Before he said too much again, Jim took off, carrying the tray with both hands through an endless spread of rooms. When he got to the study, the door was open and diPietro was sitting behind a big marble desk that had a lot of computers on it. The guy wasn’t staring at the machines, though. He was turned around and focused on the bank of windows and the twinkling view.

Something small and black was buried in his palm.

Jim knocked on the jamb. “I got some amusements for your mouth.”

Vin pivoted around in his chair and tucked the ring box next to the phone. As Heron stood in the study’s doorway with a tray in his hands, the guy made an unlikely waiter, and not because of the flannel shirt and the jeans. He simply wasn’t the kind to be anyone’s servant.

“You know French?” Vin murmured as he nodded at the amuse-bouche.

“She told me what they were.”

“Ah.” Vin got to his feet and went over. “Devina’s a great cook.”

“Yeah.”

“You try one already?”

“Nah, I’m just going by the smells coming out of your kitchen.”

They both took a stuffed mushroom cap. And a tiny sandwich with paper-thin slices of tomato and leaves of basil. And a flat-bellied spoon with caviar and leeks on it.

“So have a seat,” Vin said, nodding at the one across from his desk. “Let’s talk. I mean, I know you want food…but there’s something else, isn’t there.”

Heron put down the tray but didn’t take a load off. Instead, he went over to the windows and looked out at Caldwell.

In the silence, Vin resettled in his leather throne and measured his “guest.” Bastard had a jaw like a two-by-four, hard and straight, and he was playing his cards close to the chest: There was no tell in his face whatsoever.

Which suggested the territory they were going to head into was dark and tricky.

As Vin twirled a gold pen around on his blotter and waited for the ask, he wasn’t worried about dark and tricky. Most of his money had been made in construction, but he hadn’t started out in the legitimate land of boards and nails—and his contacts with the black-market side of Caldwell were still good.

“Take your time, Jim. Money is easier to ask for than…other things.” He smiled a little. “You want something that isn’t readily available at the local Hannaford, by any chance?”

Heron’s eyebrow twitched, but that was about it as he continued searching the lights of the city. “What exactly are you talking about.”

“What exactly are you looking for.”

There was a pause. “I need to know about you.”

Vin sat forward in his chair, not sure he’d heard right. “Know about me how?”