By rights, the city should be footing most of the bill but since the property was outside the city limits, City Council wouldn't have much incentive t...o tap their own budget. He wondered if Rose Ann Hightower had considered the possibility of grants as a funding source. Most of them just required matching funds.He decided to call her at her office to ask her about it. "Judge Hightower? Hi, this is Warren McPeak, Randall's dad." Yes, Mr. McPeak. I was planning to call you. I'm finding your son to. Mattie looked up, it was fucking huge! A young, smartly-uniformed man hurried over, opened the door of the cab and helped them to the foyer with their luggage. “Welcome to The Ritz-Carlton, the best New York has to offer,” he said in a polite American drawl. “I hope you enjoy your stay,” he nodded to them and doffed his cap. “Geez, everyone is so friendly!” This was not what Mattie had expected. New York had such a terrible reputation for its rude and impersonal inhabitants, a bit like. He sat ever so ladylike yet pied like a racehorseurinating away hours of anxiety and a gallon of alcohol. He sat for aminute composing himself until the room went silent and then stoodtucking himself as best he could. Either way nothing would show underthe poufy short skirt and no way would he put himself in anotherunenviable position with a strange prince.He opened the stall approaching the mirror as certainly to him nothinglooked a rye. He took a minute pressing the wand to all his lashes. Grace made herself not look. “What is it?”“Big SUV,” said Paul, “Ford Explorer. Gray. Two guys in it, same type as in the lift - big, open shirts, and looking a bit serious. Heavy.”“The pickup vehicle,” surmised Mia. They were all supposed to be in it, zip-tied and helpless, with nobody knowing where they’d vanished to.“Okay,” said Grace. She spotted a gap and accelerated. She pulled past a pickup, across in front of it into the next lane, passed the car in front, and returned to the second.