again.

She was tempted to give him a wave as he rode by, but thought it best if word didn’t get back to Ricky that she was onto him.

Instead, she pretended like she was heading to the exit.

When the train was gone, and the guy could no longer see her, she took a seat on a bench to wait for the next southbound train.