Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
PIPER
“There’s been a little mix-up,” the emcee, who had introduced himself as David on the walk over, said with insincere levity. He forced a smile as he met my gaze. “We’ll get to the bottom of it. Maya?”
Maya nodded briefly. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and she was dressed in blue jeans and a volunteer tee similar to the one Rhett wore. I was the only one dressed in regular clothing. The odd one out.
“Maya Luis,” she introduced herself, extending a hand to shake first to me, then to Rhett. Her face softened into a smile when they shook; they evidently already knew each other.
I was the trespasser who insisted on making waves when I should’ve been staying quiet and out of the way.
That was what I would’ve done before—but that Piper was long gone.
She’d been worn down to nothing somewhere between negotiating a divorce settlement, fighting for custody of her kids, and entering the gauntlet of job hunting after a decade-long absence from the workforce.
Those experiences had changed me.
Now I fought for what I wanted. I took up space. I didn’t let rich men push me around, even when they used all their little minions to do it for them so they could come out the other side with their hands clean.
“I’m the legal counsel for the Lovers Peak Charity Home Raffle,” she explained for my benefit, dark brown eyes meeting mine. “It looks like there’ve been inconsistencies with the tickets.”
David cleared his throat and produced the ticket I’d kept in my purse along with the ticket stub that Violet from the coffee shop had had us fill out after ripping the ticket off.
“Ms. Darling,” Maya continued, “it seems like you were given the ticket corresponding to Mr. Baldwin’s stub. Unfortunately, that means your claim on the prize isn’t valid, since we draw the stubs, and his details—”
“Now hold on a minute,” I interrupted, not liking the way this was going. “Don’t you mean that Mr. Baldwin’s information ended up erroneously on the stub from my ticket?”
Maya blinked. David shifted in his seat, thick fingers smoothing over his white mustache. Rhett watched me with burning eyes. I met each of their gazes in turn, not backing down.
They thought they could intimidate me?
The woman who’d stood in court and fought for her kids when her ex and his expensive lawyer tried to slander her name? The woman who’d been devalued, ignored, and made to feel small for most of her adult life? The woman who’d had to start over while taking care of her two young boys?
They had no idea who they were dealing with. I wasn’t going to lie down and invite them to walk all over me. I’d learned my lesson trying to please my husband and his family and his bosses and all the people who didn’t think I’d be able to make it without him.
Would they like me when this was over?
No.
Would I care?
Well—a little. But not enough for me to turn my back on a chance to gain stability. They might run me out of town. They might lock me out of the community here if they didn’t like my attitude, but I’d have a house. I could sell it. I could live in it. I could rent it out.
I’d have options.
For a woman who’d had to squirrel away bits of money here and there for years in order to have enough of a cushion to leave her ex-husband, options were pure gold.
I wasn’t letting this house go without a battle. And Rhett Baldwin was about to find out just how dirty I was willing to fight.
I stood, marched the two steps that separated my chair from the desk, reached across the wooden surface, and flipped my ticket over, jabbing my finger at the fine print.
“The rules say that you have to produce the winning ticket to claim your prize. Mr. Baldwin,” I asked, turning to glare at him. “Are you able to produce the ticket?”
He waved a hand, unconcerned. A king in his domain, confident of his power. His drawl was slow and mocking, as was the arch of his brow. “You know the answer to that, Darling.”
“Thank you.” I gave him a smile as sharp as the fine edge of my temper.
Turning back to the lawyer, I tapped my fingernail on the ticket.
“According to your very own rules, the important half of the document is the ticket itself.” I grabbed the scrap of paper holding my name.
“This is the document that needs to be produced to claim the prize. Not the stub.”
Maya frowned. “Well—”
“I seem to recall you grabbing that ticket out of Violet’s hands when I’d already begun the transaction,” Rhett interjected. “And there are at least a dozen witnesses.”
“And no one would dare go against the word of the great Rhett Baldwin, would they?” I shot back.
“It’s not my word against yours, Darling, it’s what happened.”
“And yet my name is on the winning ticket.”
“And mine is on the stub.”
I bared my teeth at him as rage swept through me like a swarm of angry bees.
His eyes sparked, anger flashing. Good. I wanted him angry.
I wanted him to show these people the real him.
Not the benevolent hero come to save the town.
The angry, bitter, petty little man who didn’t even have the heart to take care of an injured cat.
That was the Rhett Baldwin I was fighting. Not the man who paid for knee surgery and bought weekly jars of mango chutney.
I backed away from the desk and sat back in my chair. “So. What do you propose we do?”
The three of them looked at each other, then at me.
David cleared his throat. “Maya?”
She pursed her lips, brow creased. “This is highly unusual.”
Rhett leaned back in his chair, a king in repose, like he didn’t have a care in the world. He blinked his gaze over to me and arched his brows.
I arched mine right back.
