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“Why, that’s just none of your business, Mr. Booker,” she informed him with all the sweet Southern-belle charm she could inject into her tone. “I guess you’ll just have to find some other way of satisfying your curiosity. ”
“I can pick the lock on your door,” he told her then. “I’ll steal the damned thing. ”
“Even if it’s you I’m thinking of when I use it?”
She disconnected the call.
Tightening her thighs as her clit pulsed in time with the throb of need in her vagina, Piper covered her face and fought back the highly unwise action of answering the phone again as it buzzed repeatedly.
This was dangerous.
Jed was far too dangerous.
She might be as bold and just as damned adventurous as any Mackay, but Piper liked to think that unlike her older sister, she also had enough common sense to keep from jumping into the fire.
Nope, the frying pan suited her just fine.
Pulling in a deep breath, she finished packing the suitcase and garment bag she’d chosen to take to New York with her.
She would catch the train in Louisville, and once she got to New York City she’d rent a car.
She didn’t much care for driving in Manhattan, but sometimes a girl just had to do what a girl had to do. If she dared to rent a car in Somerset or in Louisville, then the chances were far too great that Dawg would find out. He had too many friends in far too many places. And she knew firsthand that he was on a first-name basis with every reputable car-rental agency in a five-county radius.
That meant just getting to New York City without her brother or her family learning she’d left would be chancy enough.
Luckily, there was one friend she could depend on.
She couldn’t tell her mother, her sisters, Tim, her brother or cousins, or her nearby friends or neighbors—she sighed at the thought of it—but she’d managed to make a few friends among the tourists who traveled through Somerset each summer and stopped at the small boutique her designs sold in. Once they sold, it wasn’t unusual for the buyers to contact her, interested in other unique wardrobe items. From those buyers, she had made several friends.
Those tourists didn’t live in Kentucky, and they had no idea how powerful her brother thought he was. A quick call to one of them, Amy Seavers, had resulted in a fake ID and a train ticket, as well as a ride to the train station.
She was all set and ready to go. All she had to do was slip out with her bags and be waiting at the designated location when Amy’s sister, Gypsy, arrived.
Blowing out a hard breath, Piper glanced at the patio doors, her heart beating hard and fast with the thought that Jed didn’t make idle threats. There was no doubt in her mind that he knew exactly how to pick the locks on her doors. There was no doubt he would pick them if he were in the right mood.
She rather doubted he’d learned that trick in the construction business. Just as she doubted her sister’s fiancé, Brogan Campbell, was slipping into the upper story of the inn in the middle of the night because he missed anyone there.
Hell, no. Those nights Piper had watched the shadowed figure easily pull himself to the second-floor balcony and slip through the glass doors that led to Tim’s office, she’d known exactly why he was there.
Timothy liked to tell anyone and everyone who dared to ask that he was retired. Learn the definition of the word, he’d growled at the lawyer who’d shown up several weeks before in regard to the deaths of several suspected homeland terrorists the summer before.
Piper had heard the words “Eve” . . . “kidnapping” . . . “boat,” and “Campbell” just before he dared to say, “Special Agent Cranston. ”
She bit back a smile at the thought of how quickly Tim had cut him down and informed him in no uncertain terms that retirement was a glorious thing.
Retirement, her ass. Timothy, or Tim as she and her sisters often called him, was about as retired as Dawg and her cousins were. Just retired enough to be able to claim they weren’t involved in anything, but involved enough to ensure they all knew exactly what was going on in their little corner of the world.
Closing the cases quickly, Piper moved to the closet and stored them out of sight, just in case Jed decided to make a midnight visit.
If he saw her bags and realized they were packed, he would immediately demand to know where she was going. Once he knew . . . hell, she may as well take out an ad.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Jed would tell Dawg just as fast as he could make the call. Then Dawg and her cousins would arrive and insist on accompanying her.
If she allowed it to happen.
There wasn’t a chance in hell she would allow it, she thought wearily. The very thought of it was enough to send a shudder racing through her body.
She closed the door and moved toward the bed, then came to a hard stop.
