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“So?”
She gapes at me. “So,as a good friend, I have to go help her.”
“You’ve helped her again and again. It doesn’t seem to take.”
“What do you suggest I do then?” she argues. “Just let her fall off the face of the earth?”
I shrug. “Sounds fitting to me. No one will miss her.”
Piper shoots lasers at me. “I think you’re mistaking Ashley for yourself. No one would miss you because you’re manipulative and cruel. Ashley is different.”
I give her a sarcastic slow clap. “So eloquent. So persuasive.‘Different.’You’ve really changed my mind about the woman who uses you as a permanent bail bondsman and then forces you to confirm how much you love and adore her at every opportunity.”
“Shut up.”
“I heard you on the phone, comforting her, assuring her she’s your very bestest friend. It’s pathetic.”
“Shut. Up,” she repeats, acid in her voice now.
“The truth can be uncomfortable.”
“What’s uncomfortable is that you think you know everything!” Piper cries out. “You don’t. Ashley is going through a hard time, but she was there for me when I needed someone. She was a good friend to me. She was loyal and caring. She was dependable.”
“Was.”
Piper shakes her head in confusion. “What?”
“Past tense,” I say. “You said Ashley ‘was’ all those things. You and I know better than most that relationships change. Someone who used to be your parent suddenly isn’t. Someone who used to be worth your time is now a drug-addicted parasite sucking you dry.”
Piper mashes her lips together, trying to drum up a response to refute my incredibly solid point. In the end, she can’t.
She spins around and keeps digging through her purse. “Leave me alone. I’m going to go help my friend and then I’ll be back. Benjamin is asleep and I’ll ask one of the maids to keep an ear out for him. Don’t worry—your nanny will be back before work hours begin.”
“I’m not worried.”
“How sweet,” she says sarcastically. “It’s good to know you care about your employees.”
“I’m not worried because you’re not going.”
She twirls around, green eyes wide. “I’m not a prisoner here. You can’t chain me up and throw away the key.”
I arch a brow. “I can do whatever I want with you. I’ve made that perfectly clear.”
Piper flicks her auburn hair over her shoulder defiantly. “I’m going.”
“No, you’re not.”
She grunts in frustration. “One of my best friends is sitting in a fucking crack house right now! She’s vulnerable and alone. You can’t expect me to leave her there.”
God, this woman and her bleeding heart. It must be exhausting.
“I expect you to take care of Benjamin. That’s what I’m paying you for. Ashley doesn’t factor into my plans at all.”
She turns away from me and drops her phone in her purse. “I don’t care what you say. I’m going to go get my friend.”
I’m across the room in a second. Piper gasps as I toss her back on the bed and loom over her. “I’m not going to stand aside and watch you throw away your life for a woman who would never do the same for you.”
She frowns. “You don’t know—”
