Piper had glared right at the man and slapped him right back for the woman. A little of Harper had been in that hit, that day. They had both watched with satisfaction as he’d stumbled backwards a step and held his own hand to his face, much the same way his own wife had done, just seconds before. Then had told him to leave or she would call the police. He’d come at her and she’d reminded him of the security camera’s in the court yard, evidence he’d hit his wife first, he’d stalked off.
Caroline was still with him 2 years later. Although she now drank at work, Piper had never seen any bruising on the woman to indicate any further abuse from her husband and she did note that when he was here they were out in the courtyard, used those camera’s to her advantage now.
It was not Piper’s place to get involved, though she had told Caroline if she ever needed assistance that her door was always open. Never had used it though.
Piper let herself into her office via the back stairs and called down to Izzy to let her know she was in the store and setting up for her appointment. Izzy strolled up stairs and into her office 10 minutes later with a hot coffee and sank down on the chair across from Piper, just looked right at her for a solid minute.
“What is it, Izzy?” she knew that look.
“Regular walk by’s going on. Two rather largish men, not uncharacteristic of Mr Drake himself, about every 2 hours or so. They think I’ve not noticed them.” she shook her head.
“Observant as always Izzy.” it was expected that she would notice, Izzy had her own family issues going on and when she’d first started working for Piper, had found herself under her own father’s watchmen.
Though that had stopped a long time ago now.
So this was about her, though which Pack those two men belonged to she had no idea. “Did you recognise them?” Piper asked out of simple curiosity.
“Not the same two that came in before.” she sipped her coffee “Though that blonde one, mm, yummy to look at.”
“Blonde one?” she questioned further.
“Mm, he’s about 6 foot 2, wearing a nice pair of dark blue jeans today and a well fitted white tee-shirt, don’t know what it is about him. But he gets my attention every time he strolls on by.”
Hm, likely Edward the Gamma of her former pack, all women were drawn to him, and his Gamma Charm, lucky for Izzy that, that man had stayed outside. “Don’t get close to that man. Edward is his name. A real charmer, you’d be in his bed before you realised it.” she warned Izzy.
The woman did have a type, blonde and buffed up, which is exactly what Edward was.
“How do you know them, Piper?”
“I used to work for Drake Industries, before I came out here. Left.” she thought about that for a moment “Without permission, I guess you could say.”
Piper had thought about how to explain all this to Izzy, who she knew was going to come in here and ask questions at some point. She was her closest friend, hell her only real friend. The woman was trustworthy and a good employee. She had helped Piper out a lot when Brandon was little and so Piper paid her well above the standard award. Izzy was likely not going anywhere. Would still be around for years to come, Piper was actually thinking about bringing the woman on as a partner, before she moved on to run the up-coming store about to open in Australia.
That job came with a lot of perks; a company car, a pay raise, an apartment for the first year, travel expenses and moving expenses. Izzy wanted to go, Piper couldn’t deny her that. She had worked hard and earned it. Would miss her like crazy, though right this minute her and Brandon’s three-month stay in Australia for the opening of the store might just roll into a full move if things didn’t settle down and go back to normal around here.
“You can leave a job anytime you like. What’s the big deal?” Izzy asked.
“Drake Industries, once you’re in, it’s usually for life. The boss has to approve your leaving. It’s a bit weird I know.” she waved her hand at Izzy to stop the next bunch of questions “You kind of sign your life away when you sign up to the new boss.”
“And you left without…permission. Broke your contract?”
“No, I just left and didn’t tell anyone…” she shrugged “that man, the first one to come into the store, Cooper is his name, Mr Drakes, second in command of the company. Likely recognised me and report me to his employer or something like that.”. It was not the truth. He’d not recognised her but this would allow Izzy some closure.
“So, you are in trouble?”
“No, they actually can’t do anything to me, other than harass me at this point.”
“Your life is weird Piper,” she shook her head, “though a guaranteed job for life, that is some neat security.”
“And your life wasn’t weird?” Piper smiled at her. She knew it did sound nice to humans, a guaranteed job for life. They however, didn’t have to put up with random rogue attacks, enemy pack attacks and being tossed onto the front line by their Alpha to defend and die for his pack at his will any time he liked. They did not have to loose family members to those things, be left abandoned to fend for yourself when your parents died and there was no-one else around to look after you.
“I can only hope, you’re smart enough not to get involved with Mr Yummy, Izzy.”
Saw Izzy laugh “I’m not likely to. Mr Yummy can hang out in my dreams, while I work on that promotion to Australia.”
“You already have that promotion.” Piper smiled at her.
“Mr Yummy ain’t likely to move now, is he, so I’ll stay away.” she stood up “I’ll send Avalon up when she gets here. It shouldn’t be too long now.”
“Thank you Izzy, and no, he’s not likely to move from Montana, ever.” she told the woman. “Sorry.”
“No biggie.” Izzy shrugged and headed back down stairs.
Piper sighed, guess coming in the back was a good idea, had roaming patrols waiting on her out the front of the store. Guess she really had ticked him off, didn’t like being told no. Well, now he got to see what it was like, to not get what you want.
Bloody Alpha’s always used to getting everything they wanted. It was about time one of them learned that life wasn’t actually fair. That you couldn’t just have what you wanted even if it was yours.
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