Despite considerable pressure, she’d held her ground until she was seven. That’s when the neighborhood bully had knocked her down and made her cry. Duke had been furious, not at the bully, but at her for crying. “We don’t have sissies in this family. You get back out there and kick that kid’s ass and don’t let me goddam see you cry again.”
She could no longer remember exactly what she’d done to Justin Termini, who’d later become her first boyfriend, but she did remember the awful knowledge that she’d failed Duke. That same night, she’d grabbed Oinky, thrust him in Duke’s face, and then stomped outside to fling her pig in the trash. She’d been amply rewarded with a big hug, a trip to get ice cream, and praise for being tough as any boy in town. Duke had never discovered that she’d climbed out on the roof that night, shimmied down the porch post, and retrieved Oinky from the garbage can. She’d hidden her pig away for the rest of her childhood.
Oinky had long since outlived his usefulness, but she couldn’t get rid of him, and she tucked him in the box with her sweatshirts. She took a break to make herself a sandwich and carried it to the bay window. As she looked down on the twilit street, she saw a metallic-blue Tesla pull into a parking space. Her sandwich stalled on its way to her mouth as the driver’s door swung open and Cooper Graham got out. Her appetite vanished. She hadn’t returned his attorney’s calls, and he’d come after her himself.
The downstairs newlyweds were heading up the sidewalk. She’d seen one of the men in a Stars sweatshirt, so Graham wouldn’t have any trouble getting them to let him in the building. In less than a minute, he’d be pounding on her door. She could either refuse to answer or meet the beast head on.
A no-brainer. She’d been through enough lately. She wasn’t answering.
But cowering inside her apartment proved too much for her, and by his third knock, she’d stalked across the room and jerked open the door. “What do you want?”
4
He pushed into her living room, bringing a megablast of hostile energy right along with him. “Keith has been skimming me.”
“Your red-haired bartender? Yeah, I know.”
Six feet three inches of angry male entitlement planted himself in the middle of her carpet. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her chin shot up. “What the hell? I did tell you!”
“Not in a way I could believe!”
She stared at him, exchanging glare for glare.
He looked away first, raking his fingers through his hair only to have it spring back into rumpled position. “So maybe I wasn’t in the mood to listen.”
She shoved the door closed before all her neighbors came running out to investigate. “I doubt you’re ever in the mood to listen.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Her frustration got the best of her. “You’re so used to feeling superior that you’ve forgotten there are people who might know something you don’t.”
One of his big, competent hands landed on the blade of his hip. “What’s your deal anyway? Do you feel like such a failure that you need to attack anybody who’s successful?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know. Fuck you.”
He laughed. A genuine jolt of amusement that seemed to shock him as much as her and quickly faded. “How did you figure it out?”
“Never let any guy believe he’s superior to you,” Duke used to say. “Except your old man.”
“Simple powers of observation.” She purposely reclaimed the sandwich she could no longer imagine eating. “Something I’m good at.”
He cocked his head at her. “Educate me.”
“Pay me,” she retorted.
He shook his head, not as if he were denying her, more as if he were trying to shake off a concussion. He glanced around the condo, saw the open suitcase piled with clothes, the cardboard box she’d loaded up with nonperishables from her kitchen: cereal, canned soup, boxed mac and cheese. She knew how to cook but never seemed to get around to it.
“You’re moving,” he said. “Too bad. This is a nice place.”
“It’s okay.” It was more than okay. And it would be hers to keep if she gave up and went back to her old job. But she didn’t want to do online promotions for motor oil or deal with one-star reviews because a customer’s replacement ignition coil failed. That kind of work had sucked out her soul.
He picked up Oinky. “Nice pig.”
She fought the urge to snatch her pig away. “School mascot.”
He took Oinky with him as he sat uninvited on her cocoa-colored sofa. Compared with Officer Hottie’s pumped-up calendar-boy gorgeousness, Graham was rougher at the edges-the planes of his face more rugged, a battle scar on his forehead, another on the side of his jaw. That cleft chin. He was hard as nails, despite the hand clasping her pig. In times of war, Graham would be the commander men followed into battle. In peacetime, he led his team to glory. All in all, a man not to be trifled with.
“Keith and I’ve been friends since college,” he said. “I trusted him as much as I’ve ever trusted anyone.”
“Your mistake.” But there was something about the slump in those big warrior’s shoulders, the burnished shadow in his wolf’s eyes that got to her.
“Don’t let yourself get sucked in,” Duke had said. “Every jackass has a sad story.”
The sandwich had crumbled in her fingers. She dropped it untouched in the trash. “You’re not the first employer who’s been ripped off by a trusted employee. It happens all the time.”
He curled his hand around the ankle he’d hooked over his knee. “I should have seen what was going on.”
“Your so-called security people should have seen. That’s why you hired them. But they’re probably taking a cut.”
His head came up, and he bristled with hostility. “My security people are top-notch.”
She gave him a faintly pitying look. “So rich and yet so dumb.” It felt good to see what he couldn’t. “The reality is that you’re so used to everybody bowing and scraping that you don’t understand most people only show you their best side. You’ve forgotten how many creeps there are. All your fame has made you a babe in the woods when it comes to living in the real world.”
She expected a hot dispute. Instead, he set her pig aside and drilled her with his eyes. “Who hired you to follow me?”
She steeled herself. “That’s confidential. Don’t ask me again.”
He uncoiled from the couch. “Let me get this straight. Even though I have the best lawyers in the city on your ass, and even though your two-bit detective agency is barely surviving-yeah, I did some investigating of my own-you’re still not giving me the name of your client, is that right?”
She had to hold her ground, no matter how much she wanted to cave. “What part of ‘unethical’ don’t you understand?”
“Oh, I understand, all right. So let me put it another way. Turn over the name, and I’ll hire you myself.”
She gaped at him. “For what?”
“For your suspicious nature. I’m a fast learner. It’s obvious I need another set of eyes in the club. Just for a couple of weeks. Someone who can see what I’ve been missing. Security to check on my security, if you will.”
This was her dream job. Exactly what she needed right now-a client with deep pockets offering work that would be both interesting and challenging. Her head spun. There was only one catch. A big one. “And all I have to do is…”
“Turn over the name of your client.”
At that moment, Piper hated Deidre Joss. Deidre’s stubborn insistence on anonymity was going to ruin Piper. She should just tell him the truth.