Must Love Wieners

by Griffin, Casey

  She paused on a concept sketch of the front entrance of this new grand dwelling. A designer sign above the entrance doors displayed the name of the apartment building. It stung like a final slap in the face. It was the fake name she made up when he’d tried to convince her to move to one of his properties. Nottingham Lakeview Estates.

  She wanted to laugh. Or cry. But before she could make any sound, the rhythmic beat of footsteps sounded in the hall. Slow, purposeful, approaching.

  33

  Doxie Detective

  Piper dropped the file onto the desk and stared at the office door, willing it to remain closed.

  Don’t come in here, she thought. Don’t come in here.

  Aiden’s muffled voice filtered through the door and her heart lurched painfully in her chest.

  Colin recognized it too, because his tail began to wag inside the backpack. Swiping her bag off the desk, she ran, but as she was trapped in an office, her journey took her in a full circle. She was a trapped rat. One way in, and one way out.

  For a second, she lunged to hide under the desk, but all the sleek lines offered little cover. The same went for the rest of Aiden’s office. Damned modern furniture, she cursed in her head. Her darting eyes fell on a tiny notch in the wall and she remembered the hidden closet in the reception area.

  Aiden’s voice drew closer. She dashed across the room, fiddling with the door latch until the door popped open. With shaking hands she pushed coats and spare suits aside and crammed herself into the space. Aiden’s voice became clearer. He was inside the room.

  Colin’s tail still wagged frantically, swishing inside the canvas bag. His head snaked out of the opening in the zipper and he searched for Aiden. Piper lowered herself to the floor, shifting as far back as the tiny space would allow. She drew Colin close to her chest and placed a hand on his snout.

  “Shh,” she hushed next to his ear, hoping that despite his lack of training, or obedience, or any sort of judgment at all, this one time he might actually listen to her. What the hell had she been thinking? Hiding in Aiden’s office? It was too late to leave now.

  “—don’t know what you’re so worried about,” Aiden was saying.

  “I just wish you wouldn’t run off and make your own plans without involving me.” Piper recognized Larry Williams’s voice, snide and condescending, even to the man who was supposed to be his boss.

  “I wanted to keep the company out of it. This was a personal undertaking.”

  “Personal. Right. A little too personal, if you ask me. You’ve let your attachment to that telegram girl cloud your judgment.”

  “Keep Piper out of this. I feel bad enough hiding all this from her as it is.”

  At the mention of her name, Piper inched closer to the door. It occurred to her that if Holly was right, and Aiden’s company was up to no good, they’d hidden it well up until now. She’d need proof of some sort. Taking out her cell phone again, she opened the old app she used for recording classes the year before and hit start. She placed it on the floor, sliding it closer to the crack beneath the door.

  “The secretary says she’s already come sniffing around,” Larry said. “Hopefully they find her before she discovers anything she shouldn’t.”

  “Look, I’m a good businessman,” Aiden said. “I haven’t lost sight of what’s important.”

  Larry snorted. “You’ve completely lost your objectivity. What’s important is getting rid of those damn dogs.”

  There was a bang, and Piper imagined Aiden bringing a fist down on his desk. “And I’ve done just that, haven’t I? With them out of the way, we can move forward with the condos.”

  Piper jolted at that. What was he saying? He didn’t mean … She wished she could see his face, his expression. He sounded angry at Larry, but did he look regretful? Was he admitting to the fire? To getting rid of them so he could tear down the center? Her arms slackened around Colin and he stretched his snout toward the door, his chest quivering as he sniffed in and out rapidly. She strained to listen, barely daring to breathe, sure that she must be hearing wrong.

  “Yes, but if you’d just left it to me–”

  “I’m perfectly capable of making decisions for my own company,” Aiden said.

  “But was it the right one?” Larry’s voice was loud, like he was standing in front of the closet or pacing the room. “Without the right planning, the right countermeasures in place … Once the media gets wind of this, they’ll start putting things together. All the evidence will point to us. Your timing couldn’t be worse.”

