Paws off the Boss, Casey Griffin [ereader for textbooks TXT] 📗

in time to save the day? Only moments after your attacker escaped?” she asked sarcastically before wheeling on Piper. “Giving him enough time to circle around the building and come back inside as the hero,” she declared triumphantly. Achoo!

“That wasn’t him. I know it wasn’t. He’d never do anything to hurt me.” And besides, since that night, she’d become well acquainted with Aiden’s body. His shape, his size, the weight of him on top of her. She knew for a fact that he wasn’t the pyromaniac. But again, she couldn’t exactly use that as an argument on Channel Five News.

It was Barney. It must have been.

“Then maybe he had an accomplice,” Holly insisted. “Someone else working with him. That way, he could get the job done while making himself out to be the hero.”

Piper laughed at the ridiculousness of it. “That’s a good imagination you have there. Maybe you should go back to the tabloids where you belong.”

Colin gave a bark of agreement. Holly glared at him as though she didn’t like his tone of voice.

Waving Holly aside, Piper opened the courtyard gate so she could tell them just where they could go. Colin tried to escort them out by barking and nipping at their heels threateningly. Hey You danced away from the doxie, never lowering his camera. Holly jumped right back into the shot.

“Isn’t it true that you’re dating Mr. Caldwell?” She shoved the microphone back into Piper’s face like a weapon.

Piper scowled. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

“How do you respond to the allegations that you’re in cahoots with him?”

“In cahoots? What does that even mean?” Piper threw up her arms in frustration. “Who’s alleging that?”

“I can’t reveal my sources.”

“Your ‘sources,’ meaning you?”

“Why are you avoiding the issue, Miss Summers?” Holly huffed, flicking a stray hair out of her face. “You were always around for the incidents. All three of them, to be exact. And Mr. Caldwell and you were the only witnesses the night of the fire.”

Piper narrowed her eyes, hit with a sudden urge to wrap the microphone cord around the nosey reporter’s neck. Zoe came over and slung an arm around Piper’s shoulder in support, ready to jump in if asked. Addison was still trying to soothe Toby amidst all the commotion.

Piper gripped her car keys until they bit into her palm. “What would I have to gain from burning down the rescue center?”

“Money, duh!” Holly heaved a sigh. “I’ve been looking into you. You’ve recently lost two jobs, couldn’t pay your rent, and are currently homeless.”

Zoe and Addison’s heads whipped toward Piper. She gritted her teeth, avoiding their questioning gazes.

“I couldn’t help but notice the new paint job on your car as you drove up,” Holly commented innocently. “I bet the job was expensive. Was it a gift? Or was it a way to buy you off?”

What bad timing for car repairs, Piper thought. “Have you lost your mind? Aiden and I could have died in that fire.”

Holly stomped her stiletto heel on the ground, her eyes round like that of a bull about to charge. “You used my fame to cover your sick crimes, to get donations. Did you pocket the money?” She gasped a long-drawn-out breath. “Is that how you paid for the paint job? I bet it wasn’t the only upgrade to your hunk of junk. Was it? Let’s have a look inside, shall we?” She reached down to rip the keys right out of Piper’s hand.

Piper wanted to get in her car and drive over Holly. “Get away from me!”

Holly gripped Piper’s arm, digging her nails into the skin. Colin bit down on Holly’s pant leg and began tugging. Hey You swung the camera back and forth, capturing the fight scene.

“All right. That’s enough.” Zoe grabbed the reporter by the waist, trying to pry her off her friend. “Holly. You and your camera guy both need to leave. Now.”

But Holly had a death grip on Piper. Her manicured fingers pried Piper’s hand open, and the keys dropped to the ground. Holly scrambled to grab them, her bright pink butt wiggling in the air as she simultaneously fought off Colin’s attack. He was growling viciously, Holly was screeching, Piper and Zoe were threatening, Hey You was laughing, and it was at that moment that Addison lost her grip on Toby.

Tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, the dog leapt at Holly. The force of his lust drove her headfirst into the ground over, and over, and over again at the cameraman’s feet.

Achoo! “Ouch!” Achoo! “Ouch!” Achoo! “Ouch!”

Hey You backed up to get a wider shot with a look on his face that said Christmas morning had come. Piper dove for the keys and shoved them into her pocket.

