Chapter 6 Piper
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.”
“I bet he does,” I grumbled, wishing my eyeballs were equipped with laser beams so I could shoot them through our shared wall.
I took a step into the so-called office and inhaled the smell of dank, closed-in spaces.
I spun slowly, taking in the mortar bulging out of the gaps between the concrete blocks, the inch-thick dust on the metal shelves, the bare bulb, and the outlet with char marks staining its front.
When I met her gaze, Mila gave me an apologetic smile. She wrung her hands. “I’ll help you clean it up. We’ll get you a new desk and a lamp. You can put up some photos on the walls—whatever you want. It’ll be good as new.”
“I’m not sure it was good even when it was new,” I replied, and arched a brow.
“In fact, I’m pretty sure it was a supply closet.
” I rattled the metal shelf, and a loose screw tumbled to the floor.
I pursed my lips, then squared my shoulders and looked at Mila again.
A broad smile painted itself on my lips, and Mila blinked, startled.
She was too nice to be working for a man like Rhett Baldwin. She saw the best in people, and right now, I could tell her brain was trying to come up with some explanation as to why a good man like Rhett would try to stick me in a dark closet to do my work.
But I wasn’t so naive. I was divorced, which meant I’d already been swindled by a man like Rhett once, and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. I wasn’t going to roll over and let him make me feel small. I wasn’t going to let him bully me into doing what he wanted.
I was living life on my terms.
“It’s perfect,” I declared, and this time my smile felt a little more genuine. “I’ll have to thank Rhett for being so thoughtful.”
“Um,” Mila said. “Yeah!”
“Is there a desk that will fit in here? The ones on the floor seem like they’d be too wide.”
Mila bit her lip. “Good point. I can talk to Rhett—”
“Don’t bother. My contract had a clause about expense reimbursement. I’ll review the terms and then order what I need.”
“Oh.” Mila blinked. “Right. Gosh, you’re on top of things.”
“In the meantime, I’ll get that paperwork done. Mind if I use one of the tables out there?” I nodded my head toward the main office.
“Of course!”
“Thank you, Mila.”
I sat myself down at the big coworking table and read through all the boring documents that outlined company culture, safety, and other necessary onboarding topics.
I knew the moment Rhett’s office door opened, and felt his gaze on my skin like a physical touch.
I knew the moment he decided to walk toward me, and I braced myself for the impact of his presence.
“Darling. Not a fan of your new office?”
Looking up at him, I gave him the kind of bland, polite smile that I’d adopted for Jacob’s coworkers and bosses. It was unassuming, and I knew it did a good job of hiding my inner thoughts.
Maybe Rhett wasn’t the only one who was used to wearing a mask.
“I love it,” I told him. “Thank you so much for thinking to give me my own space. I’ll be able to work much more effectively without distraction.”
His eyes narrowed slightly, those full lips pursing. “Good,” he said, sounding like it pained him to say that single word.
I smiled wider. “I can just tell it’s going to be wonderful to work here. You’ve done a great job putting together the team. I’m so honored to be part of it. I look forward to a long, productive working relationship between us.”
Suspicion flitted through his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Me?” He was the one being hostile.
He leaned forward, pressing his knuckles into the white desktop beside me. I could smell the scent of his spicy cologne and feel the heat of his skin. “You’re up to something.”
“I’m doing my onboarding paperwork, sir.”
“Don’t ‘sir’ me, Darling.”
“Fine. I’m doing my onboarding paperwork, Rhett.” My vapid smile was still in place. “How’s the cat? His paw okay?”
“No idea. I gave it away,” he bit off, and a flash of triumph passed across his face when I couldn’t quite hide my shock. “Don’t hang around here too long. I gave you that office for a reason.”
“Once it’s got a desk and a chair that fit in the space, I’ll be right in there,” I confirmed, trying my best to maintain the polite, pleasant persona.
He leaned in and dropped his voice. “We’ll see how long you last around here.
” His back was straight as he walked away.
One of the ladies who worked in the finance department greeted him with a smile, and I watched as he smiled right back at her, pausing at her desk for a bit of chitchat.
Gone was the simmering animosity and thinly veiled dislike.
He laughed at something she said, then, as if he could feel my stare, lifted his gaze to meet mine.
After a moment he turned back to the finance woman, said a few final words, and walked away.
She smiled as she went back to work, clearly in his thrall, just like every other person in this town.
But I knew the truth.
Rhett Baldwin was a fraud. There wasn’t a good bone in his body.
Last time a man had tried to bend me to his will, I’d let myself fold. I stayed home when I wanted to work. I did everything he wanted me to do—and it still wasn’t enough. Our marriage disintegrated, and still, it was me who had to finally end it.
I wasn’t going to let that happen here.
If Rhett wanted to get rid of me, he’d have to do his own dirty work. And I might just try to fight right back and see if that image he projected around town could withstand a little pressure.