“I’m not apologizing for that. I’m apologizing for trying to have a straightforward conversation with you before you’ve had your coffee.” She held out a steaming mug.

As he took it from her, he realized she was staring at something. Him. It was his chest again. She was a sucker for his chest. And he was only wearing a towel. He took a long swig from the mug and let her look.

She dragged her eyes back to his face. “I don’t understand why you haven’t fired me, and I don’t like feeling that maybe you’re keeping me on because I’m putting out.”

She might as well have slapped him. “That’s bullshit! What kind of scum do you think I am?”

“I don’t think you’re scum at all.”

“Then why would you say something like that?”

“Because I can’t think of any other reason.”

“How about this? You’re the best bouncer I have.”

Even as the words came out, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. She stared at him with the saddest face he’d ever seen, then she turned and walked away.

He stopped her as she snatched up her messenger bag to leave. “You are, Piper. But that’s not why I didn’t fire you.” Hot coffee splashed on the back of his hand and he sucked it off. “I meant to fire you,” he said, setting down his mug. “You made a big mistake, and I’ve been pissed. But the thing is... You’re the underdog who’s willing to work twice as hard as anybody else. And those have always been the kinds of players I like best on my team.”

Until that moment, he hadn’t been able to articulate it, even to himself, but now that he’d said it, he felt better.

She looked a little starry-eyed, which he liked, and then troubled, which he didn’t like. “I appreciate that,” she said. “But the brutal fact is that I’m no closer to getting to the bottom of this than I was when you hired me. And I have no idea what to do next.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because that’s what you do.”

***

Coop’s faith put a knot in her throat the size of a football. She carried it with her all weekend. She couldn’t fail him. She couldn’t. But then she wondered if her determination to prove herself to Coop was all that different from her never-ending battle to win Duke’s approval. No, it was different. Duke’s misguided fear for her safety had kept him from giving her the opportunity she’d craved—the opportunity he’d raised her to take on. Unlike her father, Coop had given her the chance Duke had withheld, and she couldn’t disappoint him.