Callum thought over the offer and Jared’s transparency.The man had been down a similar road with his wife’s abduction.He understood the stakes.He trusted his team.Callum sawed his jaw but nodded.“All right.”
Jared turned.“Let’s go.”
They passed conference room after conference room, each filled with attorneys and their office staff, law enforcement, and investigators, until they reached the farthest conference room.A man approached them from the opposite direction.
“Turbulence out of Boston was a nightmare,” he said to Jared and then introduced himself.“Parker Black.I’ve had my eyes on this since Boss Man said go.”
They entered the conference room.Dean offered Parker an appreciative look.“Took you long enough.”
Gage sat with two men, introduced as Rocco and Roman.
Jared pulled Vivian and Gage into a separate conversation, leaving Callum with Dean and Parker in a huddle near Rocco and Roman.
Dean leaned back from the table.“Callum, give me a second?”
“Yeah.”
“I understand where you’re coming from.I get the distrust.I want you to know I run sweeps on my assets.I trust my people.”He grimaced.“But there’s obviously a breach.I see it.I believe it.You need to know it didn’t come from me.”
Callum held his stare a beat longer, searching for a lie in the way Dean spoke, but didn’t find it.
“We’ll find the problem,” Parker promised.“But our highest priority is finding Grace.Agreed?We chase shadows and problems later.We find her now.”
Callum nodded.There were leaks and moles, but based on what Jared said, Callum believed it wasn’t the people in this room.
He waited while Parker and Dean compared notes, then looped in Titan’s hierarchy of Jared, Vivian, and Gage.Rocco and Roman made small talk, but Callum wanted to climb the walls.Investigators pulled him in and out of the conference room several times.Each time he recounted the same thing, he wasn’t sure how that information fed into the group working in this room.
Finally, Jared called everyone to the table and said to Callum, “You’re not going to like this.”
Callum steeled himself.
“We have a plan, and you’re going to talk to Marino.Face to face.Explain what you know.What’s happened.Lean into the idea that something Marino sees as a possession is in danger.”
His chest tightened.He forced his voice steady.“Are you joking?”He shook his head.“He won’t meet with me.”
“Yeah, he will.”Jared pointed to Parker and Dean.
“He’s unaware of what’s happened to Grace but knows the groups within his network who have expressed varying ways to keep her from speaking to the DOJ,” Parker said.
Dean added, “The chatter’s only been getting more heated.No one is showing their hand to him yet.He can open doors we can’t.”
“Think it through,” Jared demanded.“He sees Grace as his propertyandas a source of his laundering network.He doesn’t have all the information, which has got to be a kick in the nuts.He’ll talk to you, and we’ll figure out a way to track his next steps.”
Callum would have to keep his fists at his side.“Fine.Set it up.”
“Already done,” Vivian said.“Gage is going in with you.Rocco and Roman will be on site.We’ll probably place others throughout the meeting location.”
Callum’s frozen trust was thawing.He could trust these people.He had to.“When?”
“Chopper’s outside waiting to take you to the airport.There’s a jet that will take you to New York City.You’ll meet Marino at a hotel.”
“We already have Delta team tracking his every move,” Rocco added.“You’ll know if he does anything suspicious before you get there.”
“And, Hale?”Vivian crossed her arms.“Don’t kill the fucker after you have what you need from him.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
DominicMarinowastheirenemy, but as much as Callum did not want to admit it, he was also a resource.That didn’t negate Callum’s absolute disgust of the man.
