Paws off the Boss - Casey Griffin (best books under 200 pages .TXT) 📗

the hall and waved the check in Steve’s face until he snatched it from her.

He read the amount. “This isn’t near enough. And it’s two weeks late.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, wishing Aiden weren’t there to witness this. “Come on. I’m clean and quiet. I’m a good neighbor. Just ask anyone.”

“Good neighbor?” His eyebrows shot up. “Your neighbors say that you’ve been hooking.”

She gasped in indignation. “Hooking?! I’m not hooking.”

“They said they’ve seen you come and go at all hours of the day in … costumes.”

She noticed one of the cops inside turn his head toward their conversation. “I’m not hooking,” she told him.

Steve studied Aiden, his tailored suit and Cartier watch. He leaned closer to Piper, whispering behind his hand, “That’s not one of your johns, is it?”

Piper swatted him away, mostly to waft the smell of beer out of her face. “I’m not a hooker. I’m a telegram girl.”

“If it’s a matter of money …” Aiden reached for his back pocket.

Piper held up her hand. “I thank you,” she said as sincerely as she could between gritted teeth, “but if you finish that sentence, I’m going to hit you with that frying pan.”

Baby steps, she reminded herself. Death threats weren’t a good start to making progress with accepting help. She tried to give him a tight smile to show that she was kidding … mostly. Okay, not really.

“Look, Piper,” Steve began. “If it was a matter of late rent, I’d let you stay. Despite the graffiti I had to clean off your window.”

“I’m sorry about that. It was harder to get off than I’d expected.”

“You’re a good tenant … most of the time. But you know the rules.” He tilted his bald head toward the apartment.

Colin stood in the middle of the living room, his barrel chest swollen proudly as though he’d swallowed his own beach ball. His tail whipped back and forth. He scampered over with something clenched in his jaws and presented it to Piper as a gift: Mr. Wiggles.

“Oh,” was all she could say in defense.

“Hey, keep that dog out of the crime scene!” a cop yelled.

Colin threw his head back to get a better grip on her stuffed animal. He clamped down again, and the toy blew out a pathetic sque-e-e-ea-a-a-ak. But to Piper’s ears it sounded more like You’re scre-e-e-e-e-ewed.

Aiden cleared his throat. “Er … that’s my dog. Colin, here, boy.” He bent down, and Colin trotted over to show off his toy.

Steve held up a hand. “Save it. I can see the dog food spilling out of the pantry from here.”

Aiden reached for his back pocket again, but Piper threw him a glare that stopped him dead. Groaning in frustration, he ran his hands through his hair until it looked like he’d just tumbled out of bed.

Piper ignored him. “But Steve, please. I’m begging you. I have my licensing exam next week. As in my final exam. Eight years of my life working toward this. I can’t handle worrying about graduating and moving out.”

“No buts, Piper. You’re out. You have three days, as per your broken agreement.”

The air whooshed from her lungs like he’d kicked her in the chest. She gripped the doorframe as though the floor had fallen out from under her feet.

Forget all her broken possessions; forget homicidal maniacs in cars; forget pyromaniacs who wanted to set her entire world on fire. Now she was freaking out. She had finally reached her limit.

“I’m sorry. Rules are rules.” Steve raised his hands to show her there was nothing he could do. “And keep the dog under wraps. I don’t want the other tenants finding out. Next thing you know, I’ll be running a zoo.”

He gave her a look loaded with pity. Without meaning to, her back straightened and her chin rose. She knew she had problems if Steve pitied her.

The cop who’d interviewed her hovered at the threshold of her apartment. “Miss Summers? Can you please explain this?”

Oh no, she thought. They found my vibrators. Is it the purple one? For the love of God, not the red one! How did I let Zoe convince me to purchase that monstrosity? That wonderfully effective monstrosity …

Piper swallowed hard, but when she looked at what the cop was holding, she frowned at it for a moment. It was a piece of black lace hanging off the end of a pen.

The skin on her neck prickled, heat creeping up to spread over her cheeks. “Um, that’s my underwear.”

Steve whistled. “That’s not underwear. That looks like something I’d floss my teeth with.”

Piper juddered slightly as her skin crawled. She flashed him a dirty look. Aiden shifted, looming over him, his face darker than she thought possible for the self-controlled businessman.

Steve wisely looked abashed and averted his gaze to the stained carpet.

The police officer took a second pen and slid it through the other leg hole until Piper could see right through, well … the most important part of the panties.

Piper gasped. “What happened to them?”

“They all seem to be like that,” the cop said.

“All of them?” Piper’s voice rose an octave.

“Looks like the intruder took a pair of scissors to the entire drawer. We, uh …” Her face colored a little, and she cleared her throat. “We can’t find the other pieces. It looks like they took them home as a souvenir.”

Piper closed her eyes, covering her mouth with her hand. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

She felt more than saw Aiden stiffen, his jaw clenching as he forced an angry puff of air out of his nose. His self-control was certainly being tested that weekend.

The police officer recovered from her embarrassment. “Do you have any other thoughts about who would have broken into your apartment tonight and mutilated your underwear drawer?”

The skin crawling returned as if cockroaches covered her, a feeling she often experienced. Once a week, in fact. Every time she went to see him: “Barney Miller.”

“Is that a boyfriend of yours?”

Piper’s gag reflex activated without warning, but she took a deep breath before she hurled. “Definitely not. He’s a regular client of mine. Or was.”

“A john?” asked Steve.

“I’m not a prostitute,” she snapped. “He hired me to sing telegrams. We had a disagreement a couple of weeks ago, and I quit on him. Apparently, he’s been stalking me. A report was made earlier today.”

She thought of Barney’s disgusting little hands riffling through her underwear drawer, fingering her panties while he cut them up. Bile rose in her throat again. She turned away from the thong and braced herself against the wall.

Aiden grabbed her chin and fixed her with a stare that said he meant business. “You’re staying at my house tonight.”

She wasn’t sure if he said it because she had someone, or maybe several someones, after her or because her crotchless Victoria’s Secret panties were still dangling off the end of a ballpoint pen. Either way, she wasn’t about to argue.

“Okay.”