35. Grace
THIRTY-FIVE
Grace
Piper lived in a cottage a block away from Silver Linings Coffee. She opened her front door, all smiles, before I even had a chance to knock. “I had no idea you were heading back to Silver Ridge so soon. You must be feeling better, not that you let me know.”
“I’m doing well.” On our way here, I had messaged Piper to make sure she was home. But there was too much to explain to do it over the phone, and I was still trying to understand all of it myself. “I would’ve given you the heads-up sooner, but a lot has been going on.”
“I bet.” She smirked at Dane, who was right behind me. “Come in, but watch your feet. Emma and Maisie were over here earlier. The kids had a Lego party.” We walked inside, dodging toys. “I lost the living room to the mess, and I’m trying to limit the spread, but you know Ollie. He’s a force of nature. Do you want a drink?”
I had missed Piper like crazy, and I wanted to tell her everything that had happened. The good and the bad. But that would have to wait. At the moment, I had other priorities that were more pressing.
“This is going to sound strange, but do you have that purse you loaned me the night of the hotel grand opening? The red clutch.”
“Sure.” She narrowed her eyes. “But?—”
Piper’s son came barreling into the entryway. “Hi, Miss Grace!” Ollie gushed. “Will you help me build my Lego city? I poured out all the pieces I have, and Mom said it’s like a toy factory exploded in our living room!”
Piper looked at me with a silent lament, then turned back to her son. “Sweetheart, they just got here.”
“But Mama?—”
“I’d love to help you, Ollie,” Dane cut in. “I happen to be a Lego aficionado.”
Ollie eyed him suspiciously. “Who are you ?”
Piper opened her mouth, probably to scold her eight-year-old about being rude to a guest, but Dane spoke first. “I’m Grace’s boyfriend. Dane Knightly. She’ll vouch for my character.”
Piper’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline. Boyfriend ? she mouthed.
“Dane has my personal seal of approval,” I said, pushing my boyfriend toward the living room Lego disaster. “Also, Maisie is a big fan of him. Dane gave Maisie that snow globe, remember?”
That was enough to convince Ollie. As soon as they were off in the living room, I grabbed Piper’s hand and went toward her bedroom, which was at the back of the house. “Seriously, I will catch you up on what this is about. But I really need to see the purse I borrowed. It’s urgent.”
“Hey, if your boyfriend is going to entertain my kid for a while, I’ll let you take your pick from my wardrobe. Anything you want.”
“Just the red purse.”
“I don’t have many occasions to use my fancy stuff, so it’s just been sitting here since you gave it back to me.” Piper went to the closet and pulled out a plastic bin, removing the lid. There was the red clutch, right on top. Piper handed me the purse.
I held my breath as I opened the flap and looked inside.
Then my heart fell, all that anticipation fizzling out.
There was nothing but a keycard for the hotel inside. The one Dane had given me that night. Shit .
“Well, are you going to tell me what this is about? Did you find what you were looking for?”
I slumped down on the edge of Piper’s bed. “It’s not here. I can tell you, though.” I owed her an explanation. Even if I’d been wrong. “You already know about Nina Jamison.”
“Sure, the woman with the red mask who disappeared. You met her the night of the grand opening.”
When Piper and my brothers had been in New York, I’d shared everything I knew about what led to Vincent attacking me. Which, at that time, wasn’t all that much. Now, I told Piper the rest of what we knew. Including the fact that Nina had been murdered.
“That’s horrifying. But what does that have to do with the purse?”
“We learned Nina had sensitive information she was going to turn over to a reporter. Something that could implicate Knightly Global in a high-class escort ring.”
Piper whistled. “Dang.”
“And I thought maybe Nina got spooked and passed that data over to me at the ski resort hotel. When we were in the bathroom, I almost forgot my purse. She handed it to me. Today, I remembered that and thought she might’ve slipped something inside. But there’s just this hotel key. “
“She didn’t give that to you?”
“No, that was Dane. After he invited me up to his hotel suite that night to sleep with him.”
“Uh, he what ?”
Had I not told my best friend that part? Oops.
I started to laugh, which felt good. It pushed away the disappointment a little. “I didn’t even know who he was then, and I didn’t go through with it. Obviously. Since you and I left together that night.” I took the keycard out of the purse, feeling nostalgic. “But I was tempted.”
“And now?” she asked. “Last time we spoke, you were still worried about moving too fast with Dane.”
I slowly shook my head, staring at the keycard on my palm. “No more doubts about him. He’s amazing. He told me he’s in love with me, and he’s willing to move to Silver Ridge to be with me.”
She gasped, a delighted smile brightening her face. “Oh, Grace. What about how you feel? What did you tell him?”
“I—” The words evaporated from my head as I noticed what I held in my hand. Not just a single keycard for the ski resort. Two . There were two keycards here. They’d gotten stuck together. But where had the second come from?
“What’s up?” Piper asked.
I separated the two cards, examining each one closely. There was a little square of plastic taped to the back of one, about the size of my thumbnail.
A tiny data storage card.
“Holy crap,” I whispered. “I think this is it.”
“What is what ? I can’t keep up with you today.”
I pointed at the data storage card. “The secret info Nina wanted to give to the reporter. The reason she was murdered.”
Piper inhaled. “Holy crap is right. People use these in digital cameras, don’t they? I think I have a way to read this. We can see what’s on it.”
“Are you serious? Piper, I will love you forever.”
She winked at me. “Save it for the amazing Mr. Knightly.”
While Piper looked for her digital camera, I went to the living room and filled in Dane about what I’d found. A few minutes later, we were gathered around Piper. She’d managed to transfer the info from that tiny data storage card to her laptop.
“Take a look,” she said.
The first document was a list of dozens of names. Kip Knightly and Dirk Lancaster were both on it.
“My brother’s name is here,” Dane murmured when he saw. He was sitting on the couch beside me, while Ollie continued to play on the floor, and Piper looked on curiously.
“Not clear yet what this list means,” I said.
“True, but it’s not good. Open the rest of the files.”
The others were spreadsheets. Probably the books for the escort ring. Here I was, a bookkeeper, seeing the secret financials for a criminal organization. One that could implicate Dane’s family and other powerful people. It would take time to go over all of this.
There was a lot of information here. Account numbers, transfers of money. Physical addresses.
“A lot of these are addresses of Knightly Global properties,” Dane said. “Fucking hell.”
“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” I whispered. “About sharing this with police.”
“Absolutely not. We’re going to expose the truth. Whatever happens, happens.”
“Good.” But anxiety tingled in the back of my mind like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Nina had died for this information, and now my best friend had it on her computer. I didn’t want Piper or Ollie to be in danger because of this.
I asked Piper to make a copy and send it to my email. Then I told her to delete any traces from her computer. As for the data storage card, I kept that as well. Dane and I agreed we would take a closer look at everything ourselves before turning it over to law enforcement.
I gave Piper and Ollie hugs on our way out the door. My friend was nervous about what all of this meant, and so was I. “Don’t mention this to anyone,” I said. “Not even Teller. Let Dane and me handle it.”
“Okay, but if I get even the slightest hint that you’re not safe…”
“Then you can join the long line of people determined to protect me,” I teased.
I didn’t need protection from hardships. I’d been through plenty and survived. But I also didn’t resent the fact that Piper and my brothers and so many other people in my life cared about me. It was a privilege. I saw that now.
I had Dane beside me, though. A guy who wasn’t just my superhero. He made me feel like a hero too.
We were going to figure this out. Together.