AllFreeNovel
Share Us
***
At five on Friday evening, Piper met Jen and Amber at Big Shoulders. It was one of their favorite places, with good coffee, friendly baristas, and Carl Sandburg’s poetry painted on the wall.
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat . . .
Piper hadn’t seen her friends for two weeks, and she’d been looking forward to this all day, but Jen was uncharacteristically glum. “Dumb Ass called me into his office and asked me how I felt about getting a face-lift.”
Amber Kwan smacked the flat of her hand on the table hard enough to rattle her cup of house-blended tea. “Your face is perfect,” she exclaimed. “Ask him how he feels about a sexual discrimination lawsuit!”
Hearing the soft-spoken opera singer speak so vehemently made Piper laugh, and even Jen smiled, but only for a moment. “I’m trapped,” she said. “I don’t want to leave the city, and what other local station is going to hire a forty-two-year-old meteorologist?”
The early October days were getting shorter, and a streetlight came on outside the window. “Maybe you need to remind him how many over-forty women are watching the news,” Piper said. “How does he think they’ll react if they hear about the kind of discrimination you’re facing?”
“Yeah, that’d work, all right,” Jen scoffed. “He’d twist the story against me while he replaced me with someone younger, prettier, and cheaper. After that, I’m sure every male-owned station in town would jump at the opportunity to hire a known whistle-blower.”
She had a point.
Amber distracted Jen with the latest gossip from the Lyric. Without Berni shooting her threatening looks, Amber was funny and relaxed. Piper made up her mind to talk to Berni about her attitude, whether Amber wanted her to or not. Then she dropped the bombshell about what she’d seen in Lincoln Square.
Amber and Jen peppered her with questions, none of which she could answer because, two days ago, she’d let an overweight senior wearing a foam cheesehead get away from her.
Buffy interrupted. It was Coop, and she excused herself to take the call. “What’s up, boss?” Boss, not lover.
“Logan Stray.”
“The teen pop star?”
“He’s not a teen any longer. He’s coming to the club tonight to celebrate his twenty-first birthday, and you’re on guard duty.”
“I’m not a bodyguard, remember?”
“Tonight you are. Nothing’s going to happen to that little putz’s ninety-million-dollar body on my turf.”
“Doesn’t he have his own security?”
“Pop star bodyguards aren’t good at saying ‘no’ to the kid who signs their paychecks. I want someone around who reports to me. The club doesn’t need bad publicity.”
“You’re already getting some.” She filled him in on the message board post she’d uncovered that afternoon.
He wasn’t happy. “Stay on top of it. I don’t want to give Deidre any excuse to walk away from this deal.”
“I understand. The post probably came from somebody who got turned away at the door, but I’ll keep a close eye out.”
“Real close.”
A blender whirred on a few feet away. She stuck her finger in her ear so she could hear the rest of what he was saying. “Wear that blue dress tonight, and try to look sexy. As far as Logan and his crew are concerned, you’re a special hostess.”
“That makes me sound like a hooker.”
“As soon as he sees you, he’ll know you aren’t.”
She couldn’t decide if that was a compliment.
***
Logan Stray and his posse showed up just after midnight. The pop star was barely Piper’s height but looked even smaller next to his hulking bodyguards. His black knit cap revealed a fringe of dirty-blond hair complemented by a scraggly soul patch. His dark-framed sunglasses were unnecessary in the dim light of the VIP lounge, and she stifled a grin as he bumped into a table. He might be cool, but he definitely wasn’t smart.
