Page 17 of Legally Binding
“Yeah, and you’re like three hundred years old.”
“You’re not too old to put across my knee.” He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me to him for a giant bear hug. I’m always surprised at how strong he is, and somehow he’s gotten stronger with age. He places a kiss on my cheek before pulling back and looking me up and down. “You’re looking good, kid.”
“I’m taking after the best.” We walk over to the chairs and take a seat, and when I offer him a drink, he declines. “Tell me what brings you to the honest part of town.”
“Honest?” His bark of laughter is deep and familiar. “My lawyer's got jokes.”
“I do my best,” I say, grinning back at him.
“I’m here about your girl.” He reaches into the candy bowl in front of him and takes a butterscotch. I know they are his favorite, and I keep them on the table just for him.
“Don’t keep me in suspense.” I sit forward, wondering what’s wrong. “You never come this far downtown, so you’re here for a reason, and I need to know what it is.”
“How much do you know about her?”
I know I could tell Uncle Dino that Piper murdered someone in cold blood and he would take it to the grave. So telling him about her run-in with Bob Wilson and what he wanted is no big deal. It takes a little while to catch him up on what happened and where she is now, but once I’m done, he nods like he knew everything already.
“So I had one of my guys go by and check on the place she’s staying. Nothing too flashy, just a look around, talk to the neighbors, find out if she’s on the up and up.” I raise an eyebrow, and he shakes his head. “I think someone else is looking for her.”
“What do you mean?”
“The building she’s in is run by another family. It’s a dump, and the lock was kicked in. My guy didn’t think anything about it, but when he got to her floor, a couple of the neighbors said someone broke into her place last night. Her roommates called the cops, so I called my guy at the police station.” My Uncle Dino has a guy for everything. “Anyway, the report was basic, but he told me he pulled the security footage from the bodega across the street. There was a brand new Mercedes parked out front. It seemed out of place, so he ran the plates.”
“Bob Wilson,” I say because it’s not a question.
“Bingo, kid.” He pops another butterscotch in his mouth. “I think you kicked the hornet's nest with this one.”
My hands ache, and I look down to see I’m clenching my fists so tightly my knuckles are white. I have to force myself to open them so that I can get blood flow back to my fingers.
“Want me to take him out?” Uncle Dino sucks on his butterscotch while casually plotting murder. After all these years, I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess it’s a good sign I still am.
“Not yet,” I hedge. Yes, it would be easiest to kill him and not have to worry about the threat to Piper. But I don’t want anything that could possibly trace back to her. It’s so soon after the confrontation in our lobby yesterday where security got called, they could try and pin it on her.
“Well, just let me know,” he says like we’re discussing where to eat for dinner. He gets up from his chair, and I get up with him, following him to the door. “You should put someone on your girl.”
“That’s not a bad idea. I mean, she’s fine right now, but I should make sure someone is with her when she leaves my place.”
“What are you talking about?” His heavy brows pull together in confusion. “Last my guy saw, she was going inside her apartment.”
“When?”
“Before I came here, a couple of hours ago at least.”
“Shit.” I hurry back to my desk and grab my phone but don’t see any missed calls from her. Then I remember that I’ve got her number, but she doesn’t have mine. I call her cell, and it goes straight to voicemail, which doesn’t help my panic. “I need to go.”
“Come on, my driver's out front.”
Uncle Dino puts his hand on my shoulder as we take the elevator down to the lobby. Having him with me helps, but my mind is racing with the worst-case scenario. There are so many ways this could go wrong, all because of my stupid mistakes.
I don’t know what I’m going to do if something has happened to my Piper.
Chapter Eleven
PIPER
“What are you doing?” Ciara asks from the doorway to my room.
“Packing a few things.” After I laid on the bed and had my little pity party, I made myself get up. I have a kitten to get back to, and I need to figure out how to get back into Landon’s place.