  “They’ve got no proof,” Aiden stated. Piper cringed at the lack of emotion in his voice.

  “That doesn’t matter. You know better than anyone the damage this could do to our reputation even if we somehow don’t get indicted for the crimes. A bad rep equals a huge downturn in profits. Look at the year one of our contractors had that accident on Market Street. The newspapers had a heyday with that.”

  Aiden sighed. “You’re right about that. Holly Hart has been breathing down my neck. We’ll get PR involved. Head off any stories before they start.”

  “Yes, we need to make sure we look like the good guys. Twist it to work in our favor and decrease the risk of accusations coming our way. I wish you would have just let me take care of all this.”

  A chair squeaked and she imagined Aiden falling into his desk chair. “I can see the headlines now. They’ll probably call it Puppygate.”

  God! He was joking about this. He was actually joking. Piper couldn’t believe her ears, but everything they were saying … how could she deny it any longer?

  Piper’s fist clenched and she bit down on a finger to stop the angry sobs that were building in her chest. Colin leaned closer to the door, straining against Piper’s hold on him, like he’d caught whiff of a badger. He pawed at the base of the door, and Piper had to grab him before he began to whine. Her own panicked and furious breaths were starting to match his rapid sniffing.

  “I promised my father I would take care of this company,” Aiden said. “And that is exactly what I’ve done. Let’s just hope it works out for the best.”

  “Yes. For the best. It certainly seems to be so far. God works in mysterious ways.” Larry chuckled. “And I’ve always been a godly man myself.”

  So they were both in on it. All along. She closed her eyes and tried to regain some measure of calm, but with Colin struggling against her like his life depended on it, Piper could barely hold on to him. In his efforts to get free, he scratched her leg and her forearms. She flinched and he squirmed away, flopping out of her arms and onto the floor. His head bonked against the door. Before Piper could react, it popped open.

  Both men whipped around, Aiden practically jumped out of his seat. Piper swore. Colin barreled into the room all barks, and teeth, and snarls. She’d never seen the doxie so wild before. Sausage legs moving in a blur, he charged at Old Spice.

  The old man leapt from his chair in surprise, but not quick enough. Colin latched onto the hem of his pants, tugging and snarling. Backpedaling, Larry tried to clamber onto Aiden’s desk.

  Piper grabbed her phone, still recording audio, and crawled out from her hiding place. She did nothing to stop Colin’s attack. She was too shocked, too humiliated, too furious. It was all she could do to not launch herself at one of the men and start tearing him apart herself.

  Aiden’s eyes were wide with surprise at her jack-in-the-box arrival. She glared back at him, panting as though she’d completed a marathon, hands on her hips. He glanced down, and she followed his gaze to see her coat had been flung open, revealing her Supergirl costume. She refastened the belt, waiting for some explanation from him, some excuse that didn’t mean her life had turned into an episode of Days of Our Lives.

  Old Spice flopped back onto the desk to safety with Colin dangling from his pant leg. The doxie gave one good final tug. The hem gave way. The fabric ripped up the seam of the pants. Spitting the piece of fabric out, Colin barked and growled from the floor, hopp
ing at the base of the desk like he’d discovered a badger burrow. And when Piper stared at the man crawling on the desk, she realized why.

  Larry’s ankle was exposed where his pants had torn away. From beneath his argyle sock bulged a thick white bandage.

  For the first time, Piper noticed the flat wool cap on his head. Fists clenched at her sides, she stormed over and ripped it off. And there was all the proof she needed. Beneath a poor attempt at a comb-over bulged a purple goose egg in the exact spot where she’d whacked the arsonist over the head.

  Instead of looking guilty or caught in the act, Larry appeared indignant, even cowering on top of the desk. “This is no place for animals. That little monster attacked me. I could call Animal Control, you know. I could have him put down for that.”

  Piper’s muscles tensed with all the ways she wanted to make Larry pay. “I should have you put down!”

