46

I’d completed my chat with the architect and his wife and just begun the final run-through with the circus army when Sal Bonadello called.

“Joe’s making a move on your wife and kid.”

I’d expected that. In a normal world, I would have had Callie take Janet and Kimberly to my headquarters for safekeeping, but this wasn’t a normal world; it was Janet’s world. I trusted Callie to protect them, but I feared Joe might firebomb the house from a distance.

So last night I’d placed a call to Kimberly and explained the situation. I told her to find a way to get her mom out of the house until I called. I told her wherever she went, she’d be safe because Callie would follow them.

“You got enough guys to handle the threat?” I asked Sal.

Besides getting me into Chris Unger’s office, this was the part of the plan where I needed Sal’s help. I wanted his men guarding Janet’s house in case anything went wrong.

“DeMeo put a contract on you for a million bucks. Told all the families, then called me, said grab your family and hold them hostage.”

“You think he sent some of his guys anyway?”

“I do. It would be just like that rat bastard not to trust me.”

“You running that charity and all.”

“The Mothers of Sicily,” he said. “So, did you get your family somewhere safe?”

“I hope so.”

“Is your wife pissed at you?”

“Ex-wife. And yeah, she’s pissed. Like always.”

“Ain’t they all,” he said.

I finished briefing the circus performers. Quinn checked their equipment. Hugo and I called Victor and gave him an update.

Next, I called Kathleen.

“How’s it hanging, cowboy?” she asked.

“Boring stuff, these Homeland conferences,” I lied.

“Anyone famous there?”

“Besides me? Not really.”

“You’re probably hanging out with one of those pretty high school girls who couldn’t get into the movies.”

“Like, that’s so totally random,” I said.

She laughed. “Don’t work too hard, lover boy. I’m expecting the full treatment when you come home.”

“And you’ll get it,” I said.

“Speaking of which …”

“Can’t say yet. Sometimes these things last a couple days, sometimes more.”

“Until then,” she said, and we hung up.

And so it was time.