“What?”
“Answer it. On speaker.”
I blinked, frowning. “That’s a bad idea.”
“Trust me, Piper. Do it.”
“Fine.” I answered it and turned on speakerphone. “Hello?”
“Piper,” Tony said, sounding relieved. “I was worried about you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because of what you saw.” He paused. “We need to talk, Pipes.”
“I don’t want to see you.”
“I know. I can’t blame you.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry you saw that, Pipes. I never wanted that to happen.”
The look on his face came back to me. Cold, expressionless, dead. It was the face of a killer.
“I understand,” I said and Gates nodded at me.
“The other guys, they pushed me into it. They’re dangerous men, Piper. I need to talk to you so I can explain. I’m so, so sorry.”
He wasn’t sorry, I reminded myself. He was a murderer.
Gates quickly hit the mute button. “Make a meeting,” he said.
“What?”
“Do it,” he said, and turned mute off.
“Piper?” Tony asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay. We can meet.”
“Good. You don’t know how badly I need to see you. I need to make sure you’re okay, that they didn’t get you.”
“Who?” I asked him.
“The men I was with. I didn’t hurt anyone, Piper. They did it all.”
“Okay.” He was lying. I could hear it, plain as day.
“Meet me at Moreno’s. You know that Italian place?”
“I know it.”
“Meet me there tonight at ten. Can you do that?”
“I can.”
“Okay, Pipes. We’ll get through this together, I promise.”
Gates took the phone from my hand and hung it up.
I shook my head at him. “I can’t go to that.”
“Of course not. I’m going to go.”
“What?”
“He doesn’t know me,” Gates said. “I’ll watch him, see who he’s with, get a sense of him.”
“That’s crazy.”
“It’s our best first move. Soon he’ll figure out who I am and then we won’t have the advantage anymore. Trust me, Pipes.”
I stared at him, surprised all over again at the kind of man he was.
“You don’t have to help me,” I said softly. “I shouldn’t have brought you into this.”
He reached forward suddenly and took my hair, pulling me toward him. I gasped as he kissed me hard, surprised at first.
But quickly I gave into him. His lips felt right, the exact way I needed them to feel. It was like he simply knew what I needed, and in that moment I needed him to kiss me. I needed to know what he wanted, that he wanted me.
We kissed like that for minutes, maybe hours. I lost track of time and it didn’t matter at all. I only needed Gates in that moment, his mouth against mine.
Finally, he pulled back, hand lingering on my cheek.
“You should get some rest,” he said gently.
“Okay,” I answered, biting my lip.
“I need to prepare for later.”
“I understand.”
He sat there for a second, lingering over me, before standing up. I watched him turn and leave the room, shutting his bedroom door behind him.
I stared at the empty space he left, confused. I didn’t know why he had to stand up and walk away like that. But then again, I didn’t have the right to ask anything from him. He was helping me, but that didn’t mean he really owed me anything.
Truthfully, I owed him. I should have been thankful that I was sitting in his apartment, relatively safe.
Instead, I just wanted him to carry me into his bedroom and take me. I wanted him to destroy me, make me his, get me off.
I sipped my tea and took a deep breath. I had to stop being selfish. Gates was helping me, and that was enough.
But truthfully, I was terrified that it wouldn’t be even close to enough.
Chapter 12
Gates
I couldn’t let myself get distracted, and kissing Piper was the ultimate distraction. After the kiss, I went into my room to prep my weapon, but mostly to get my head right. I was going into a dangerous situation and I couldn’t have Piper on my mind. I needed to be sharp, or else risk my life and hers.
I sat in my car at a quarter to ten across the street from that Italian restaurant Tony told Pipes to go to. I’d been there for about an hour, and as far as I could tell it seemed like a normal place. Busy even, fairly popular. I didn’t catch sight of anything suspicious or shady going down.
But then again, that would be the whole point. If the place was a mob front then they’d keep any of the illegal stuff in the back of the restaurant. Still, I didn’t know what Tony’s plan was for Piper. It didn’t look like the kind of place he could just grab her and run away, but maybe I was misreading the situation.