  “Now, look here, young lady–”

  “No, you look.” She threw the hat on the floor where Colin pounced on it, hungry for any piece of him. “I could have died in that fire. You could have killed all of those dogs.”

  “What? Piper,” Aiden began, reaching a hand out to her. When she wheeled her furious expression around to him, he snatched it back.

  “And you,” she said. “You knew. You were in on it. Did you order him to do it?”

  He flinched like she’d slapped him. “No, I … What are you—”

  “I trusted you. I cared for you. I … I lov—” The word stuck in her throat because that emotional baggage was getting heavier by the moment. How could he still pretend he was innocent when Larry’s wounds were like physical confessions of the dirty act? But she hadn’t told Aiden about the wounds she inflicted on the arsonist the night of the fire. He still thought he could get away with it.

  Aiden held a hand to his chest. “I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Save it,” she snapped.

  “Look, little girl,” Larry said. “I don’t know what you think you heard—”

  “Oh, but I’m sure the cops could help a little girl like me figure it all out. Because I’ve recorded your entire conversation.” She waved the phone in his face before tucking it into her bra for safekeeping.

  Aiden still seemed dazed. He shook his head back and forth, like he couldn’t believe he’d been caught, Piper thought. “Let’s just talk about this.”

  “Oh, I will.” Scooping up a growling Colin, she yanked open the door. “To the cops.”

  Those eyes, that look of hurt, of innocence. Even now Aiden had power over her. His expression tugged something inside her, like he’d tied a string around her heart and trained it like a dog on a leash. How blind she’d been. How stupid.

  “Piper. I love you.”

  And her breath whooshed out of her in a grunt, like he’d taken that string and ripped her heart right out of her chest. Her nose tickled and her eyes stung with impending tears. She scowled, trying to clear them.

  Larry gripped her arm, fingers digging into the muscle. He was stronger than he looked—she found that out the night of the fire. “You’re jumping to conclusions. You don’t have enough proof,” he hissed, his voice low now that the door was open.

  “I don’t need any more proof.” Piper wrenched out of his grip and began to back out of the office. “Animals just have a way of knowing.”

  Colin growled at Larry, lips curling over his bared teeth.

  She spun on her heel, thinking, hoping, it was all over. That she could raise her chin and march right out the building to call the cops. But she realized they weren’t going to let her get away that easily when Larry grabbed her backpack from behind. Aiden ordered him to stop, but he kept tugging violently.

  Piper plopped Colin on the floor and slipped her arms out of the straps, struggling against the jerking. Unfortunately, she also lost her jacket in the process.

  Abandoning her school bag, she plucked Colin up and dashed down the hall toward the elevators. Old Spice called out behind her.

  “Security!”

  34

  Wonder Wiener

  One by one, heads poked out of their glass offices to swivel down the long hall in search of the commotion. It didn’t take them long to see that it was a bird. No, it was a plane. No, it was Supergirl—err, well, it was Piper charging down the hall with a black wiener tucked under her arm.

  Piper faltered at the line of people between her and the exit. She considered barreling past them all to make it to the elevators, but then Veronica pounced to block the other end, her orange skin flushed vivid coral. Her arm whipped up and she pointed Piper out to two burly guards. They began charging at her. Piper didn’t like her chances. Because she wasn’t, in fact, super in any way.

  An exit sign buzzed in an alcove to her right. She heard Old Spice grunt behind her and felt another tug, this time on her red cape. She wrenched out of his grasp and darted toward the emergency exit.

  The sounds of heavy footfalls and shouting followed her. Mostly “Stop, you little bitch!” from Larry Williams. But others had joined the chase too, all babbling curiously.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Get that Supergirl!”

  Aiden chased after her too. “Piper, wait. Please just listen. Everyone, stop!” he yelled, but his voice was drowned out in the commotion.

