Chapter 31 #2
He eased back first, and I whined in displeasure. A laugh rumbled through him as he took in my disheveled appearance.
“Definitely a little pipgeek,” he crooned, reaching up to straighten the glasses, making the world completely sharp all over again.
I glowered, but he only laughed.
Knock-knock.
The raps on the door were faster this time. More punctuated.
“You got thirty seconds before I let myself in,” Kieran announced from the other side of the door.
“Hold your horses!” Hiro shouted. “Geez. I’m trying to get some.”
I gasped.
Kieran jiggled the door handle.
Hiro’s face went incredulous. “I know he ain’t trying to peep my geek,” he muttered and jumped up.
“Hiro!”
“Don’t worry, Pip. I’ll protect your honor,” he said, dropping me on the couch and covering me with a blanket.
“I’m fully clothed.” I reminded him, but he was already opening the door.
“What do you think this is, some better version of OnlyFans?” Hiro drawled. Then there was a pause. “What the hell is he doing here?”
I leaned forward to try and see through the small opening Hiro had left, but his body was blocking it.
“Open up, bloodhound,” a voice I didn’t recognize ordered.
“You must be confused. This ain’t Burger King. It’s not your way right away. This is my house. And you can show some respect.”
“Is Haz out there?” I asked.
“Rett!” Haz called back.
“Hiro,” I complained.
“All right, come on, half-pint.”
He opened the door wide enough for me to see Kieran, Haz, and a man who looked familiar lurking behind them. Before I could place the stranger, Haz rushed in.
“You got glasses!”
“They just came. Did you know they can do same-day glasses?” I asked, waving him over to the couch. I knew it was rude not to get up, but well, I needed the blanket to hide the effect Hiro had on me.
“Can I try them on?” Haz asked.
“No,” Hiro and Kieran yelled.
I pulled them off and handed them to Haz.
“Whoa,” he drawled, perching them on his nose. “Everything is so blurry.”
“That’s how it was for me without them,” I mused.
“And you just lived like that?” Haz asked, handing the glasses over so I could put them back on.
“I didn’t really know any different.”
“So this is Ghost’s place,” Haz said, looking around with unconcealed interest. “Why’s it so empty?”
I shrugged. “Did you hear we’re moving in across the hall from you?”
“What?” Haz exclaimed.
Kieran groaned.
Haz turned to Kieran who was standing near the now-closed door. “You knew about this, and you didn’t tell me!”
“I was hoping it was just a nightmare.”
“I authorized a transfer of funds this morning,” Hiro announced.
“We’re going to be neighbors again!” Haz said. “Our kids can have plant-dates!”
“Come meet them,” I said, jumping up from the couch and getting tangled in the blanket wrapped around me.
Haz, the good friend he is, reached out to steady me, but it was already too late. We both went down in a heap.
“Would you be careful?” Both Hiro and Kieran roared.
“Do you think they share a brain?” I whispered.
Haz giggled and rolled to his feet, holding out a hand to help me up.
“Don’t touch him,” Hiro growled, putting his body between us. “Look what happened the last time you did.”
“The fall was my fault,” I said as Hiro put his hands beneath my armpits and hauled me up.
“You okay?” he asked softly, unwinding the blanket from my legs. “Let me look at your knee.”
“My knee is fine,” I said just as quietly. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t coddle him,” the familiar man with dark hair and a sharp suit snapped. “It will just make him softer.”
Hiro’s eyes flashed, and a jolt of apprehension went through me.
He must have seen because he pressed his lips into my palm. “I like me some soft serve.”
I giggled.
The man muttered something.
“You’re Haz’s uncle, right?” I asked.
“This is my Uncle Enzo. You met him at the shootout,” Haz supplied.
“Sorry, I was busy trying not to die,” I said. To Hiro, I said, “What’s a bloodhound?” I’d heard Enzo call him that when he first arrived.
Hiro made a rude noise. “A crude term for an enforcer. Basically, the muscle someone like Mr. Salvatore here would send to collect his debts, track people who try and run, and basically use force to get people to comply. Enzo here must think these men are below him.”
I turned to Mr. Salvatore. “And that’s what you called Hiro?”
The man shrugged. “Why not? He does the same thing for the government.”
“And why are you here?” I asked.
“Because I wanted to tell you personally that I appreciate what you are doing tonight.”
“I told you he isn’t going,” Hiro said through gritted teeth.
“What?” I echoed, looking at him. “Of course I am. Wyatt needs me.”
“That’s why Kieran is here. We’ll handle this.” Hiro informed me.
Was that why he took me to get glasses? Because he really thought it was just some ordinary day and I had no other plans?
Crossing my arms over my chest, I shook my head. “I told you last night that I’m going. Tommy threatened both you and Wyatt if I don’t.”
