Page 18 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
I couldn’t get rid of Piper, but I couldn’t afford for her to stay on for the long term. She made it hard to keep up the good-guy persona that had become almost comfortable to me—and if it came off, my entire world would crumble. Everyone who praised me for donating time and money to countless community endeavors would shake their heads and remember that I was a broken kid from a broken home, and was it really a surprise that I turned out to be a broken man?
Piper already saw it. I had to get rid of her as soon as possible.
I couldn’t fire her if she did a good job, and I definitely couldn’t do it when it would expose me for the ruthless, heartless prick I was. Firing a single mom who’d worked hard to get a tough project done on time wouldn’t go down well with the townsfolk, no matter how well they thought of me now.
But keeping her on was just as dangerous. She needled me, stood up to me, made me feel like I was close to cracking with little more than a slow blink of those big doe eyes. She had thepotential to undo all my hard work. All the hours I’d poured into my business and reputation, she could demolish with a swish of those generous hips.
I pulled up outside the office and stared up at the windows on the second floor. She was in there somewhere, charming the team, pretending she wasn’t as ruthless as I was.
And I knew I had no choice. I had to make it unbearable for her to stay on the team. I had to make it soshechose to leave when the job was done. That way my reputation would be intact and safe from her all-too-perceptive eyes.
The truck door slammed behind me as I stalked toward the front door.
One of the few things I was grateful for about my upbringing was that I’d never shied away from a fight. And I wasn’t going to start now.
SIX
PIPER
“Mila!”Rhett’s voice boomed across the small office. I looked up from the conference room table where Mila had set me up with all the paperwork I had to go through to join the team, catching sight of Rhett’s tall, broad form through the sliver of open doorway. He rapped his knuckle on Mila’s desk. “Give Darling the office next to mine,” he ordered.
I crept closer to the door, peering around the corner. Mila’s face came into view, confusion flitting across her expression. “The office next to yours?”
“She’ll have all kinds of samples and junk all over the place. I don’t want it to distract the team.”
“Um—”
“The room next to mine is the only one that’s free,” Rhett continued. “Get it done. I need the conference room for a call in ten.”
“Of course, Rhett,” Mila said.
I ducked back against the conference room wall and peeked through the doorway as Rhett thundered past. His shoulders were stiff, his gait heavy. I narrowed my eyes at his back, wondering what he was up to.
“Piper?”
I jumped, a flush rising to my cheeks.
“You mind packing your things up?” Mila asked. “We have a…a room for you.”
“You don’t sound sure.”
Her smile brightened, but it looked a little forced around the edges. “I’m sure. Just bring all your stuff and I’ll show you your new home away from home.”
Suspicious of this new development but unable to protest, I gathered the paperwork, my bag, my empty coffee cup, and my now half-eaten muffin. I tossed the cup in the recycling and slung the bag over my shoulder, then met Mila outside the conference room door. “Lead the way.”
“Follow me!” Her hair swung from side to side as she marched across the main room that made up the office. It was separated into cubicles with low partitions, with a few desks set up in a collaborative coworking section at the far end of the room. Big engineering drawings were laid out on a table along the far wall, and an air of quiet industry permeated the air. Keyboards clacked, phones rang, and low conversations murmured from various corners of the room.
We crossed the room diagonally, and I caught a glimpse of an office in the corner that had to be Rhett’s, because Mila led me down a short hallway beside it.
And there, shoved between Rhett’s office’s back wall and the office toilets, was an unmarked door.
“Here we are!” Mila called out cheerily. She tried the handle and found it locked, then took out a big key ring. “It’s one of these old ones,” she explained, flicking through a few battered keys to find the one that fit.
Hinges squealed in protest as the door swung inward, and I was greeted with the sight of bare concrete blocks and a single bulb hanging from a wire in the middle of the ceiling. Dust had gathered in the corners, and an old metal shelf took up most of one wall.
And it was small. Tiny. My fingertips would brush the walls if I stretched my arms out from the middle of the room. A small barred window took up space at the top of the back wall, letting in a sad trickle of light.
Mila cleared her throat. “Rhett thinks you’ll be more comfortable here.”
