Valentino Pier (Rapid Reads) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Through the glare of the headlights he looked at the driver. Uh-oh . The driver’s face was covered by one of those wool caps that pulls down to protect against cold weather. Gulliver calmly turned and walked in the other direction.
    Too late. The squeal of spinning tires filled the night. Gulliver looked over his shoulder to see the car bearing down on him and Ugly. He reached down. Scooped up the dog. Made a dive for the doorway of a small factory building. The car hopped up you do, do no

CHAPTER TEN
    W asn’t it always the way? That’s what Gulliver was asking himself as he looked in the mirror. There was a white bandage on his forehead. Under the bandage were ten stitches. He’d only realized how bad the gash was when he got back to the loft and washed off the blood. Then he saw the damage above his left eye.
    He’d wound up at Brooklyn University Hospital for the second time in only a few hours. He told the er doctor he had fallen down. Which was half true. The part he left out was that it was while someone was trying to kill him. And he hadn’t called Detective Patrick. This was personal now.
    Gulliver had an interesting romance with the truth. Like everyone else, he lied. Only when he had to. Did he stretch the truth? Did he sometimes leave out parts of the truth? Yes. But mostly he tried not to hide from the truth. How could he? And so here he was again. Looking in the mirror. At the bandage over the stitches. Why couldn’t the guy have tried to run him over after his date with Mia?
    “Poor me,” he said to himself, half joking. “I haven’t had a date since Nina. Now look at me.”
    He laughed a sad laugh. But he figured he would be okay. He hoped a few scratches and a bandage wouldn’t matter to someone like Mia. He would find out soon enough. The bell rang. Ugly ran to the door, his ratty crooked tail wagging like mad. Gulliver’s heart was beating just as fast as Ugly’s tail was wagging.
    He didn’t know what to expect. They hadn’t really made any plans. He hadn’t been sure how to dress. So he went casual. A light gray sweater over jeans and boots. For most of his life, he hadn’t cared much about clothes. What did it matter what he wore? Clothes weren’t going to make him tall. Muscular. Normal. But once he was a PI, he got with the program. He understood that dressing well was a way to impress clients.
    Gulliver pulled back the door. Mia seemed to have read his mind. She, too, wore a gray sweater over jeans and boots. They looked at each other and laughed. Ugly didn’t care. The minute he saw Mia he rolled onto his back. The message was clear. “Rub my belly. Rub my belly.” Mia understood dog body language. The first thing she did was rub Ugly’s belly for a few minutes.
    Ten minutes and one glass of red wine later, they were downstairs. They had decided to drive to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for Italian. The first little crack in the evening happened then. Gulliver turned left, to where his van was parked. Mia turned right, to her car.
    “Where are you going?” she asked.
    “To my van,” he said.
    “You drive?”
    The surprise in her voice cut like a knife. He reacted without thinking. “Yeah. I tie my [" class="tx" aid="edhat happenedown shoes and cut my own meat too.”
    She walked up to where he was standing. “God, Gulliver, that’s not what I meant. I’m sorry.”
    “No,” he said. “I’m sorry. Yes, I drive. Here’s my van.”
    The drive to the Bronx was going smoothly. Gulliver asked Mia about where she was from. “Roseville, Michigan. Outside of Detroit.” How big her family was. “There’s five of us. Two big brothers and me.” What her parents did for a living. “It’s Detroit. Mom works for GM, Dad for Chrysler.” Where she went to school. “Eastern Michigan University.” How she wound up in Brooklyn. “I took a wrong turn at Indiana. No, really, I moved here with a boyfriend. It didn’t last.”
    Gulliver asked every question except the one he