Gino suddenly seemed to get it. He held up his hands in a placating fashion. “All right, all right, we’ll do it your way, but I’ve got something set up, and I’m going to have to go through with it. I promise you, when I’m done, Perado will go back to Texas, and we’ll never hear from him again. You can keep Al on the payroll, but he won’t make any sales calls.”

“What have you got set up, Gino?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll all be over in a couple of days, and then you can run the business the way you want to.”

“All right, Gino, I’ll give you a week, then you take a powder from the business, or I’ll buy you out, your choice.”

“It’ll be okay, I promise you.”

—

Two men watched from the street as the garage door at the Barrington house rose, and a green Bentley Flying Spur backed out of the garage. They watched as the driver got out and went into the house. While he was gone one of the men, Frank, walked past the Bentley, looked around, then bent down and reached under the car for a moment, then went back and got into his own car.

“Did you get it done?” his companion, Charlie, asked.

“Of course I did, didn’t you watch? We can track him anywhere now, and watch him on the iPad. He’ll never know he’s being followed.”

“I’ll believe this when I see it.”

—

Stone and Caroline gave Fred their luggage and got into the Bentley.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Caroline asked.

“No, I don’t think so. Let’s make it a surprise.”

“Okay, I like surprises—good ones, anyway.”

“This is a good one.”

They passed through the Lincoln Tunnel and drove into darkest New Jersey.

“Have we picked up any tails, Fred?” Stone asked.

“No, sir, I’m keeping a watch.”

The car turned into Teterboro Airport and drove to Jet Aviation. A valet loaded their luggage onto a cart. “Your airplane is right down front, Mr. Barrington,” he said, and they followed him through the lobby and out onto the ramp.

—

The two men in the car across the street watched them. “They’re taking a fucking airplane somewhere,” Charlie said. “Now we’ll lose them.”

“Just wait right here,” Frank said. “I’ll be right back, it’ll be okay.” He walked into the lobby and up to a rear window overlooking the ramp, where he saw Barrington and his girlfriend approach a light jet airplane. He noted the tail number, then went back to the car.

“I got their tail number,” he said.

“So you’re going to send them a postcard? How’s that going to help?”

“We can track the plane, just like we tracked the car.”

“No shit?”