“You’re not going to back down, are you?” he asked, sounding vaguely amused. The anger in his expression had banked, but I knew it was there, lurking under the surface. I couldn’t believe people fell for the good-guy act. He was such a liar.
I leaned on my own righteous fury and narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not backing down when I know I’m right,” I said through clenched teeth.
“This is all feeling very familiar,” he noted, and that same mocking tone danced on his tongue and lit his eyes with mirth. He was laughing at me.
Laughing at the fact that I didn’t let people cut in line ahead of me, or steal prizes out from under me. Laughing at the fact that I was a sad, weak little woman who refused to be little or weak in his presence.
I hated him. I hated him so much for trying to make me feel small, for using his might to try to bully me into backing down again.
“There’s more at stake than a blueberry muffin this time,” I ground out. My jaw was so tight I could feel the beginnings of a headache around my temples.
“So it would seem.”
“I want to know why a rich gazillionaire like you needs to steal a home out from under two young boys and their mother,” I said. “Wouldn’t that be an interesting news story?”
The spark was back in his eyes. He clenched his jaw, and I watched his throat bob with a tense swallow. “It amazes me that you pretend to be so nice with everyone else, Darling.”
“Funny, you saying that to me.”
“Folks, this is getting a little ugly,” David cut in, trying to defuse the tension in the room with an awkward chuckle. “Let’s take a breath, shall we?”
“I’m breathing just fine,” I replied, my eyes on my boss.
“Lungs are fully operational over here,” Rhett replied, gaze boring into mine.
In that moment, I knew I wouldn’t stay in this town. There was no way he’d keep me under his employ. I’d already lost the job that was meant to be my fresh start, and I was in the process of burning down my reputation in the town that was meant to be my new home.
It didn’t matter.
I’d take the house, sell it, and start somewhere new. My life had already been charred to cinder once—it didn’t bother me to think about rebuilding it again. It would be worth it, just to stand up for what I knew was right.
I’d won. It was my name on that ticket. That house was mine.
Real estate in this town was booming, and with the influx of tourists during the ski season, I wouldn’t even have to wait until summer to get a good sale price.
I could move to Heart’s Cove to be near Georgia, get a job, put some money into the boys’ college funds, and finally gain some stability.
Heck, depending on what kind of money I could get for it, it might even be enough for me to start my own business.
Georgia had just done it; she could help me. Life and freedom were within reach.
All I had to do was fight for what was right. My and my boys’ lives depended on it.
Some arrogant jerk wouldn’t stop me. Never again.
My muscles bunched, and my whole body felt coiled tight as a spring. Blood rushed in my ears, and my legs began to tremble and shake. Adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream, and I began to wonder how good it would feel to lunge across the space and claw Rhett’s black eyes right out of his face.
His hands, which had been resting on those long, powerful legs of his, curled into fists. I saw the movement from the corner of my eye as I held his gaze, noting the jumping of the muscle in his cheek and the slight tension stealing across his shoulders.
We both exploded into movement at the same time.
Instead of lunging for him, I leaped toward the desk.
My flat palm landed on top of the ticket bearing my name a fraction of a second before his.
The warmth of his large palm atop mine was a shock, as was the gusting breath and the heat pouring from his body.
As far as I was concerned, the two other people in the room didn’t exist. My awareness narrowed to the heat of his body along my front. The press of his palm on top of my hand. The fire raging in his eyes.
“Remove yourself from my personal space,” I ordered in a low voice.
“Let me see the ticket, Darling.”
“Not on your life.”
“How do I know you haven’t made a forgery?”
“Only someone with a dishonest mind would come up with that kind of ridiculous scenario.”
His jaw hardened. To my left, David cleared his throat as Maya shifted into view. It was the lawyer who spoke. “There’s no need for this kind of animosity,” she said, tone hard. “Both of you, back away.”
For one long, tension-filled moment, nobody moved.
Then Rhett scoffed and dropped back into his chair.
The instant his hand left mine, cold rushed over my skin and raised goosebumps all up my arm.
He flashed a self-deprecating and entirely false smile at the two people on the other side of the desk, giving them an aw-shucks arch of his brows. He was such a fucking fraud.
I slid my ticket across the desk and clutched it like the lifeline it was. My heart hammered against my ribs, crowding out the space that was meant for my lungs. I couldn’t get a good breath in.
Maya moved around the desk and placed herself between us. “We’ll need time to sort this out. I need to consult the terms and conditions of the raffle.” She paused, glancing at each of us. “I’d advise that you both retain your own counsel.”
A legal battle. My stomach sank, and all my dreams and plans evaporated. Because even if I won, I had no doubt that Rhett Baldwin’s pockets were deep enough to drag out the fight and bleed me dry.
Judging by the tiny, victorious curl at the very edge of Rhett’s lips, he was thinking the same thing.
But before either of us could speak, there was a crash outside the door, followed by a chilling scream. Something had happened to my boys.