Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington 7)

Callie came with drinks for all of them.

“Callie, we’re having a Sunday afternoon wedding,” Thad said. “Invite everybody who was at the housewarming, plus the New York list. Call the caterers—and find out how I get a marriage license and, if necessary, a blood test.”

Callie grabbed a pad and started taking notes.

“And, Stone, Dino, I want you both to stay for the wedding,” Thad said.

Stone looked at Dino, and they nodded.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Dino said.

“And, Thad,” Stone said, “we’re going to need some outside security for this occasion.”

“Callie, take care of it,” Thad said. He got up. “I’m going to get a shower and change for dinner. Please book us a table somewhere, Callie.” He departed for the house.

Callie sat down next to Stone. “How much security are you going to want?”

“Let’s see,” Stone said, looking toward the house. “We’ll want two men, dressed like the car parkers, out in front of the house. There should be two men in each public room in the house, dressed as guests, four in the garden and two on the yacht. How many is that?”

“Eighteen.”

“Ask for twenty-four, and I want them to have radios.”

“Do you want them armed?”

Stone thought about that.

Dino spoke up. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea, having that many armed men in a crowd. After all, we don’t know these guys, don’t know how good they are.”

“We’ll have one armed man in each room, in the garden and on the yacht,” Stone said. “Tell them we want only their best-trained and most experienced men carrying.”

“All right,” Callie said.

“And I want them here an hour before the party, so I can brief them.”

“Okay.” She made a note of that.

“Anything else you can think of?” Stone asked Dino.

“Well, let’s see,” Dino said, “we could have a couple of machine guns mounted on the roof, and maybe a bazooka or two.”

Callie laughed.

“Why do you think he’s kidding?” Stone asked.

She laughed again. “I’d better go book us a dinner table,” Callie said, “and I’ve got a lot of phone calls to make.” She headed toward her cabin.

“Thad is completely nuts, isn’t he?” Dino asked.

“He’s nuts about Liz, no doubt about it.”

“I’ve never seen anybody move so fast.”

“It’s the money. The superrich are accustomed to having what they want, when they want it, and that usually means right now.”

“It’s a pretty short time to put together a big wedding.”

“Frankly, I’m surprised we’re not doing it tonight. But don’t worry—this is what Callie does, and she’s used to doing it Thad’s way.”