The wheels of the 747 hit the tarmac at O’Hare, but she slept through it. She was impulsive, but she wasn’t stupid, and she had to know what was coming-had to know he couldn’t keep her around. He had no room for a blue-eyed badass who went off half-cocked doing whatever she damn well pleased.
Yet, despite the fact that he couldn’t trust her judgment, he also trusted her more than anyone he’d ever known. No person he’d ever worked with had cared more about his welfare. Sure, his teammates and coaches had cared, but they’d had ulterior motives. Piper, on the other hand, would protect him in her own screwball way even if he weren’t paying her a dime. Because that’s the way she was made. Loyal to the end. And that’s what this was. The end.
The plane pulled up to the gate, and she began to stir. Being her lover made this more complicated than it should be. He’d known the affair was a mistake, but he’d gone ahead and done it anyway. Now he had to break it off and fire her.
He’d made tough calls before, but none as tough as this.
WHAT’S BUGGING COOPER GRAHAM?
Cockroaches! Thousands of them are swarming the former Stars quarterback’s hot new nightspot, Spiral. “They’re everywhere,” an associate who asked to remain anonymous says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The club is closed while exterminators try to eradicate the vermin, but whether the party crowd will return is the big question. Maybe Spiral should be renamed Death Spiral?
The news was all over the Internet. Piper sat at her office desk and buried her still-throbbing head in her hands. She only vaguely remembered collapsing on the hotel room couch last night, but she definitely remembered the strain between them at the airport. They’d barely spoken.
She wished he’d fired her on the plane so they could get it over with, but he hadn’t. Since they’d been lovers, he’d do it more carefully. He’d probably tell her she could keep the apartment for a while. He’d almost surely offer her a generous severance. The thought of his magnanimity made her want to choke.
She smacked herself in the cheek-a really bad idea, considering her jackhammer of a hangover. Until he fired her, she had a job, and she’d keep doing it right to the bitter end. She owed him that much and more.
The online smears, a mugging, a tire slashing, and a drone. It didn’t jibe. And who’d called INS-or was that even relevant? As for the cockroaches… Tony had told Spiral’s employees the club had to be closed for repairs to the cooling system, so the leak about the infestation hadn’t come from the staff. Coop had moved Karah and Jada to a hotel while the fumigation was going on. They knew the truth, but they also knew to keep it to themselves. Someone from the exterminating company could easily have blabbed, but Piper found it more likely that the same person who’d dumped the bugs had made sure the word got out.
She’d hit a dead end, and she had no idea where to go next, other than to make certain the club had a better video security system. She called Tony to talk about it. If it had been last week, she’d have talked to Coop directly, but it wasn’t last week.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday passed without word from Coop. She couldn’t go back to her apartment until the fumigation was done, so she slept on her office couch, not just because she didn’t want to impose on Jen or Amber, but also because she was too depressed to be around people.
The flyers she’d distributed netted a Monday-morning phone call from a suspicious wife, and by the next day, Piper had the unpleasant task of confirming the woman’s suspicions. Duke had been right. Once a wife got around to hiring a detective, she pretty much already knew the truth.
Helping others was supposed to be at least a partial cure for depression, so she tried to come up with someone she could help whose initials weren’t C.G. She thought of Jen’s problems with Dumb Ass and poked around the darker corners of the Internet for a few hours but didn’t come up with anything interesting.
Wednesday arrived, and the owner of an air duct cleaning service called. He’d heard Piper was good at handling rat-ass employees who claimed to have been hurt on the job but were goddam liars. The guy sounded like a jerk, but Piper drove to Rogers Park to meet him anyway. On the way back, Tony called to tell her the club was reopening that night, and he needed her back on duty.
“Did you check with Coop about that?” she asked.
“About what?”
“About me coming back.”
“Why wouldn’t you come back?”
“Never mind. I’ll talk to him.”
She ran Coop to ground in his office at Spiral that evening. She hadn’t seen the point in changing into her nighttime work clothes, and she was still wearing jeans along with a bulky gunmetal-gray sweater that was the closest thing she had to armor.
He was sitting at the desk with his ankles propped on top and idly tossing a softball back and forth. All the lights were off except the desk lamp, which cast the side of his face in shadow. He looked up as she came in, then returned his attention to the softball.
She gathered her courage. “Stop being such a chickenshit and get it over with. You know you have to fire me, and I’d appreciate it if you’d do it now so I can stop thinking about it.”
He pitched the ball from his right hand to his left.
She curled her fingers around the cuffs of her sweater. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d like to keep the apartment a little longer. I promise, you’ll never see me.”
He tossed the ball back.
“I’ll give my files to whoever you hire to take my place,” she said. “And you’d better hire someone, Coop, because this isn’t over.” She’d stay on the case even after he fired her. She owed him answers. And a Super Bowl ring…
He dropped his feet to the floor, but whatever he was about to say was lost as Jada burst into the office, her Nerf gun nowhere in sight. “Mom was in an accident!” she cried. “She’s in the hospital!”
Coop shot up from his desk. “Where is she? What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Jada began to sob. “A nurse called me from the emergency room. What if she dies?”
Coop grabbed his jacket. “Let’s go.”
They had to take her Sonata because Coop had lent out his Audi for the evening. To Karah.
They found her hooked up to an IV and a monitor. Her curly dark hair spilled out in a lopsided corona around the gauze bandage wrapping her head, and more bandaging protected her left wrist and arm. Two police officers stood at the side of her bed.
Jada ran to her mother. Karah winced as she drew her daughter to her breast. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.” Over the top of Jada’s head, Karah saw Coop, and her face collapsed. “I wrecked your car, Coop. After everything you’ve done for me.”
“Don’t worry about the car,” Coop said. “As long as you’re okay.”
Karah slipped her hand into Jada’s hair. “I should never have taken it. I thought I was being so careful.”
“Cars can be replaced,” Coop said. “You can’t.”
The officers were doing their best to keep their professional cool with Cooper Graham in the room. The taller of the two turned to him. “She said you gave her permission to take your car?”
Coop nodded. “Hers wouldn’t start, and I was going to be at my club all night, so I didn’t need it.”
“My professor invited some of us to her house up in Wadsworth,” Karah said, “and I really wanted to go. If only I’d stayed home.” She gazed at Coop again. “I’m sorry.”
“No more apologies. This is why I have insurance.”
“Tell us again what you remember,” the second officer said.
“The road was dark, and there wasn’t much traffic.” Karah looked over at Coop. “I wasn’t speeding. I swear.”