Taken by Hawk

Chapter 10

Nova

I stopped at Starbucks on my way to Spencer and Hawk attorneys. They owned a very big building, one of the skyscrapers if I remember correctly.

I didn't want to be there but I have no other choice since Austin's vague message didn't give me a hint as to what it was about. I was in the elevator squished between suit clad bodies and as soon as I got to the top floor I was ecstatic to be able to breathe fresh non-caffeinated air.

I walked to the receptionist's desk and this felt like déjà vu. The last time I was here a receptionist also looked me up and down with a disgusted face, plastered on a happy go lucky fake smile, and let me into the office. Austin was sitting at his desk and it looked like he was really busy, from the stack of books and the few papers scattered on the desk, he must've had way too much to do in a short span of time.

I knocked on the glass door before he looked up and gestured for me to come in. I studied him and I had to say that he looked bad. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was messy, well more than usual from what I remember. Maybe he looked like this daily but I wouldn't know since I haven't seen him for about 2-3 years.

"Nova. Wow, you've grown up so much since I last saw you," He smiled brightly at me and then stood up from his desk and enveloped me in a bear hug. Austin has never been big on hugging so my guess is that whatever he is going to say to me, I'm not going to like it. I took a seat in front of his desk as he made some space and set his entwined fingers down on the table.

"So I need to tell you something. I worked on a case a few weeks back and I worked with a bad guy; Antonio. We lost the case. I tried everything I had and even Ethan tried to save it but we had nothing, now he's hunting me down figuratively. He wants me to go to jail for incompetence as his lawyer so he's trying to get dirt on me. I'm afraid he's also going to come around and talk to you. Well, if you don't talk then he's going to make you talk."

Talk about cutting to the chase.

I was shocked. I tried to make sense of what Austin just said. He looked at me contemplatively. I wasn't shocked anymore, I was pissed.

"Seriously? So you're dragging me into your problems, again the last time I had to move thanks to you!"

"I'm sor-"

"Just shut up and help me think what we should do,"I clenched my cup of Starbucks mumbling my urges to dump it all over him.

"You wouldn't," he heard me mumble'This cup plus his suit would look fantastic together'.

"I would. What are we going to do?"

"Well, you're going to put that coffee far away from my $12 000 suit and then you're going to calm down because I have a plan." He stated sternly and searched his stack of papers.

"I just wanted to warn you that I'm going to hire a bodyguard for you, for now, and then I'm going to sort this out once and for all."

"Austin, why did you represent such a dangerous man in the first place if you knew that it might go wrong?" He wasn't even a criminal defense lawyer. He paled and shook his head.

"It's a long story, but in short; sometimes the good guys have to do bad things to put bad guys away and this time I was on the wrong side of the game,"I sighed and stood up.

"I have things to do. Whatever you're going to do get it over with." I grunted and headed for the door. This explains the man who was watching me yesterday at the restaurant with Evan. I'm sure they actually know who I am. This is just super great (note sarcasm). Now I have the stress of making a success of the bakery plus that of a murderer mobster who is after me.