“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.
