1. Piper #2
A message came through on Snug—the only social media app I trusted. It was created by an acquaintance of mine, Declan Byrne, and had an excellent security system. I clawed at my phone to check it. Finally, the news I’d been waiting for from Trent, tagging me and all of our friends.
All of Nana Dee’s scans came back clear. It’s just a bad sprain. She thinks she fell because she skipped breakfast and was lightheaded. They’re going to keep her till tomorrow just to be safe.
I let out a sigh of relief. Now that I knew she was okay, the tension in my temples eased a bit.
I finally reached the top floor and strode off the elevator. Summit Fragrances buzzed with activity, no doubt because we were on the cusp of a major reveal.
Well, if I could do my goddamned job we would be.
My assistant Linda was waiting for me. She frowned as she studied me, like she could tell I’d already had a rough morning.
“Good morning, Vincent,” she said as she fell in step beside me. “The R&D team is waiting for you in the main conference room. I have a few revisions to your schedule today I’d like to go over, the most important being—”
My phone rang, and I grabbed it out of my pocket, holding up a finger to Linda.
“Gimme two minutes,” I muttered as I stepped into an empty conference room to take the call. “Please,” I added as I shut the door.
During an internal review, a few of my employees had been brave enough to say—anonymously, of course—that I can be “abrupt.” Yeah, that was my approach to life since time is money, but if I wanted to retain my staff, I had to at least try to play nice. So I was working on that…when I remembered.
The phone call was from Paul, my college roommate and another one of the “Lost Boys” Nana Dee had adopted.
I skipped the pleasantries. “Did you get the message from Trent?”
“Hi to you too,” Paul laughed. “I did. Such great news. Now we’ll have another reason to toast tonight, even if she can’t be with us.”
I paused, trying to remember what he was talking about.
“Please tell me you didn’t forget about my engagement party.”
Fuck. Yeah, it’d slipped my mind, but I wasn’t about to let on. “Of course not. I’ve got way too much on my plate at the moment. Someone hit my new car just now.”
“The McLaren?”
I half smiled—I purchased cars like other people bought gallons of milk. “No, the Bugatti.”
“D’oh! That’s brand-brand new.”
“Exactly, like as of yesterday,” I sighed as the shitty driver’s stunning face resurfaced in my mind.
My tastes usually leaned toward glamazon, but something about the petite beauty took my breath away.
The combination of her bright blonde hair, dark eyes and freckles was downright adorable.
And when she’d turned away to look at her damaged car, I’d stolen a few seconds to check out the rest of her.
Adorable with a body that was sexy as fuck. A lethal combination.
“Well, throw some money at the damage, make the problem disappear, and you’ll be good to go,” Paul laughed.
“I wish that was the only problem on my plate. I still can’t find enough heliotrope for Evermore.”
Our new fragrance was my passion project, and my attempt to do something no other perfumer had achieved—distilling heliotrope into an oil I could infuse in Evermore, the final fragrance in our Trio of Time collection.
The two prior fragrances, Then and Now, had set new company records, and our customers were clamoring for the final fragrance in the set.
And Evermore was going to be special: I wasn’t satisfied using a lab-created version of heliotrope like the rest of the fragrance world. I wanted the real thing.
But first, I needed a source for it. A blossom blight across the country had led to a shortage, so finding enough was nearly impossible.
Thanks to the cover story in the New York Times Magazine, I’d already publicly committed to being the first perfumer to distill heliotrope, and I was confident our chemists could do it.
I just needed to find enough of the damn plant first.
“Well, the rest of the guys are coming…Maybe you can drink your troubles away tonight,” Paul said. “You bringing Maya?”
I could hear reluctance in his voice. I knew he wasn’t a fan of my supermodel girlfriend. Neither was I, anymore—which was why she was now my ex-girlfriend. “We broke up a while back. I thought I told you that?”
“My dude, we haven’t had a real conversation in ages.”
“Hey, don’t blame me, you’re all wrapped up in wedding planning,” I grumbled.
“True, true.” Paul sighed. “It’s…a lot.”
“Well, tonight I hope we can all focus on being happy for you and Chloe.”
I could fake it for the night. Pretend life was good and that I believed true love was real.
Even though I knew better.
The call wrapped up not long after that, and Linda was still waiting for me when I left the conference room. She walked me through what amounted to a punishing schedule.
“I need two more things, Linda,” I said as we paused outside my first meeting of the day. “First, call Adrienne at Bastille Flowers and order the Grande Soleil arrangement for Nana Dee. Pinks, creams, and peaches only. She’s at Northpoint Hospital.”
She nodded but refrained from asking questions.
“Second, have the security footage from my parking spot sent to me, starting at eight forty-five this morning and ending…” I glanced at my phone. “Ending now.”
She raised an eyebrow as she took notes on her iPad.
“And have maintenance look into what happened to my reserved parking sign. It’s missing.”
I turned to head into the meeting and realized Mr. Abrupt had done it yet again.
“Thank you, Linda. I appreciate it.”
Her blank expression transformed into an amused smile. “You’re welcome, Vincent!”
I walked into the conference room, and all conversation stopped.
“Good morning, team. I hope you have good news for me,” I said as I took my seat at the head of the table.
Dwayne Washington, our lead chemist, sputtered as everyone turned to look at him.
“We have momentum,” he offered. “The team and I put together a video of our latest distillation efforts, and I think you’ll be intrigued.”
“Folks, I want to be successful, not intrigued. The clock is ticking here.”
“We understand that.” Dwayne cleared his throat. “Let me just hit play, and I think you’ll see what I mean.” He fiddled with the iPad that controlled the white board. “Whoops, connection error,” he laughed nervously. “Gimme a few seconds here. Rachel, can you help troubleshoot?”
They mumbled to one another as they tried to figure out what was wrong, which gave me time to check the email that had just come in from Linda.
The security footage. Proof that I absolutely was not to blame. I pushed play and squinted at the screen.
There was my gorgeous Bugatti, idling just beyond my spot so I could back into it. The blonde bomber’s battered old car slid into view and started easing into the spot. My reverse lights flicked on after she was already well on her way.
Had she looked over at me? Had I looked back? It was impossible to say who was responsible for the collision, but the footage looked damning enough for me to admit maybe I’d blamed her too quickly.
Not that I’d ever tell her that.
I placed a quick call to Doug Fogel, my head of security.
“You still dealing with the car stuff?” I asked.
“Yes sir.”
“Okay, I don’t care how obnoxious she is, just pay for everything,” I said, knowing he’d understand exactly what I meant. “Shut-up-and-go-away money. I don’t want to have to deal with that woman again.”
“On it,” he answered quickly.
“One more thing,” I said as the idea took root. “I want her to admit she was in the wrong.”
“Uh…excuse me?”
“Find a way to get her to admit she made a mistake. She crashed into me. Imply that it’s a stipulation for the payout. It’s not, of course, but I want her to say the words.”
I didn’t elaborate because I didn’t have to. My word was law.
“Okay, Mr. Forde,” Doug said haltingly. “You got it.”
I reminded myself to be courteous. “Thank you.”
I hung up, satisfied that of all the things in my life I couldn’t control, at least I’d never have to deal with Manhattan’s worst driver ever again.