Chapter Twelve
Emmett
A message that said do not bring police was the fastest way to make Emmett want police, lawyers, security, and Griffin carrying something heavy.
Piper wanted to bring herself.
“No,” Emmett said.
Her eyes narrowed across the dining table.
He heard the mistake immediately.
The problem was that hearing it did not make the instinct disappear.
Sasha Reid had helped Owen stage false footage, manipulate the livestream, leak private information, and manufacture a relationship that now had Emmett suspended from hockey. She was either terrified enough to betray Owen or part of the next trap.
Neither possibility placed Piper inside a roadside motel room.
Emmett tried again.
“I do not think you should go.”
“That was the same sentence with softer packaging.”
“It was an opinion.”
“It sounded like an order wearing a cardigan.”
Tyler looked toward Beckett. “That is excellent.”
Griffin pointed toward the kitchen.
Both men left without arguing, which confirmed the situation had become serious.
Piper stood beside the table holding her phone. Sasha’s final message remained on the screen.
COME BEFORE DARK. DO NOT brING POLICE. IF I AM NOT THERE, OWEN FOUND ME FIRST.
Maren folded her arms. “I agree with Emmett.”
Piper looked betrayed. “You are supposed to provide balanced friendship.”
“I am balancing friendship with not getting you murdered at a motel.”
“No one is getting murdered.”
“Excellent,” Emmett said. “Then there is no reason to go.”
Piper turned toward him. “She has evidence.”
“We have evidence.”
“We have proof that Owen staged one video and accessed my business accounts. We do not know what else he created or who helped him.”
“We know Sasha helped him.”
“Which is why she may know where everything is.”
A muscle moved in Emmett’s cheek.
Piper saw it.
“You promised to let me make decisions.”
“I promised not to make them for you.”
“This feels similar.”
“It feels like not wanting you alone with someone who admits she helped destroy your life.”
“I am not going alone.”
“You are not going.”
The words escaped before he could stop them.
Piper became very still.
Everyone else did too.
Emmett closed his eyes briefly.
Progress was not linear.
When he opened them, Piper was waiting.
Not angry yet.
Worse.
Disappointed.
He stepped closer but stopped before entering her space.
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to meet her.”
“Why?”
“Because this is my business, my messages, and my reputation. Owen built the entire story around me while everyone else decided what I needed to know.”
Emmett absorbed the reminder.
He was not Owen.
That did not mean he could never behave like him.
“What conditions would make it safe enough?” he asked.
Piper’s expression shifted.
Maren looked mildly impressed.
Griffin looked less convinced.
“We tell Daniel where we are going,” Piper said. “We share our location. Griffin and Nate follow us but stay out of sight unless we need them.”
“Local police,” Emmett added.
“Sasha said no police.”
“She also helped fabricate evidence that got me suspended. Her instructions are not controlling the safety plan.”
Piper considered it.
“Daniel can notify someone nearby without sending officers into the room.”
“Agreed.”
“You do not speak for me.”
“Agreed.”
“You do not threaten Sasha.”
Emmett paused.
Piper lifted one eyebrow.
“I will not threaten her.”
“Convincing.”
“I can make Griffin stand between us.”
Griffin looked toward the ceiling. “Leadership continues to expand.”
Piper picked up her bag.
“We leave in five minutes.”
Emmett caught Griffin’s attention while Piper and Maren gathered the laptops.
“If anything feels wrong, we leave.”
Piper turned from across the room.
“I heard that.”
“It was not private.”
“You were using your teammate voice.”
“I have one voice.”
“You have at least four.”
Tyler appeared from the kitchen. “I have catalogued seven.”
“No one asked,” Emmett said.
“I recognize that tone as number three.”
Griffin pushed Tyler back through the doorway.
Five minutes later, Piper drove away from the lake house with Emmett in the passenger seat.
He disliked the arrangement.
Not because he doubted her driving.
Because every part of him wanted control over the vehicle taking her toward danger.
Piper noticed him checking the mirrors.
“Griffin is behind us.”
“I know.”
“Nate is behind Griffin.”
“I know.”
“Daniel contacted the county sheriff.”
“I know.”
“You are still planning an escape route.”
“Yes.”
She glanced toward him. “Do you do that on dates too?”
“We have had one date.”
“You checked the dock for boats before I arrived.”
“There were three.”
“You counted.”
“Yes.”
“That is deeply unsettling.”
“You liked the lanterns.”
“I contain contradictions.”
The highway curved through dense woods beyond Lake Briar. Late afternoon sunlight flashed between the trees. Sasha’s motel was thirty-eight minutes away, close to the interstate and far enough from town that no one would accidentally discover her there.
Piper tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
Emmett noticed.
He noticed everything about her now that pretending not to had become pointless.
“You can still change your mind,” he said.
“So can you.”
“I am not leaving you to go alone.”
