“Larry Hemet, but my nephew’s name was Parker Evans.”
“I remember him.” Drake saw Piper shiver. “Come on, Tinkerbell, let’s get you settled.” He put his arm around her and nodded to Larry as they headed outside to their rooms.
“Movie stars stay at this place,” Piper said. Drake watched as her words turned to vapor in the cold air.
“You’re pretty enough to be a movie star. I bet the boys are asking you out all the time.”
“No. I’m a bookworm. They never notice me. They still talk about Zoe and Chloe.” That made no sense, granted they were lookers, but they’d been away at college.
“They graduated three and a half years ago, how can they still remember them?” he asked as he hurried them towards building ‘F.'
“The girls were in three of the local Ford dealership commercials. They’re celebrities.” Piper blew into her hands. Drake slung his arm around her shoulders as he hustled her up the stairs to the condo.
Before he put the key card in the lock, the door started to open. He pulled it shut.
“Open this door, Drake Jefferson!” Eva screeched.
He chuckled, and he slowly let loose, so his middle sister didn’t fall on her ass.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” he asked as he ushered Piper in ahead of him.
“I needed to see my big brother and make sure Piper was okay. We’ve been out of our minds, Pip!” Evie grabbed Piper by the shoulders and shook her, then hugged her, then shook her again.
“Easy there, Evie. She’s a little thing.”
“She’s in trouble. Do you know how sick with worry we’ve been?”
“All the girls know?” he said referring to the twins and Maddie.
“No, just Trenda and me. Maddie’s got enough on her plate, and the twins just dealt with midterms, and now have new classes to contend with. Trenda and I decided to keep it on the downlow.”
“Chloe and Zoe are going to be pissed.”
“We’re older and make the decisions,” Evie said decisively. “Seriously, Drake, if they could have helped, we would have called them. They couldn’t.”
Drake saw where she was coming from and agreed.
He herded his two sisters towards the living room.
He saw that Evie had already started the fire, and he pulled up the ottoman in front of the hearth and gently nudged Piper down in front of it.
“Evie, I’m glad you subscribe to the theory that older siblings need to sometimes make decisions for their younger sisters.”
He went to the house phone and called the front desk. A girl answered.
“Can I talk to Larry?”
“Hold on.” He waited.
Evie stormed over to him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed up at him.
“Hey Drake, what do you need?” the man asked when he got on the line.
“I need to step out for a couple of hours. Can you come over and stay with Evie and Piper?”
“I’ll be right over,” the man said, no questions asked. Definitely military.
“Did you just call over Larry to babysit us?” Evie asked incredulously.
“I’m older, remember?”
“That’s bullshit. We’re fine.”
He needed to hurry, but he stopped and put his hands on Evie’s shoulders. “Look, Honey. This shit is serious as a heart attack and you know it. We still don’t know why dad has such a hard-on for Piper. I need to do reconnaissance. I need to know the two of you are safe. Can you, for once in your life, agree to take some help without putting up a fight?”
She opened her mouth to argue.
“For Piper’s sake,” he said before she could disagree.
She shrugged away from him.
“Fine, for Piper’s sake. And just so you don’t make any stupid mistakes because you’re worried about us.”
“Thank you.”
Drake went to his room and pulled out his fleece coat from his suitcase, then checked the gun in his shoulder holster. Inside the case was a smaller gym bag that contained a few other goodies, and made him grin. He picked up the bag and took it to the living room when he heard a knock on the door. Larry hadn’t been kidding about being right over. He looked through the peephole, and let the man inside.
“Thanks for getting here so quick.”
“Not a problem. I wanted to talk to you anyway.” Larry motioned him towards the kitchen.
“About what?” Drake asked as he followed him.
“A rumor that’s going around town. A fight broke out last night over at Lucille’s. It wasn’t the regulars. One had prison tats. Seems suspicious that they should be showing up the same time your dad was let out.”