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Six
Samuel
I was an idiot.It wasn’t something I cared to admit, even to myself, but there was no denying it at the moment. Thinking I could handle seeing Piper again, thinking that somehow her soul wouldn’t call to me now the same way it had eight years ago, was the stupidest thought I’d had in a while. Fifteen-year-old Piper had driven me out of my city when she was barely more than a child. If I’d thought twenty-three-year-old Piper would be easier to resist, there was no question—I was an idiot.
Piper’s soul was every bit as beautiful as it had been the first time we met. Little sorceress was strong, probably stronger than she knew. If she stopped hiding behind that persona she showed the public and tried being her real self, she could be unstoppable. I saw the fire in her eyes when I did something that pissed her off. She could do anything if she put her mind to it.
But she was still choosing to be boring.
Mostly.
The single glove and the story behind it wasn’t boring. Not at all.
What the fuck was I doing? I was standing alone in a linen closet, thinking about Piper’s fashion choices. Because that was a good use of my time.
I shoved a hand through my hair as if that would help banish the image of all-grown-up Piper from my head.
Big surprise, it didn’t do jack shit.
If I hadn’t had Daphne with me, I probably would have left right then without returning to the ballroom.
I scanned the food tables and the edges of the room for Daphne’s blond head, but if she was there, she was doing a fantastic job of being invisible. My eyes moved from the people standing around to the dancers on the floor.
It didn’t take me long to spot Daphne. She was dancing with Nacio.
Distantly, I remembered he was supposed to be my target this evening, not his baby sister.
I let Daphne have her song before cutting across the floor to her side.
“Look who I found,” she said with a grin.
“Good work.” I reached for her hand. “You mind waiting for me by the door? I need to talk with Nacio and then we’re getting out of here.”
I was pretty sure she rolled her eyes at me as she walked away. It was the kind of thing only she dared to pull off. She was also the only person I allowed to get away with that kind of crap.
“What are you doing here?” Nacio asked.
My lips curved into a smirk. “You invited me.”
“But why did you come?”
“Careful, Amato, you’re in danger of sounding like less than a gracious host.”
He swallowed whatever it was he really wanted to say, but the tension radiating off him gave me a pretty good idea of what he was thinking about me at the moment. “I’ve never known charity balls to be your scene. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company tonight?”
“I came to see you. I’ve been back in town for over a week, and you’ve yet to come by the club.”
“My family needed me this week. I’ll come in tomorrow.”
“You better. We’re upping our training standards. I don’t want anyone who can’t be ready for anything at a moment’s notice. I want to see your ass in the gym in the morning.”
Nacio nodded stiffly. Unlike most of the people who worked with me, he had a trust fund to fall back on if he lost his stock in my businesses. But he owed me and he knew it. Keeping his job with me was just as important to Nacio as it was to any of my other employees.
“Thank you for the invite. Tell your mother it was a lovely party.”
“I want you to stay away from my sister.”
I felt my brows climbing up my forehead.
