“Expecting someone else?” I asked.
He glanced around. “What the hell are you doing here, O’Neal?”
I spread my hands. “I was hoping we could have a civil, polite conversation. Unlike the last time we met.”
“Civil and polite? Doesn’t sound like you.”
“Doesn’t sound like you either. We’ll just have to do our best.”
He took a swig of his beer and thumped it down on the table, all tough and macho. “You going to tell me to stay away from my own kid again? Like you have any fucking right?”
Over the years, between my military service and my prison sentence, I’d seen all kinds of men put on shows like this. Trying to assert their dominance. Officers, grunts. Rich guys and poor ones. Guards and inmates alike.
It wasn’t the superficial display that mattered. It was the mettle underneath, and in my experience, the quieter ones were usually the most committed and least afraid.
Danny was scared to death of me.
Was I a bad person for enjoying it?
“Look,” I said softly, “I’m just a friend of Piper’s. Just renting a house from her. You and I had a confrontation last week, and it got out of hand.”
“Damn right it did.” A few other people glanced over at his shrill tone.
“So I’m here to de-escalate the situation. If you’re pissed off at me, that’s fine. I get it. I just want to make sure you aren’t going to take that out on Piper or Ollie.”
Danny leaned back, sneering like he thought he had the upper hand. “Maybe you should be more worried about yourself. Heard you had a surprise visit at your place today. From the cops?”
My jaw tensed, and the vein at my temple pulsed. But I kept my calm. “Did you have something to do with that?”
“You can’t prove anything. But let’s say I did. It should serve as a warning. You claim to be Piper’s protector, but it would be sofucking easy to take you down and send you back behind bars. You’re nothing.”
I laughed to myself, my temper cooling. His insults didn’t bother me. My own brother had said worse.
But I still wanted him to leave Piper alone. For her, I was in the mood to play nice. Carrot instead of stick.
“Okay,” I said. “You’re right. I’m nothing much. I’ll forget about any break-ins at my place or inconveniences those may have caused. If you’ll agree to go back to how things were before, when you stayed gone. We both know you don’t actually care about your son.”
“Fuck you.”
“What is it you really want?”
His eyes narrowed, but with interest instead of offense this time.
“I want what I was looking for. The jewelry box that belonged to Piper’s mother. It was in that house, and Piper didn’t want it. She wants nothing to do with her mom, so why should she care? And I promise, there’s nothing of value to you in there either.”
“But it’s valuable to you?”
“I’m the only one who knows how to make use of it. So don’t even try.”
This mysterious jewelry box did pique my curiosity. But that was irrelevant, because I was fairly certain it was gone.
Also, it belonged to Piper, not him.
“I have no idea where that box is. Couldn’t give it to you even if I wanted.”
“Then how about this. Two hundred thousand, and I’ll leave Piper and Ollie alone for good.”
I blinked at him for several seconds, long enough for those words to sink in. “Two hundred thousand dollars. For Piper and Ollie.”
