Chapter 10

MARI

Music rattled the windows in Pierce's old home and I danced around in his living room, two songs away from getting my own reality TV dancing show. Man, it had been years since I'd had good speakers and a reasonable sound system. In San Francisco I was too stuck up to listen to loud music. If anyone asked, I told them I only listened to NPR News and for music, I enjoyed a classical selection.

Lies. Lies. Lies.

In reality I sported a thing for Britney Spears. Justin Timberlake was my man. Anyone who carried a beat in the nineties was still singing me along into the new millennium. With the no one around to judge me once Pierce and Oliver had left for the day, I was free to partake in whatever music I wanted. My life lacked this freedom for way too long. Now that I had it, I didn't want to let it go.

I clutched the speaker mount in one hand and did a quick moon walk back into the kitchen, ready to grab a glass of water when my back hit something solid but not hard.

I screamed and jumped in a circle, facing whoever had caught me at my most embarrassing moment. Let it be someone here to stab me and put me out of my misery rather than live through this awkwardness. Please not Oliver.

A woman, tall with blonde hair and green eyes stared at me as if I was the one breaking and entering into her home.

I switched off the music and stepped back, trying to gather my breath while holding the speaker up, ready to throw it at her if she made one wrong move. "Who are you?" I asked as soon as possible when it was obvious she wouldn't shoot me on sight.

"Crap," the woman said as she fiddled with her hair in a high ponytail on top of her head. "I thought Pierce would be here. I was just delivering the rent check."

"You just normally walking into your landlord's home without knocking?" Sure, I had the music loud, but I would have heard a knock. More than likely.

Her eyes widened with my question and she took a step back as if she was getting ready to flee.

"The door was unlocked," she said with a quick shrug. "Usually, I just leave it on the table for Pierce with a note."

What town did he live in that people left the doors to their mansions unlocked and let their renters drop off checks whenever they wanted? Pierce said people in this town hated him, but he definitely did not take any precautions for a man receiving death threats.

"So you're the woman who is going to marry Pierce?"

Game time. "Yup." I smiled but only lowered the speaker a bit. I'd still chuck it at her if this conversation went south.

She cocked her head to the side and stared at me deeper. "Why?"

Pierce prepared me for questions and even warned me to grow thick skin for what people in this town would say about him, but for whatever reason her simple question caught me off guard. "Excuse me?"

She shook her head, as if clearing the fog away. "Sorry, I guess I just assumed you were fake, but you look normal."

I laugh. "I am, real as can be." Even the boobs were what God gave me. "I'm Mari. I didn't catch your name." Mainly because she hadn't given it.

"Right," the strange woman said sticking her hand out for me to shake. "I'm Katy. I rent one house across the street." We'd met her my first day in town when Pierce took me to the bakery. No way I'd forgotten the cookie dropper.

"Another one on the beach?" The coast of Pelican Bay was dotted with large homes.

Katy laughed and in that moment all the times I heard her name in the past came rushing at me. I leaned away from her, trying not to look alarmed. This woman sent Pierce death threats. She led the opposition of his buying the bed-and-breakfast? Why would he rent her a home so close to his own? Although after meeting her in person, I saw why he didn't take the situation as seriously as he should.

No one would describe Katy as skinny, but she wasn't big either. With her bright kind eyes and friendly expression, she didn't resemble a threat.

"No, one of the small ones across the road from the water. It still has a magnificent view. Pierce owns like seventy-five percent of the town, so he rents out most of the places."

"I was under the impression it was just businesses downtown and he owned a few rentals here and there?" We visited and bought something from every single one on my introduction to Pelican Bay.

"Nope," Katy said popping the P in the word. "It's pretty much everything."

I itched to ask her questions on the bed-and-breakfast to see if the reason she didn't want Pierce to own it was because she assumed he owned too much as it was. But we were having such a pleasant conversation, and I didn't want to ruin it.

"I'm still learning the city and figuring out Pierce's schedule," I said. It sounded like something a dutiful fiancée would say about the man she's getting ready to marry. Wouldn't I be wrapped up in all things Pierce?

It was the best I could come up with in my limited time restraint. I didn't have much experience with being in a relationship. My last relationship was with Trey in San Francisco, and we did whatever we wanted until we had to come together for an event or the odd chance we both had a night off together. I thought it was the perfect relationship, but I'd been confused. It wasn't a relationship at all, just both of us filling in for a play we didn't audition for.

"Where are you from?" Katy asked. An innocent enough question, but I didn't want to answer because it could give so much away. If anyone in town pried too deeply, a lot of skeletons might fall out of my closet—some of them through quick Google searches.

