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

“Your guest room?”

“That’s right, roomie. Unless you have a better option than yours truly.” She nudged Piper with an elbow. “Come on. Let us help you.”

Maybe her time with Aiden hadn’t been a complete loss. If Piper had learned anything by being with him, she’d learned that it was okay to rely on others—maybe not him specifically, but she knew she could depend on Addison and Zoe.

Piper’s shoulders, which had been creeping their way upward from stress, deflated, resuming their normal position. She closed her eyes and took a cleansing breath, thankful to have her friends in her life.

“Thanks, guys.”

“Oh, here. I almost forgot.” Zoe handed over a fresh cup of Starbucks chai tea. “We weren’t sure what you’d want for comfort food.”

“So we bought it all.” Addison waved a box of chocolates in the air.

“Don’t worry,” Zoe said. “There’s wine waiting in the car.”

Overwhelmed by their support, Piper pulled them in for another hug. “Thanks, but I think I just want to be alone tonight.” Then she remembered the state of her apartment. Oh, well, she thought, I can flip the mattress onto the floor.

“Are you sure?” Addison asked. “I have like five flavors of ice cream in my freezer right now.”

“Why so many?” Zoe asked.

“For emergencies. A different flavor for every kind of situation. Like last month. You remember that guy I met at the bookstore? And how his ‘roommate’ turned out to be his wife. That was a vanilla-blackberry-jujube kind of situation.”

“Do you have a flavor for my-boyfriend-tried-to-have-me-killed-in-a-hostile-corporate-takeover?” Piper asked. “Because I’d like to try some of that.”

“Hmm. No. But I have triple chocolate caramel fudge brownie.”

Piper knew that if she gave in to that pain, the sucking chest wound where Aiden had ripped out her heart, it would lead to lots of tears and chick flicks on Addison’s couch, and she might never pull herself out of it or out of that tub of ice cream. Chin rising, she put one shiny red boot in front of the other and headed to the front doors.

“I’ll be okay,” she said, holding the door open for her friends. “I just need to get home and get a good sleep. I’ll start packing first thing in the morning.”

They exited the police station. The cool evening air swirled around Piper’s legs, raising goose bumps. She folded her arms across her chest, thankful for Addison’s sweatshirt that covered her bare stomach. It appeared as though the entire day had slipped by while she’d recounted the horrors of the last twenty-four hours to Inspector Samuels.

At the time, they’d felt like some of the best hours of her life—the ones spent in Aiden’s bed, not running away from him. The memory of his arms around her burned, making her wince each time his face unwillingly popped into her head.

Zoe caught one of those winces. “Are you sure you don’t want to hang tonight?”

Piper shrugged. “I don’t want to spend any more time on Aiden, especially to mope.”

Who was she kidding? She might have been dressed like the girl of steel, but she wasn’t actually made of steel. There would be moping. So much moping, in fact, that it would deserve a name, like Mopefest or Mopapalooza. But not until she was alone and her only witnesses were Colin and Mr. Wiggles.

“It looks like Aiden’s not out of the way yet.” Zoe pointed to the bottom of the precinct’s concrete steps where a crowd had formed.

Colin’s tail wagged, smacking Piper’s chest, so she knew Aiden was near before she saw him. He wasn’t hard to spot. He was surrounded by all the microphones, cameras flashing like starbursts, and hands waving for attention like eager students.

A grim-looking woman in her mid-forties hovered next to him. Between each question from the press, she whispered something in his ear before hunching over her tablet again, typing furiously on the pad. Piper assumed she was some kind of PR person sent for damage control.

Aiden’s suit looked crisp and recently pressed, definitely not the one in which he’d chased her through his office building earlier that day. The PR woman had probably brought it for him so he could appear presentable for the press. Maybe only bad guys had wrinkled suits.

He looked good. Too good, she thought. This surprised her. Once he’d revealed his true self, some kind of spell should have been broken, transforming him into a creature with warts or horns or scales or something. It was only fair. After everything that had happened, the very sight of him shouldn’t have continued to stir something inside her.

No one had noticed Piper standing there with Addison and Zoe. Their focus was purely on the man of the hour. They shouted questions and hung on his every word, treating him as though he were the victim.

Aiden pointed to one hand waving in the back. “Next question.”

“Mr. Williams has been with Caldwell and Son Investments for forty years. What will happen to him now?”

“His actions put lives in danger, and he will have to answer in court for that,” Aiden said in a practiced tone, his face blank. “But as far as the company is concerned, he is no longer employed with us.”

So, that was it. He’d washed his hands clean, using his chief operations officer as a scapegoat. Guess it was good business to have a token fall guy.

Addison tugged on Piper’s sleeve, but she ignored it. Slowly, so Aiden wouldn’t notice her, she descended the stairs so she could hear the press conference better, watch his expressions from a better angle.

Aiden pointed to another hand.

“What was your reaction when you first heard the news?” Although the speaker was half-hidden among the tense horde, Piper recognized Holly Hart’s high-pitched, eager voice.

“I was shocked and disappointed. We work hard to support the community through our fundraising and volunteer efforts. Mr. Williams’s actions opposed the very core values of the company, and his shortsighted behavior also seriously jeopardized my own plans for the much-loved dog rescue center.”

At that moment, his gaze roamed over the press, searching past the blinding lights. He squinted against the camera flashes and spotted Piper. He did a double take.

Their eyes locked. A jolt ran through Piper’s body, but she kept herself steady. She met his stare square on. He blanched at the sight of her, his confident, corporate certainty replaced with a sort of pitiful helplessness.

Waving a dismissive hand, Aiden said, “That will be all for questions.”

Not moving his eyes away from Piper’s, he descended the stairs. She took an automatic step back. Not because she was afraid of him, not outside the cop shop with all those witnesses, with Colin and her two girls at her back. She was afraid of herself, of that scolded puppy look in his eyes, of hearing a single word of his lies in case it confused her more. He’d worked out a cover story to protect himself and his company. He had no doubt polished up a speech for her too.

But when he moved, the crowd of cameras and reporters moved with him. Microphones jostled, knocking him on the head, and camera lights blinded him. He stumbled, nearly falling down the steps. During the shuffle, Holly squeezed her way to the front until she was practically pressing up against his body, berating him with more questions.

Piper had never been happier to see her.

Zoe looped an arm through Piper’s, dragging her attention away from the scene. “Let’s get out of here.”

Addison popped open the box of chocolates and offered an emergency hit of delicious comfort. Colin licked Piper’s cheek in support. She felt much loved.

They turned to head for Addison’s Mini in the parking lot. However, Piper couldn’t stop herself from glancing back. As Aiden watched her go, he looked like he might follow her, but the grim PR woman yanked on his sleeve and hissed something in his ear.

His jaw clenched as he listened. He gave a brief nod. With one last lingering look at Piper, he turned back to the press. Piper turned too, looking ahead—to graduation, to her exam, to her upcoming job at the veterinary hospital, to her future. A future without Aiden.

“You know what?” she asked. “I think I could use some of that ice cream now.”