“You’re so hung up on your ex,” Callum muttered.
Gage cleared his throat.Good cop.Bad cop.If they were going to meet their operating objectives, they would have to get under Marino’s skin.
“Hung up on her like you?”Marino volleyed.
That caught Callum off guard, but he kept a straight face.In no way would Marino learn anything about his relationship with Grace.“Which of your business partners took her?”
“If someone has her, they won’t hurt Grace.”
Callum wanted to throttle his face in.“Actually.We’re not so sure about that.”
“Why’s that?”
He pulled out his phone and pulled up aerial footage of their decimated safe house.“Do you know where I was this morning?I’ll give you a hint.It’s not there anymore.”He thumbed through the images of what remained.It wasn’t much.“Grace was about sixty seconds short of blowing up.”
Marino’s cocky demeanor shifted ever so slightly.
Callum noted it and pressed on.“So if you think one of your associates has simply taken her to ensure she doesn’t have a conversation withyour friends, as you called them, I’d say someone has blown smoke up your ass.”
His focus narrowed on the screen.“Subpar Photoshop skills?I expected more.”
Callum shrugged and scrolled through his saved photos until he found the one of a dead man lying next to his truck.“The way your associates are trying to keep Grace quiet doesn’t work for me.”His expression tightened.“And I suspect, it doesn’t work for you either.”
The tiniest flicker of doubt registered in Marino’s conceited gaze.
“Look, Mr.Marino,” Gage said, “I get you think you have everything under control.That you’re pissed that someone firebombed Alicia Jackson’s house to scare Grace, but you’re wrong.This has spiraled.”
Callum swiped his phone’s screen and showed the pictures of the shooter at the safe house and the SUV with its shot-up engine and unconscious thugs.“These two are still breathing.”
Gage hooked a thumb toward Callum.“You don’t like him.From what I hear, the feeling’s mutual.But if Grace is yours, you have lost control.In a sense, we’d like to give that back.”
Good cop.Bad cop.Callum repeated the mantra in his head and would rather cut off his arm than even suggest Marino couldhaveGrace after they found her.But Gage was speaking Marino’s language and acting like she was a possession to find.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do,” Gage pressed.“We already know you and the Triad have a man on the inside—that’s obvious.You know when things are happening.You know what the meetings are about.You told Grace to keep her mouth shut.And we know it’s about the money laundering through her communication network.We don’t care about that.We’re not the feds.Check us for wires for all we care.We want to know where Grace is.”Gage waited, then tacked on, “You knew she was alive the entire time, didn’t you?”
Marino pursed his lips, waging an internal battle.
“You want to keep her that way?”Gage asked.“Tell us where we need to go; we’ll find your woman before the safe-house-exploding-faction finds her first.”
Marino lifted his hands as if he didn’t know, then dropped them to his lap.“I don’t know anything.”
The pressure building in Callum’s head might explode.
“You really think nothing will happen to her?”Callum asked, grinding his molars.
“Why would anyone I know hurt Grace?They wouldn’t dare.”
“They already did.”
The smug, conceited smirk fell.Callum wouldn’t call Marino’s expression worried—not by a long stretch—but there was something there.Not fear.If he had to guess, it was a lack of control.“Bullshit.”
“No, he’s telling you like it is.”Gage shrugged.“Tossed her right out a window and into the trunk of a car.Look, I don’t have a dog in this fight.No reason to lie.I get paid whether or not you give us anything.We just want to find her.Alive preferably.”
Someone knocked on the door, and a uniformed waiter rolled in a catering cart.
Marino swallowed hard as if surprised by the interruption, then in a less steady voice, “I’ll have to confirm that.”He cleared his throat.“I ordered coffee and pastries.”He gestured, distracted as he pulled out his phone.