"Well, I just returned from Guatemala. I've spent the last two years helping to secure clean water to the outlying villages in the southern regions of the country."

Katy ground her teeth together, and it looked as if she was visibly trying not to roll her eyes. "Great," she said around a hasty laugh. "So, you're gorgeous and selfless."

My face fell with her remark. She was the first person I'd met who didn't shower praise on me for what we did in Guatemala. I'd moved there originally to get away from the states and the turmoil, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the people. I was doing something good with my life. It made parts of it seem worth it.

"Not exactly," I replied. Maybe I was in Guatemala for the wrong reasons. Did I only do it for praise and attention? Pelican Bay had a way of making me question everything.

I'd certainly enjoyed being back in the states. Cold water, ice cubes, loud sound system and this morning I'd almost completely forgotten the families I left in Central America. Basically I sucked.

It wasn't right for me to enjoy the creature comforts, which were now available, when I was only here for a short time based on a lie Pierce and I concocted. I'd only miss these things again when I had to leave them behind in half a year.

The conversation reached a low between the two of us and Katy fidgeted with her hair. "Well, I wanted to leave a check for Pierce with a note. He was super worried I'd be short this month because his bank account wouldn't handle it if he didn't get my six hundred dollars, but he'll sleep well tonight knowing I paid in full." Sarcasm dripped from her words as she pulled the folded-over check from her pocket.

Oh right. "You lost your job." Pierce expressed worry about Katy's employer shutting the doors on his medical practice when he retired.

That time Katy rolled her eyes dramatically. "This damn town. No worries for either of you. I picked up extra hours at the bakery and it will be fine."

I smile. "That's good."

Before I fled San Francisco, I sold most of my wardrobe on eBay to pay my bills. On some level I understood what it was to be broke, yet on the other hand I was privileged in this world and had never experienced true hunger or going without for any extended period. Living in Guatemala taught me how lucky I'd had it in the past. How lucky so many of us currently have it.

Even within the village where we volunteered, our lives were easier than the families we helped. The last two years had shown me it could always be worse.

Katy's eyes scanned the house. "Is Melissa here with you?"

My face fell. Another one of Pelican Bay residents without a job. "No, she was fired because Pierce found her going through his desk looking for his checkbook."

Katy shook her head. "Melissa would never steal. Not when she needed this job so much. Her grandmother is roommates with my grandmother in the nursing home. They've been best friends for years. Pierce must have ulterior motives."

"How do you know?" I wanted to help Melissa. If Katy knew how, I needed her to tell me.

"Because he always does," she said with such sincerity in her voice I yearned to believe her, but I'd been there when it happened. I caught Melissa snooping. During our conversation it become apparent Katy wasn't a threat, and I'd relaxed, but her stance grew hard and her eyes wrathful as we talked about Melissa.

"He can't go around this town firing whoever he wants."

"Well, kind of he can." I mean we caught her trying to steal. She admitted it. Melissa was his employee and Pierce the boss. That's how it worked.

Katy's eyes narrowed on me as if she was trying to determine how high on her enemy list she'd write my name. "Right, because Pierce is the boss of everyone and everyone has to do what Pierce says."

"Well, he is the boss." In ways he was even bossing me around, but I let him. Two million was a big motivator in that decision.

"I'm telling you, it's not what it looks like. Not when Pierce is involved."

She had so much conviction in her words they left me wanting to believe each one of them. "If you're so sure on his motives, I can help you dig deeper."

Pierce and my extended family were friends for years, but I knew little about Pierce myself. We met one time when we were younger and then I hadn't seen him again until the meeting in his office. Maybe there was a reason the entire town considered Pierce a villain. I wanted to call my Aunt Dorothy and get the scoop on him, but then I'd have to decide whether I told her the truth about the fake engagement or not. I couldn't lie to Aunt Dorothy, so I'd been putting the phone call off for as long as possible. It hadn't gone unnoticed that she hadn't called me.

If I was going to fake-marry Lex Luther, I should be aware going into it.

Katy's eyes sparkled. "Deal. I'll be in contact." She took two steps toward the back door and I followed.

"What? Can't we search through his stuff now?" He'd left me unsupervised in his house all day so we'd have plenty of time.

"As soon as I have more to go on, we'll make a plan of attack. I like you, Mari," she said with a slight smile. "I didn't think I would, but I do. Keep your eyes open around Pierce. There's nothing he wants more than power and control."

I nodded and watched her walk out the back door and skip off Pierce's steps taking them two a time. Her words rang in my ears. Were there two Pierces? One he'd shown me and one everyone else in town knew? When we visited his businesses, everyone wore smiles, but could that have been an act like our fake engagement? Was Pierce playing me like we were playing the townspeople?