Blackmailed by the Billionaire Brewer by Rachel Lyndhurst Read Free Book Online Page A

watched Melanie leave, and then squeezed her eyes shut tight against the world.
     Her fate was apparently sealed.

    The walk from the coffee shop to the retail premises that Silver Bells and Cockle
     Shells shared with other craft stores and then back to her apartment was a vicious
     experience. The weather had been growing progressively worse and now high winds lashed
     bitter snowflakes into her face and hair. By the time she’d walked down Fourth Street,
     she wished she’d taken a cab to avoid this hell. The streets were emptying fast so
     she couldn’t expect any walk-in customers. At least she’d managed to get her stock
     updated in the ten minutes she’d spent at her store and arranged some cover for the
     times when she wouldn’t be around.
    Sophie was supposed to take some of it on anyway, her way of repaying Piper for putting
     a roof over her head, picking up her mess, and feeding her. Something told Piper she
     was getting the rough end of the deal, but family was family and she was sure Sophie
     would put herself out in the same way if their situations were reversed. Maybe.
    Outside her apartment in the freezing cold, she fumbled with her keys as she tried
     to get the right one in the lock, but her fingers were clumsy and the key ring fell
     with a clatter onto the metal walkway. “Damn it.” The awkward grind of the lock mechanism
     seemed even more infuriating than usual, the last twist of the knife after a painful
     day. Her tiny foyer was dark, biting cold, and silent. Until a pitiful mewl came from
     deep inside the gloom.
    “Sophie?” The place was empty. Piper put her purse on the telephone table in the hall
     and shrugged off her coat so as not to trail melting snow through the place. Icy fingers
     of dread crept up her spine as she acknowledged her furnace had probably broken down
     again, just what she needed. She flicked on the front room’s light and saw the pregnant
     cat curled up on the sofa.
    “Has Soph abandoned you, kitty?” Her attention was caught by a sheet of paper taped
     to the television screen.
    Dear Piper, had a chat with Mom and Dad and they said I could come visit for a few
     days, maybe even move back if things work out. You were right about telling me to
     try to make up. They don’t seem nearly so mad with me now. :0)
    There was no hot water this morning and it’s really cold!
    Sophie
    P.S. The cat got its tail stuck in the bathroom door, but it looks okay.
    xoxoxoxoxo
    Her heart sank. The cat was mewling and had been licking at the end of her tail since
     she’d come in. Closer inspection revealed that the end of it had been degloved. A
     pink shiny tip protruded from the gray fur and made Piper want to wince. It must hurt
     like hell, poor thing.
    “Shame on you, Sophie Reilly,” she muttered quietly so as not to distress the animal
     further. “This cat is not okay, are you, kitty?”
    At five p.m., it was far too late to get a veterinary appointment as a new patient.
     She should have found a vet earlier, but life had just got out of hand in the last
     few weeks, so she needed to think fast. There was a late night drop-in vet clinic
     on the outskirts of Passion Creek. She’d seen the signs for it a few times when she’d
     been on the way to the shell wholesalers. That would be her best bet, and the quicker
     she got there, the better with the way the weather was turning.
    Five minutes later, having changed into jeans and a sweater, she was on the highway
     out of town with a snarling cat strapped into the front seat in a cardboard box. The
     cat was not happy and the noise coming out of the box was pretty much the same as
     a child screaming—absolutely horrible and very distracting. The snow was also falling
     faster in great thick lumps that hit the windshield and splattered into wet bursts,
     battering the windshield wipers that struggled to keep up with the onslaught.
    “Not far now, kitty,” she soothed and turned the heater up full blast. It made