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Just after noon, he strolled through the front door and headed toward the parking lot.
“Right on time.” I looked over at Billie. “Shall we?”
After chewing on her lip for a good ten seconds, Billie nodded. “Yeah.”
So, I fired up the SUV and pulled out into traffic to follow him. Based on what Ivan provided about his daily routine, he wouldn’t be returning to the office for the rest of the day. This was our chance to really tail him.
“Just so you know,” Billie interjected, and I angled my head toward her as I followed a few car lengths behind Nicholas, “I’m looking to prove his innocence. That’s the motto, right? Innocent until proven guilty.”
“Sure, sweetheart. Whatever you say. Guilty or not, I don’t really care anyway. I’m just trying to get you and your firm off my dick.”
Billie leaned forward in her chair. “Because you’re clearly guilty. Whether or not Emiliano is a criminal, you’ve already proven that you are by kidnapping me.”
I laughed. “Oh, I’m a criminal, darlin’. But Emiliano is full of shit. We actually care about our employees.” I glanced over at her as we hit a red light. “And kidnapping you? That was just foreplay.”
Chapter 13 - Billie
I didn’t know if it was possible to be frustrated with Pietor and also frustrated by Pietor than I was at this very minute. I cursed my cheeks for burning so hot as he’d spoken the words, and every inch of me was flustered inside and out.
Flustered. Me. Actually flustered. By some guy. By some criminal! Ugh.
“Hmm,” Pietor hummed from the driver seat, and I looked at him, “Looks like my contact info was good. He’s heading to the park for a little meeting.”
“What?”
I looked around us, eyeing the intersection up ahead. We were close to Spring Valley Park off 9th Street. But how had Pietor, or his contact, for that matter, gotten information about Nicholas’s meetings? Obviously, it was less than legal, and I cursed again for allowing myself to work with this man.
Worse, watching him do his thing, watching Pietor be this “criminal mastermind” that he was…well, it was damn impressive. And I knew I shouldn’t be impressed by him. I shouldn’t be anything by him, and here I was, sharing a stakeout car with Pietor and seriously wishing I’d brought a second set of panties.
Why? Why are you like this? I thought the bad boy thing was over?
“Who exactly is he going to meet?” I raised my brow at him as he turned into the sizeable multi-section parking lot for the park and playground.
“Teddy Donahue. Irish mob. Real piece of shit. He hates the Vadim family.”
I couldn’t bite back the outrage, scoffing and damn near laughing at how frank Pietor was.
“Why would you just tell me like that?” He met my glare with another one of his patented smirks. “Aren’t you worried I’m going to spew all this information to the police?”
“Not really.” His smile widened, and he leaned across the center console, tucking a curl behind my ear. “I do have you under my lock and key now, don’t I?”
“I can escape.” My voice wasn’t as confident as I would have liked.
“No, sweetheart, you can’t. And besides,” he raked his gaze up and down my body, and I regretted the thin sweater I’d chosen from the duffle bag as he reached down and released my seat belt, “you’ll admit it soon enough that you don’t really want to.”
I wanted to argue with him, my blood boiling in my veins, but Pietor was already getting out of the car like the conversation was over. There was no use anyway. Pietor managed to turn everything I said into some type of line or innuendo. I should have hated it, despised how he treated me, but…
Fuck, if practically living with each other wasn’t intoxicating as hell.
Following him out of the car and toward the park, I noted that listening tool he’d used the other day. He let one of the buds dangle as we walked closer to where Nicholas was seated on a bench facing the other direction.
It was ludicrous for me to be involved like this. Nicholas might not have recognized Pietor, but he’d definitely know who I was. How was this going to work? Without any available answer to that question, I just faced away from Nicholas and hoped he wouldn’t notice me.
The afternoon wind was slightly chilly, and I pulled into myself as I sat next to Pietor on another park bench. My sweater, soft and a delicate cream color, was the only thing I had protecting me since I’d forged a jacket. And the wide-leg trousers, while better than nothing, were not thick. I shivered.
Doing so made my shoulder brush against Pietor, and he looked down at me with an eyebrow cocked. The pierced one, as a matter of fact, and my brain immediately shot to the other piercings I knew he had.
No. Stop. Stop thinking about his nipples.