“He threatened you too?” Kieran asked low.
Hiro seemed unconcerned. “He’s not the first to say he’s going to off me.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kieran demanded.
Hiro seemed surprised. “Because it doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it doesn’t!”
Hiro spun to face Kieran. “Don’t act like this is some new occurrence. We get threatened every other week. How many hit lists are we on?”
Haz and I both gasped. “You’re on hit lists!” I exclaimed.
Since Hiro’s back was turned, I watched Kieran’s face turn smug and one of his eyebrows lift.
“There goes his eyebrow again,” Haz whispered.
Hiro glanced over his shoulder, the strong contour of his jaw on full display. “It sounds worse than it is.”
“How?”
“We can talk about this later,” Enzo interrupted. “Right now, we need to discuss tonight.” He turned to me. His eyes were very dark, but unlike Hiro’s, there seemed to be no brown. They were just… cold. “You know Wyatt, Tommy’s… hostage.”
The slight pause before the word hostage made me a little curious, and I couldn’t help but glance at Haz. He nodded, clearly smelling gossip too.
“Yes, that’s why I have to go tonight. I have to help him,” I answered.
“How do you know him?” Enzo asked, the words sharp.
“Yo, watch how you talk to him, or I’ll escort you out of the building,” Hiro said and pointed toward the dining room. “Through that window.”
Enzo said nothing, just looked at me, waiting for my reply.
“Well, to me, he’s my friend. But I don’t know if he’d consider me one.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Uhh, because I don’t really know him that well.”
“Explain,” he said, an impatient bite to his tone.
Hiro appeared between us, his broad shoulders blocking the view I had of the mobster. Even though he was wearing a shirt, I imagined the way the dark angel on his back rippled with his movements.
I glanced at Haz. “Do you have any black angel fish at the Neon Reef? I think I want to get one.”
“Black angels? Yeah, I have a few. Their tank didn’t get shattered, thankfully.”
“I’m going to name it Ghost Jr.,” I told him.
Haz’s eyes widened. “After Ghost?”
I nodded. “He has a big tattoo of a dark angel on his back.”
“Can I see?” Haz exclaimed.
“Absolutely not,” Kieran snapped.
Hiro, whose back was still turned, reached behind him to grab a handful of his shirt and hike it up. Watching the movement had my cock stirring all over again, and the urge to plaster myself against his skin overtook everything else.
“Whoa,” Haz said the second the tattoo was on full display. “I had no idea you had such cool ink.”
“The tattoo on his chest is awful,” I said.
Hiro groaned.
“I want to see,” Haz exclaimed.
Kieran’s gun appeared, leveled on Hiro. “You turn around and show him your chest, I will put a bullet in your back.”
“Afraid my abs are better than yours?” Hiro baited.
The gun cocked.
“How you two are the government’s top operatives, I will never understand,” Enzo burst out, whipping out a gun of his own. His was weird, though. Looked like he’d scraped it on the road or something. “You can squabble later. I want answers, and I want them now.”
“Put that sawed-off abomination away,” Hiro said. “You should be embarrassed by that.”
“You’ll be embarrassed when I embed a bullet between your eyes.”
“You threaten him again, and not only will I not tell you what I know about Wyatt, but I won’t go help him tonight either.” Just saying the words made me want to throw up. I could never leave Wyatt to be murdered.
But I also couldn’t let this man keep threatening Hiro. That made me want to throw up too.
Enzo’s impenetrable gaze swung to me. “Are you threatening me?”
Hiro moved fast, faster than I realized he could move, and before I knew what was happening, the gun was on the floor and Enzo had a knife against his throat.
“I think you like to bleed,” Hiro said, pressing the knife deep enough to draw blood. “Get out of my house while you’re still able to walk.”
“You will need my assistance this evening.”
“I don’t need anything from you,” Hiro snarled.
“We can work together or against each other,” Enzo said. He was way calmer than I would be with a knife cutting into my neck.
Before the situation could get any worse. Or bloodier, I stepped in. “Wyatt comes to the homeless shelter I volunteer at.”
Enzo forgot about Hiro and turned his face toward me. The action made him bleed more, but he didn’t seem to notice.
My stomach rolled. “Hiro,” I whispered.
He had the knife put away and was at my side, angled slightly in front of me, before I could blink.
“Which shelter?” Enzo asked, his voice a little less demanding this time.
I adjusted my glasses, not used to having them on my face, and gave him the location.
“How often does he go there?”
“It’s sporadic. I never know when or if he will be there. He just shows up sometimes.”
“And?” Enzo implored.
“Uh,” I said, not sure what to say. “He stays for a meal, sometimes a shower. One time, I convinced him to stay the night, but he left when no one was looking.”
“Has he said anything to you?”
“About what?” I asked.
“About anything.”