Behind him and a little to the right was an exit to the outside, and I scowled at the door. “Yes, I can let myself out.” Dismissed before we could get to the good stuff. So annoying.
“Excellent,” he said, sounding way too much like Mr. Burns. “It’s best if my partners not see you here tonight. For your safety of course.”
“Sure,” I said, barely holding in an eye roll. He was probably meeting the old dude with the butterscotch obsession. But it was best I leave because I didn’t want to be bored to death when they talked about the Stover’s candy factory. I’d heard there was an outlet on the Michigan border, but I never made the drive myself.
Frankie left the room, and I stuffed five more candies in my pocket before walking around the edge of his desk.
14
Pierce
Either Katy wasn’t in her home tonight, like she was supposed to be, or she’d hidden when I stopped by and knocked for four minutes on my way to Frankie’s house. The problem with Katy was I didn’t know how to direct her. If I told her what to do, it was almost a guarantee she’d do the exact opposite. Bossing Katy around did not work.
But neither did asking nicely. I rescued her from jail and gave her a ride home. The only thing I wanted was for her to stay out of trouble. I wasn’t dumb enough to believe wherever Katy went off to she wasn’t causing a problem.
Especially since the person Ridge had watching her called to let me know she’d gone missing. Again.
The best-case scenario in the situation was her trying to avoid me.
This is what Katy had turned my life into. She had me excited over the possibility she was avoiding me. My cousin Jerome was right, Katy had me tied up in knots, and not necessarily in a good way.
It didn’t help my attitude that now I’d be spending hours stuck in Frankie Zanetti’s office after he called an emergency meeting of the key players in Pelican Bay. The big asshole of a bodyguard he intimidated people with ushered us into his office like we were meeting the Pope.
Frankie set every loose chair in his house into the office, and before I picked a seat, I scanned the room doing quick calculations in my head to make sure the space wasn’t bigger than mine. It was petty, but I needed the win to get through the evening.
It was not good business for me to associate with Frankie or anyone in the Zanetti family. No one in town knew what he did for a living. They assumed he ran every illegal activity in this town from his seaside mansion, but nobody ever fingered exactly which illegal activity he was involved in.
But I did.
I may own most of Pelican Bay and be well on my way to full dominance on Main Street, but Frankie owned half of Clearwater.
Plus his other… Obligations.
“Why the hell is there a need for a special meeting?” I asked once the men found seats in the provided chairs. Ridge took a place beside me as everyone gathered. He carried a gun, which you never knew when it would come in handy, so I enjoyed having him close during these meetings.
He settled in his chair and nodded at my question. “Yeah. I should be picking napkin colors right now,” he said with a smirk.
Detective Anderson leaned forward on the opposite side of the room and squinted at Ridge. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Ridge shook his head, and his grin grew. “Don’t ask.”
“Ladies, let’s get this shit going,” Dominick, the leader of Pelican Bay’s motorcycle club kicked his feet up on Frankie’s desk.
There was a creek in the room, like wood straining and I assumed it was from Dominick’s oversized feet.
Frankie frowned at the intrusion on his space and used a long metal ruler from his cupholder to push Dominick’s feet off his desk.
Surprisingly, Dominick was the only other person in this room who wanted to be seen here less than me. The leader of a notorious motorcycle offshoot gang should definitely not be meeting with the other major players in Pelican Bay working to bring down crime in the city. In any other situation, Dominick would start crime, but he had brains and knew if he pushed the other scum off the streets, it gave him more room to roam.
As long as he wasn’t killing people and pushing drugs, everyone looked the other way.
Frankie cleared his throat bringing us to attention. “There’s been another murder.”
Anderson rolled his eyes so hard I heard them from my position. “We know. The police are on it.”
Frankie rolled his eyes right back at him and I was forced to hold in the chuckle at the way the men in the room interacted. It was like we were back in fifth grade.
“You’re the only noncorrupt officer in that building, Anderson. You expect us to believe your chief can handle it?”