“That is not what I meant.”
He looked at her.
Piper kept her eyes on the road.
“The bet was created by Owen,” she said. “The envelope. The donor. The livestream clip. Maybe the entire situation.”
“We do not know about the donor.”
“We are about to.”
Her voice remained controlled, but the strain underneath it was becoming easier to hear.
“What if none of this was ours?” she asked.
Emmett understood the question.
Not only the fake relationship.
The first photograph. The dates. The public attention that forced them closer before either had time to decide what closeness meant.
“Owen created the circumstances,” Emmett said.
“That is not an answer.”
“No. He did not create what happened inside them.”
Piper glanced at him.
“The lanterns?”
“Mine.”
“The chicken?”
“Mine.”
“The embarrassing knowledge of my eating habits?”
“Also mine.”
“The feelings?”
He held her gaze for one second before she returned her attention to the road.
“Mine.”
Piper swallowed.
“What if I only continued because I was angry with him?”
“Then you can stop.”
“What if I do not want to?”
Emmett’s pulse changed.
He remained still.
Piper gave him a quick look. “You could react.”
“I am trying not to frighten the driver.”
“That is considerate.”
“You said you do not want to stop.”
“I said what if.”
“Strategic wording.”
“I plan events.”
“That is becoming less effective as an excuse.”
Her mouth curved.
The smile faded as quickly as it came.
“I do not know what part belongs to us,” she admitted.
Emmett looked through the windshield at the empty road ahead.
“We choose the next part.”
Piper’s fingers loosened slightly around the steering wheel.
“That sounded romantic.”
“It was logistical.”
“Liar.”
“Yes.”
The motel appeared beyond a faded gas station and a diner advertising pie at all hours. Two rows of exterior rooms faced a cracked parking lot. A flickering blue sign read PINE REST MOTOR LODGE, though no pine trees were visible.
Piper slowed.
Griffin’s SUV continued past the entrance.
Nate followed twenty seconds later.
They would circle and park near the diner.
Emmett scanned the motel lot.
Seven vehicles.
A white work van.
Two older sedans.
A motorcycle.
A dark SUV parked near the office.
Room fourteen sat near the far end of the ground floor.
The curtains were closed.
Piper parked three rooms away with the SUV facing the exit.
“Good,” Emmett said.
She turned off the engine. “What?”
“You parked for a fast departure.”
“I plan disasters professionally.”
“You plan events.”
“Same people, different exits.”
They climbed out.
Emmett checked the dark SUV.
No one visible.
Piper noticed.
“You promised not to threaten Sasha.”
“I did not promise not to observe vehicles.”
“That sentence sounds precriminal.”
He moved beside her as they approached room fourteen.
Not in front.
Beside.
Piper knocked.
Nothing.
She tried again.
“Sasha? It is Piper.”
A chain shifted behind the door.
The curtain moved by a fraction.
Then the door opened three inches.
Sasha’s face appeared in the gap.
She looked younger than she had in the event photographs. Mid-twenties, perhaps. Her dark hair was pulled into a loose ponytail. Mascara shadowed the skin beneath her eyes.
She looked past Piper toward Emmett.
“You brought him.”
“Yes,” Piper said.
“I said no police.”
“He is suspended, not law enforcement.”
Sasha did not smile.
“I need to see your phones.”
Piper folded her arms. “No.”
“Owen tracks devices.”
“He has access to mine,” Piper said. “We already know.”
“You know about the laptop?”
“Yes.”
Sasha’s face changed.
“What else do you know?”
“That you staged the parking lot footage, changed the envelopes, and helped leak the agreement.”
The chain remained in place.
Sasha’s gaze moved toward the parking lot.
“He knows I contacted you.”
“You wrote that.”
“No. He knows now.”
Emmett looked toward the dark SUV.
It had not moved.
“How?” he asked.
Sasha’s eyes filled with fear.
“He called my mother.”
Piper’s expression hardened.
“What did he say?”
“That I stole from him. That police were looking for me. He asked whether she knew where I was.”
“Does she?”
“No.”
“Then let us inside,” Emmett said.
Sasha looked at him.
“You hit him.”
“Yes.”
Piper glanced toward Emmett.
He kept his voice calm.
“I will not touch you. I need to see the room before we stand in the parking lot discussing this.”
Sasha closed the door.
The chain slid free.
She opened it.
The motel room smelled like stale air conditioning and coffee. Clothes covered one chair. A suitcase stood open on the floor. Two laptops sat on the small table beneath the television.
Emmett checked the bathroom and the connecting door.
Locked.
No one inside.
Piper remained near Sasha.
“You are safe for the next few minutes,” she said. “Tell us what Owen built.”
Sasha looked at Emmett again.
“You are not recording?”
Piper removed her phone and placed it on the bed.
“Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“You understand we may need your statement later.”