Eric gaped at the guy. “The way I’m looking at her? She’s not even freaking here right now!”

They were at Wilde. Piper was down the hallway, looking at footage from one of the traffic cams near her gallery. He’d wanted her to take a look at the cars in the footage, even though all of the plates were being run by his team. Just in case something jumped out at her.

Ben was currently in his office and getting on Eric’s last nerve.

Grady was definitely in Atlanta. Simon had tracked the guy’s credit card transactions. A team was narrowing down his location.

Eric planned to be having a not-so-friendly chat with the fellow within the hour.

“You know what I’m talking about.” Ben’s eyes raked him. “Back at your house, you were all up in her space.”

Eric just gave a mocking laugh. “My house, my space.”

“You know what I mean! You were glaring at her. You were pushing her! You grabbed her shoulder and you—”

Now Eric was on his feet. “I didn’t hurt her. I would never hurt Piper.”

“That’s fucking bullshit, and we both know it. You broke her heart when she was fifteen, and you treated her like crap after that day.”

Shock rolled through Eric. “What?”

Ben marched around the desk and stood toe-to-toe with him. “You think I didn’t know? Seriously? Piper couldn’t keep a secret to save her life back then! Oh, sure, she tried. But she went from being lit up like a Christmas tree one day…to pretty much sobbing the next. I knew some jerk had broken her heart. I also knew that she used to have one hell of a crush on you. You started avoiding her like the plague—”

I wasn’t avoiding her. I was avoiding both of you—mostly because you, dear dumbass of a brother, bragged that she was your freaking first!

“I don’t know exactly what went down back then. And I don’t want to know. Whatever it was, I knew it was the end for you and Piper.”

Hardly. A beginning. A very slow beginning.

“You kept your distance from her for years, and that was great because a guy like you would just burn through her.”

He lifted his brows. “A guy like me? What the hell does that even mean?”

“You don’t get serious!” Ben practically exploded. Red stained his cheeks. “You don’t have room for anything in your life but work. Piper doesn’t want that.”