When Addison wrenched the German shepherd off Holly—taking a little longer than necessary—the reporter scrambled to her feet. Her hair lay flipped to one side like an eighties hairstyle, her blazer collar stuck up à la The Fonz, and there was a suspicious brown smudge on her knee.

“Tell the truth!” Holly screamed at Piper. “You got the old lady who runs the place out of the way so you could shut it down. No one would ever suspect you. It’s the perfect crime. No cameras, no alarm system—”

“We were working on it!”

“—and no witnesses, except for the poor dogs. And they can’t testify against you, can they?” She shoved a shivering Chihuahua at Piper like the ultimate weapon of guilt to drag a confession out of her. Achoo!

Piper gripped her head, feeling utterly confused. “Where did that come from? Why does she have a Chihuahua? That’s not even one of ours!”

“That’s it.” Zoe yanked the microphone right out of Holly Hart’s talons. “We’re done here.”

Tugging down her blazer, Holly tossed her head and sniffed. “Don’t worry. I have all the information I need to run the story anyway.” She backed away, the camera still rolling. “Everything except motive.”

Piper held the gate open. To make sure they left, Addison let Toby’s leash out, inch by inch, ushering them out with the threat of humping.

“Here’s your motive.” Piper slammed the gate shut in their faces and threw her body weight against it to keep them out. The red and yellow S on her blue spandex crop top peeked out from under her raincoat.

Zoe noticed it and raised an eyebrow in question. Piper shrugged.

“So what is it, Miss Summers?” Holly’s disembodied voice called over the fence. “Insurance fraud? A marketing ploy? An excuse to close up shop so Caldwell and Son Investments can begin demolition?”

“Demolition?” Piper’s stomach dropped into her shiny red boots as she recalled the sign. She slumped against the fence, looking from Addison to Zoe. “So, it’s true?”

Zoe bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Pipe. We just found out this morning.”

“Wait, what?” Holly’s voice carried over the fence.

There was grunting and muffled swearing above Piper. She jumped away from the eight-foot-tall fence to see Holly peeking over it. Her arms pinwheeled before she reached for a picket to steady herself. Clearly, she was sitting on her cameraman’s shoulders.

“You mean you really don’t know?” Holly’s face filled with a joy seen only in cartoons, like when Scrooge McDuck swam in his enormous vault of gold coins. “Oh, now that’s entertainment.”

“Entertainment?” Zoe snapped back. “I thought you were supposed to be reporting the news.”

But Holly’s rapt attention was on Piper. She smiled deliciously, every bit the tabloid journalist. “Your new boy toy is tearing down your doggy digs in order to build high-rise condominiums.”

“No.” Piper’s head shook back and forth. “This has to be a misunderstanding. Aiden wouldn’t do that. I know he wouldn’t.”

“He would. I checked it out this morning.” Holly let out a high-pitched scream as she dropped from view.

There were a few seconds of scuffling and yelping before the gate opened, and Holly and Hey You burst back into the courtyard. Holly straightened her suit, the expression on her face luminous.

“The paperwork’s already gone to the city,” she said. “There’s a lot of support for the project since the city desperately needs affordable housing. Sorry, sweetheart.” She smiled gleefully. “But your prized pooch Aiden is a dirty dog.”

“I don’t know,” Zoe said, her mouth pursing. “There’s got to be a procedure for this kind of thing. Shouldn’t the renters of the property get some notice or something?”

“Consider this your notice, honey.”

Addison threw Piper a worried look. “Are you okay?”

She wasn’t ready to answer that question. She wasn’t even sure what to believe, since Holly wasn’t exactly the most nonpartisan source of info on Aiden.

“Have either of you spoken to Marilyn?” she asked her friends. “We have to call her. She must know something about this.”

“We tried,” Zoe said, “but we still can’t get through, and she hasn’t returned any of our calls. Her ship docks tomorrow morning. We probably won’t hear from her until then.”

Addison wrangled Toby into a doghouse and latched the door. “But what about the insurance? I thought Aiden was taking care of the renovations with the claims adjuster.”

Piper thought back to Saturday. Aiden had been so busy with the insurance company and investigators. She’d assumed he was getting everything organized when he’d handed things over to Tamara. She frowned. Could Tamara have something to do with this? No. She was just his PA. Aiden had the real power, made the real decisions.

Piper ran her hands through her hair and gripped it like that might be the source of her pounding head. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“Renovations shmenovations,” Holly said. “Do