Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,31

here?” That was sweet. I’d had no idea she’d been looking. But the timing was so bad.

“Oh,” Tessa breathed, looking from me to Clark and then back. “How much time do we—”

The doorbell rang.

“Hurry.” I rapidly pushed the papers all together as Tess tried to help.

“What is happening?” Clark asked, straightening up.

I gulped. “Uncle Sean is here, and he’s a little rough. Don’t take it personally, but he won’t be nice.”

Clark stiffened now. “Because I’m black?”

Tessa’s mouth dropped open, and it took me a second to catch his thinking. “God, no,” I said. “It’s because you’re a lawyer.” I scooped the files together and looked frantically around for a place to stash them. The doorbell rang again.

Clark frowned. “You’re a lawyer, too.”

Tessa jumped up. “Uncle Sean thinks that’s a phase, and she’s his niece, so he can’t just kick her out of the family.” She calmly took the stack of papers, walked over to the sofa in the living room, and shoved them underneath a cushion.

The door burst open, and Uncle Sean strode inside. “Annabella Fiona? You okay? Yell out if you need help.”

I hurried toward my massive uncle. “I’m fine, Uncle Sean. Everything is good.” We’d each been named an Irish and Italian name, and Sean liked to use them both with us. I reached him and wrapped my arms around his solid middle. Sean was my mom’s older brother, and while he cherished her, I still wasn’t sure he’d forgiven her for marrying an Italian instead of a good and solid Irishman. But he loved us, and I adored him. He was an amazing uncle and a terrific dad to both Lacey and Pauley. I leaned back and took in his grizzly face. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I like to surprise my girl.” He patted my back with a hand the size of a ham. Sean had been a boxer in his younger days, and he had the face to prove it. Nose that angled to the side, a scar by his lip, thick gray hair that covered another scar by his temple. But my mom’s green eyes smiled back at me, and I felt at peace.

“Come on in,” I said.

He looked over my shoulder, released me, and made a beeline for Tessa. “Contessa Carmelina. Are you okay? Do I need to kill anybody? Did the police find who put that dead guy in your apartment?”

Tessa hugged him. “I’m fine and no to everything else you just said.” Her voice was muffled against his barrel of a chest.

He released her and turned to Clark. “Hello. Who are you?”

Clark stood and extended a hand to Sean. “Clark Bunne.”

They shook hands, and Sean smiled. “Are you dating one of my girls here?”

Clark coughed, turned red, and coughed some more. Finally, he shook his head. “No. They’re lovely girls…but no.” His expression pretty much said it all.

Sean sighed and released Clark. “Yeah, I know. They’re a handful. I mean with the kidnappings and dead bodies and everything.”

Clark took a couple of steps back. While he was a few inches taller than Sean, my uncle had a good fifty pounds of hard earned muscle on him. On everyone, pretty much. Sean had been a boxer and then a stope miner who ran a jack leg. In Idaho, you learned real quick not to mess with a stope miner or a logger. That’s just common sense.

Sean widened his stance. “Then why are you here?”

Clark, to his credit, didn’t hesitate. “I’m Tessa’s lawyer. We’re trying to get her out of this mess.”

The atmosphere changed. Sean shook his head. “You’re young, healthy, and you seem smart. Why in the hell would you become a lawyer?”

I winced and Tessa nudged him in the ribs, but Sean didn’t even twitch.

Clark tilted his head. “My dad was a lawyer trying to make the world a better place, and he was shot and killed in front of a courthouse. I like the law, enjoy strategy, and want to help people.”

Well, that was just sweet. I hadn’t known any of that.

Sean harrumphed, and his gaze dropped to the logo on Clark’s golf shirt. Then he rocked back on the dusty cowboy boots beneath his jeans. “Northern River Golf course outside of Seattle? Have you played that?” He stepped toward Clark.

Clark nodded, and a slight grin tipped his full lips. “Yeah. One of my law professors was a member, and he took a few of us.”

Sean straightened. “I’ve heard it’s amazing. That the third hole has a water hazard that