  She burst through the exit and stumbled into the stairwell. His voice drifted after her, pleading with her that it must be a misunderstanding. Claims of innocence echoed down forty flights, following her down, down, down. Her feet flew over steps; her lungs gasped for air; her legs shook from fright. But it was her heart that hurt the worst. It ached. Only it wasn’t from the panic.

  The stairwell spiraled on forever and it soon felt like Colin was the size of a Saint Bernard. Piper wished she did have Supergirl’s powers of strength. Even flight would help, or that handy laser eye thing.

  People yelled above her; doors slammed; shoes clacked on steps, dress shoes, rubber-soled shoes. The noise bounced off the close walls, reverberating in the space and inside Piper’s head.

  At each new floor’s landing, she expected the door to fly open and reveal security. Then it would all be over. Although just what that meant she didn’t want to dwell on. She already knew what the company was willing to do to protect their assets. She didn’t want to find out how far their limits went.

  But no doors flew open; no one caught up to her; no one tackled her from behind. It wasn’t like this was Alcatraz, but the panic coursing through her veins could have fooled her.

  Piper wasn’t sure why she was running. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She wasn’t sure what she expected them to do when they caught up to her. It wasn’t like they were going to off her. But when she snuck into Aiden’s office, she hadn’t expected to discover the hideous truth, or to be chased through the building by half the office, either.

  So it was the unknown that kept her moving on sheer animal instinct, the instinct to survive. The only thoughts that raced through her brain were of Larry’s threats and those frantic footfalls behind her. She just needed to get out, to clear her mind, to figure this all out. But first, she had to get away. She focused on the rhythm of her legs, of increasing her speed. One, two, one, two.

  Finally, she reached the door labeled P2 in big bold letters. Holding Colin in one arm, she turned the handle and thrust her body against the metal door. She stumbled into the parking garage. It only took her a moment to scan the level for a Caribbean Aqua–colored convertible before she realized Addison’s car wasn’t there. Had they left? Did she get out on the wrong floor?

  Behind her, muffled sounds of the angry mob thundered down the stairwell. She could either follow the slope up or the slope down, farther underground. Trying to remember how many levels they drove down when they arrived, she settled on up. If she didn’t find the car, at least she would have a chance of reaching street level.

  She urged her legs forward. The muscles tightened in protest, ach
ing from the long descent, and her shiny Supergirl boots—which were not meant for a quick getaway—pinched her feet. She stumbled halfway up to the next level and saw the blue uniforms of two security guards jogging around the bend.

  “Down here!” one called. “She’s here.”

  The other ducked his head toward the microphone clipped to his shoulder. “She’s on level P Two.”

  Shifting her weight, Piper ran back the way she came and slipped past the stairwell door. From the corner of her eye, she saw it crack open. An arm reached out as she whipped past. It clamped down on her cape, dragging her back, choking her. She caught a glimpse over her shoulder, of dark hair, wild eyes, hissing close to her ears.

  Tamara.

  Colin shifted in Piper’s arms. Snarling, he snapped at the hand that held her. There was a yelp of pain and Piper was released. She lurched forward, not daring to spare a second to look back. The quick, sharp clicking noises behind her told Piper that Tamara was in hot pursuit—no surprise there—but her high heels were slowing her down.

  “Thanks,” Piper said to Colin, and he nestled back into her arms.

  Sprinting past Land Rovers never taken out of the city and sports cars used to drive to Starbucks, she followed the slope down and around and around until she ran out of parking garage to run through. There was no more down to go. No doors, no hiding spots, no exits.

  Her head whipped back and forth, breaths coming in panicked gasps. Footsteps approached, pounding on the pavement, closing in on her. Backing toward the farthest, darkest corner, she did the only thing she could do and hid. She inched back until she hit the wall and squeezed in front of a car bumper.

  Remembering the phone in her bra, she pulled it out to call the cops or, just as effective, Addison and Zoe. But there was no reception; she was too far underground. She held it in the air, angling it this way and that, but it was no good. Sighing, she tucked it back into her bra.