Page 27 of Worth of Waste

ONCE again, Dino found himself sitting across a table he was shackled to as he listened to his lawyer chatter away about the events of the week before. Mike was a temporary reprieve to the quiet hell that he would need to return to in a few short minutes.

Dino tried to savor the conversation as much as he could before it was over.

“She signed the papers for the lake property,” Mike said, “but she had a few choice words to say to me as she did it.”

Dino chuckled, unable to hold it back. “Is that so?”

“She doesn’t seem like the type to just grin and bear it.”

“She isn’t.”

Karen was far from that type of woman.

She also wasn’t the type to let a man take care of her, even if the reason why Dino had done what he did regarding the lake house was to her and his son’s best benefit. He had already figured Karen wouldn’t be pleased at first about it all, but like she usually did, she would find out a way to work through it.

She loved that property.

He remembered the way she had lit up the night they had arrived.

Amazement and joy all rolled into one.

Dino smiled to himself at the memory, pleased that Karen had taken the property off his hands without too much of a fight. She deserved it—the place was perfect for her, even if it was a little further from the inner parts of the city than she would have liked.

She needed a home—his son needed a home.

The other home he had purchased was one he hoped Karen would eventually warm up to, if maybe they could one day be an actual family together. He’d bought it on a whim, but knew it was more than likely something she would refuse.

So, he’d given her a second option.

Even if it wasn’t really an option at all.

“The feds still might seize the house,” Mike said quietly.

Dino nodded. “But they might not. A few of my accounts are still open. That all looks good. I haven’t had another visit from an agent wanting to talk, so that’s a bonus point for me. I’ll have time before I’ll have to worry about it all.”

“Don’t stick your head too far in the clouds, Dino.”

Oh, he wasn’t stuck up there.

Dino was firmly shackled right to the goddamn ground.

“Probably better she didn’t take the house and signed the lake property deed,” he admitted after a stretch of silence passed between him and his lawyer.

“Why not?” Mike asked.

“The feds can’t seize something that isn’t mine to begin with, I suppose.”

“That’s true, but I don’t think that’s the only reason you brought it up.”

Mike was astute.

Dino had to give the lawyer that credit.

“I don’t trust that some of the documents that were stolen from me a year ago aren’t going to be used again at some point,” Dino said, resting back as far as he could in the chair. “And since I know my uncle took the paperwork, that means he’s got eyes on me and my shit. He probably just picked up on the fact—or he soon will—that I bought a house.”

Dino hadn’t even thought of this stuff before purchasing the house. He’d only focused in on the fact he wanted—needed—to do something for Karen and his son so that they could be taken care of in some small way. He also wanted to show Karen that he was planning ahead, for her, him, their child, and whatever she might want in the future.

She made the calls.