Chapter 2

Piper shoved her hand into the sleeve of a clean shirt she was folding, right as her phone rang.

The number displayed from the caller twisted in her gut like a knife.

She reached down, her arms still engulfed in the shirt, and silenced her phone. “Go away,” she said out loud.

With her shirt right-side out, she proceeded to fold it with short, angry movements. It was the middle of a workday. One that she shouldn’t be home folding laundry and worrying about how she was going to pay her upcoming rent.

Her phone rang again, only seconds from when she silenced it.

Piper snatched it off the side of the sofa, ready to silence it again.

Only this time, Julia’s name appeared.

Piper slid the answer button over, put the phone on speaker, and spoke without so much as a hello. “I told you not to call me from the office line.”

“I know,” her friend said in a voice that lifted a full octave above normal. “Sorry. I’m distracted.”

Piper looked at her pile of laundry and huffed. “Me too. I’m completely overwhelmed.”

“Turn on the news.”

“I don’t watch the—”

“Channel five. Hurry. They broke for a commercial but they’re coming back.”

Piper dropped her folded shirt on top of the pile and reached for the TV remote. “Is this about him?”

“The whole office is buzzing. Well, those of us that are here today.”

The TV flashed to life, and the local news station was selected. “Let me guess, he didn’t die of natural causes after all.”

“You think someone killed him?” Julia asked with a short laugh.

The tail end of a commercial suggesting the latest antidepressant could be a life changer for you greeted Piper. “I think he pissed off plenty of people. I wouldn’t be surprised if foul play is determined.”

The afternoon news crew led in with a welcome and a smile.

“What am I looking for here?” Piper asked.

“They’re covering his funeral.”

That wasn’t a surprise. “So.”

“The camera’s zeroed in on his kids.”

Piper sat on the arm of her sofa and turned up the volume on the TV. “You mean his adult children.”

“Still his kids.”

Considering Piper had worked with Stone Enterprises for seven years, the last five as the executive secretary to Aaron Stone, and never seen the man’s children, she was interested enough to watch the images on the screen.

The news anchor led into the story with a graphic of Stone’s image overlaying a picture of the hotel’s logo, along with the man’s birth date and death date boldly placed at the bottom of the screen.

“Are you watching?” Julia asked.

“Yeah.”

The news crew captured several people leaving the church where Aaron Stone’s funeral had taken place.

Melissa, the trophy wife, was hard to miss. Perfect hair, perfect dress, and flanked by people Piper had never seen. Behind her followed a tall man with dark, almost wavy short hair, stern jaw, and a lifeless expression.

“Do you see him?”

“The guy behind Melissa?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the son?” Piper asked.

“Chase Stone.”

“He looks like an asshole.”

“Oh my God. He’s gorgeous. How can you say that?”

“If you like ’em tall, dark, and brooding.”

“He just lost his father,” Julia said.

Piper shrugged. If Ebenezer Scrooge had children, they wouldn’t have been upset with his passing. “Who is he hovering over?” Chase had his arm around a woman, similar in age, and an older woman close by. He held out a free hand, pushing away the media.

“The sister and the first wife.”

“Stone’s first wife?”

“Yeah.”

Piper tilted her head to the side. “She looks too normal to be married to Stone.”

“They were divorced a long time ago.”

“She’s lucky she got out.”

The news cut to the cemetery and scanned the faces of the guests before returning to the studio, where the anchor announced that the state of Stone Enterprises would be discussed on the evening edition of the news.

Piper turned off the TV, plunging the room into silence.

“Everyone here is worried.”

“About?”

“Their jobs.”

“That’s ridiculous. That company is run by a hell of a lot more than one man.”

Julia lowered her voice. “Yeah, but we both know things haven’t been completely in the black for a while. There’re whispers about a takeover.”

Piper stood and grabbed a towel from her laundry basket. “He still owned sixty-three percent of the company. That isn’t exactly ripe for a hostile takeover.”

“That depends on who he left his shares to. If Melissa ends up with it, she’ll sell to the highest bidder and walk.”

“He didn’t love her enough to do that.”

Julia huffed. “You’re probably right.”

“I was his secretary, Julia. Trust me on this.” Considering the amount of flowers she sent to other women on his behalf . . . Piper knew the man wasn’t devoted to anyone but himself.

“He could have given his shares to his kids. I heard today that the daughter, Alexandrea, works for Regent Hotels. She could sell her shares to them.”

Piper folded a towel and placed it to the side. “You’re jumping to conclusions and getting all worked up over nothing. That company needs to run, and the executive floor isn’t easily replaceable.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” Julia repeated as if she was talking to herself. “I can’t afford to lose this job.”

Piper huffed.

“Oh, God. I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I suck. How are you doing? How is the job search?”

Piper picked up a sock, looked at it, and threw it back in the basket. “Considering my boss fired me a week before he died, it isn’t like anyone can call him and get a reference.”

“I didn’t think about it like that.”

Piper had. The moment the news broke of Aaron Stone’s death, all the wheels in her head started to turn. She’d been terminated with two weeks’ pay and notice that her health benefits would expire at the end of the month. Piper had applied for unemployment after she stopped feeling sorry for herself and was told not to expect a check until her employer verified that she hadn’t quit or been let go because of misconduct. And even then, the earliest the check would arrive was four weeks. “I’ll be fine,” Piper told her friend.

“You have a savings, right?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

“I’m still pissed. It’s gonna take a while for that to wear off.”

“I wish I could do something,” Julia said. “If you don’t want me to call you about the gossip, I can stop.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll let you know if you exceed my morbid curiosity about what’s going on around there.” And sadly, she had a truckload of curiosity, especially once her jerk of a boss had kicked the bucket.

“Good. I miss our lunches.”

“I do, too. Tell everyone I said hi,” Piper said with a sigh.

“I will.”

“And don’t call from the office phone.”

Julia laughed, promised she wouldn’t, and hung up.

Piper ended the call and looked up at her ceiling. She did have a savings, but only what she’d managed over the last eight months since she’d paid back her student loans. She lived in a one-bedroom guest house behind her seventy-three-year-old landlord that needed her rent money to pay his own bills. Much as the man liked her, he couldn’t afford to float her if she didn’t find a new job soon.

A familiar noise at her back door prompted her to get off her sofa and abandon the laundry.

“Damn it, Kitty . . . how did you get outside?” she muttered as she walked to the back of her house.