Beck sat back, looked away from Olivia. He exhaled. She sounded like a fucking lawyer. Maybe that had to do with her corporate background. Or her job as someone who made sure people followed regulations.

Manny shook his head slowly, repeating her name in quiet admonition. “Ah, Olivia, Olivia.” As if to say, what have you done to us?

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know.” She turned to Manny. “I never wanted to come to you, Manny, but you always told me, if I needed you…” Her voice trailed off. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“All right,” Beck said. “What’s done is done. Right now we need to find out everything we can about these people.”

Olivia leaned forward across the dining table. “I can help. I can find out.”

“How?”

“I still know everybody at Summit. I’ll call people I know and keep asking around. Maybe someone knows more. If I have to, I’ll confront Milstein. He might know, even if he keeps Crane’s operation at arm’s length.”

Beck said, “Don’t call Milstein. You can’t have any connection to him whatsoever. None. If we need to get information from him, we’ll get it.”

Manny broke in.

“Olivia, listen to James. You don’t call anybody, carina. We take this from here.” He turned to Beck, “Time to go after this Crane asshole. Straight up. He knows who these fuckers are. We work on him until we get every last fucking thing we need. Or Milstein.”

Beck answered, “We will if we have to. Trouble is, it’s not going to be all that easy to scoop Crane up. I don’t see him being alone now, or maybe even alive much longer. Last I saw him, his arm was taped to a table with the biggest fucking ball peen hammer I’ve ever seen next to him.”

Olivia looked up at that. She started to ask Beck a question, but stopped.

“What?” asked Beck.

“Why would Markov want to hurt Crane?”

“I assume he blames Crane for setting you off.”

“But he can’t…”

“Can’t what?”

“He can’t hurt Crane. Crane runs his investments. He needs him too much.”

“For now.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“How long do you think somebody who has as much money as Markov is going to leave it at risk with a brokerage company that let this situation get so out of hand?”

“I don’t know. But I know one thing for sure,” she said.

“What?”

“If he wants his money out of Summit there’s only one person who can unwind all those trades. Especially if he wants it done quickly.”

“Crane?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay,” said Beck. “So Crane is the key right now.” Beck turned to face Manny. “As for Milstein, I just got off the phone with the Bolo brothers. I told Ricky and Jonas to keep an eye on him. I assume he’s at his office. If not, they’ll know how to find him. He won’t be anywhere we can’t get to him if we need to.”

“Okay,” said Manny.

Beck gave Manny a look and said, “Hey, I know you’ve been thinking about what guys you might need to do what you were thinking about. You know, before.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Maybe now is the time to reach out. Just to have a little manpower if we need it. No need to bring them in now. Just to have things in place.”

Manny nodded. He stood up without a word and headed for his kitchen downstairs, leaving Olivia and Beck at the dining table.

When Manny was out of earshot, Beck leaned forward, arms on the table.

“Okay, listen to me. You and I are going to sort this out. I don’t have time to explain the whys or whatevers behind the things I need to do. Okay?”

Olivia nodded.

“You understand why we said you can’t have any contact with Milstein or Crane now, right?”

“I think so.”

“Something happens to either of them, you don’t want to be near it. Clear?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Considering what they tried to do to me, keep in mind—without me and Manny and our crew you’d might very well already be dead.” Beck paused, giving what he said time to sink in. “When I ask you a question, I need careful answers.”

“Okay.”

Before Beck continued, he looked past Olivia at Ciro. The big man had settled back on the couch, leaving it up to Beck for the moment. Manny was gone, which enabled Beck to talk freely.

Beck looked at Olivia, making sure to put aside enjoying her exquisite face. Or looking at the spaces between the buttons of her white shirt. Or anything that had to do with her being desirable in any way. He looked only at her eyes, looking past the flecks of gold in the deep browns and shades of ocher that gave her eyes their nearly mesmerizing color, hoping to see fear in them.

He began his questions carefully.

“How do Milstein and Crane know each other?”

“As far as I know, just from being in the business. Crane has always had a reputation as a moneymaker, but someone who takes risk. A lot of risk. But risk is what creates reward. Like I said, Milstein needed revenue. Somewhere along the line, I assume Milstein reached out to him. Could have been the other way around, but I’d say Milstein made the deal.”

“So they have no past history together?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

Christ, thought Beck, she’s back to hedging her answers. He decided he’d better get to the heart of it.

“Is Crane making money now? Is he underwater, or in the green?”

“I don’t know. He did well last year, but now, honestly, I don’t know. The fund managers don’t report numbers until they absolutely have to.”

“What happens to Summit if they lose Markov?”

“My opinion, if they lose Markov, the firm might go under. Milstein needs the income Crane’s bringing in. He might muddle through. I can’t be sure.”

“How long has Crane been running Markov’s money?”

“I don’t know about before Summit. A little over a year at Summit.”

“So he has to have made money for him in the past. Nobody is going to stick around with somebody who’s losing.”

“Absolutely. But like I said, his risk profile is very high.”

“Even if he’s pulling all kinds of shit to bring down the value of stocks he’s shorting?”

“The market is way bigger than one guy and one hedge fund. A few wrong moves can really hurt.”

“Where’s Milstein on this?”

“Hoping the money keeps coming in and Crane doesn’t blow up.”

“What about Markov? Does he think Crane can keep this going?”

“My experience is, unscrupulous people like being with someone who is stealing for them. Doing it straight is for suckers. But guys like Markov, they can sense when it’s time to pick up their chips and leave.”

Beck nodded.

“You said, you estimated Markov’s holdings are over a hundred million.”

“Yes. Although, like I said, I don’t see the day-to-day numbers.”

“How’s one guy amassed that much?”

Olivia gave Beck a confused look. “Do you know how many people out there have amassed that much and more?”

“No.”

“Thousands. Tens of thousands. It takes a lot of people to make up the one percent, Mr. Beck. From what I hear, Markov has been at this for a long time.”

Beck changed the subject. “How much time would Crane need to liquidate everything?”

Olivia frowned and shook her head. “It all depends. If Markov pressures him to do it fast, it could be within a couple of days. I’m sure Crane is in a bunch of different markets. But I don’t know his positions. A lot of his trades are options. He might be underwater, waiting for stocks to gap up, or more likely down. If so, he’ll push for more time. It depends on how much Markov pushes to get out. And how much it will cost him.”

“Give me an outside time. Your best guess.”

Olivia looked up, thinking it through, talking out loud. “I don’t know, what’s today, Wednesday? Markov doesn’t seem like a very patient man. Probably end of the week, Friday latest.”

Beck nodded. Lost in thought for a moment. “I don’t suppose you have any extra clothes with you.”

“No.”

“Did you drive here?”