Enjoy the first chapter of the new Lily Harper Hart series set in Salem

Preorder today!

​Prologue
Some people might say that 32 was too old to party, but Piper Knight believed otherwise. All she wanted to do was party … right up until the point that her face fell off, which was a distinct possibility this evening. Everything felt blissfully numb … and she liked it.
That’s why she swayed back and forth with her drink in the middle of things at the rooftop bar in Seattle’s trendiest club strip and thought about nothing.
She didn’t have a single thought in her head, and wasn’t that amazing? She had a job, but it was nothing important. She had a guy she occasionally dated, but it was nothing serious. She had friends, but they weren’t the “I would hide a body with you” types. Everything about her life in Seattle felt temporary, and that was what she wanted.
No roots.
No parents breathing down her neck.
No responsibilities.
No, Piper Knight was living the life. So what if she really hated her job at the farmer’s market? There was no upward momentum for her to take advantage of, and she didn’t make enough money to move out of the two-bedroom apartment she shared with six — yes, six — other people. Not everybody needed a job they were passionate about.
So what if she’d come to the realization that her sometimes partner, Caleb, was actually bad in bed? He was also lazy and something of a misogynist. She wasn’t looking for love anyway.
And so what if she missed her family? They were overbearing, always up in her business. She’d fled to the West Coast for college for a reason. She’d stayed after graduation for a reason. Her family was that reason. They were busybodies.
That was on top of the witch stuff. Piper scowled when thinking about the coven she’d left behind right before college. She’d never been much of a joiner, and yet she was supposed to be part of a newly formed coven when she was only 18. It wasn’t just expected, it was required, according to her grandmother. If she’d stayed in Salem — yes, that Salem — then she would have had no choice but to join with the other witches. Who wanted that? Nobody, that’s who. Nobody wanted to be part of a coven. Nobody wanted to be bossed around constantly. Nobody wanted their magic regulated by others. It was too much of a bummer.
So Piper did what she promised she wouldn’t when begging her parents to send her away for college. She stayed and forged a life for herself. Sure, it wasn’t a life that she loved, but anything was better than what she’d fled, right?
Right?
Piper was starting to wonder if she’d made the wrong choice. She would never say that out loud, of course — especially during her weekly phone chats with her mother — but she could admit it to herself. She was homesick. She might even want to go home. Yes, to Salem … the one place in the world a real witch should never live. She missed the turning of the trees, though. She missed the smell of hot cider, although not the taste. It tasted terrible, but it smelled divine. Oh, and the doughnuts. There was nothing better than a warm cake doughnut dipped in a fresh latte.
She closed her eyes and momentarily felt dizzy as she spun. It was almost as if she was having an out-of-body experience, thinking about home. She’d lived in Seattle full-time since graduation. That was almost 10 full years. This should be her home. Why was she thinking about Salem?
Her inner voice found a microphone and started singing karaoke.
Because this was never going to be home, you stupid witch!
Piper’s eyes popped open just as she felt the familiar buzz in her pocket. Somebody was calling her. She looked for someplace to put down her drink, but couldn’t see anyplace, including an open ledge. Not that she would ever leave a drink unattended on an open ledge and then go back to it. She wasn’t an idiot.
She slammed the rest of her drink, which did not go down smoothly. That was another thing. Seattle might have been the capital of microbrewery nation, but the cocktails left a little something to be desired. The cocktails on the East Coast were just better for some reason.
Piper cringed when she pulled out her phone and saw the single three-letter word on the screen. Mom. Her mother was calling. Her mother was calling, and she was pretty much drunk. Well, great.
Piper did her best to prepare herself to pretend to be sober. Her pitchy “hi” gave her away on a single syllable, however.
“Are you drunk?” Elaine Knight demanded.
Piper scowled even though her mother couldn’t see her expression. She was 32 years old and still afraid to let her mother know she’d been drinking. It was the night of her senior prom all over again, albeit without the 35 seconds of bad sex.
“Hello, Mother,” Piper drawled, resigned to her fate. She was just glad Elaine couldn’t see her. She’d gone all out and put makeup on this evening, but it wasn’t the sort of makeup that Elaine found “appropriate.”
Just a bit of foundation — never tinted moisturizer — to go along with a smattering of rouge, a swipe of mascara, and pink lipstick. That was all a proper woman needed to look good in the modern age, according to Elaine.
Piper had so much eye makeup on tonight that she resembled a raccoon.
“Where are you?” Elaine asked. “Are you at an orgy?”
Piper sent a dark look toward her phone. Only her mother would ask that and be deadly serious. “Yes, Mother, I’m at an orgy,” Piper said dryly. “Hey, dude, get your penis out of there. I’m on the phone.”
“That is not funny,” Elaine barked.
Even though Piper found her mother tiresome — so very tiresome — she smiled. She even missed this, she realized. How was that possible? She’d been so excited to leave home. Now it was all she could think about.
“Please get yourself to a place that’s a little more quiet,” Elaine said primly. “We have something of importance to discuss.”
Piper’s heart plummeted. “Has something happened to Dad?” She pictured her henpecked father, and tears pricked the back of her eyes.
“Your father is fine, other than the fact that he’s decided to pick up a new hobby.”
“Golf?” Piper asked hopefully as she headed toward the stairwell. It would be quicker than waiting for the elevator to go down the three floors to the street. She was done partying for the night anyway, although she hadn’t informed her roommates she was leaving. It wasn’t as if they would miss her.
“Taxidermy,” Elaine replied.
Piper pressed her lips together and said nothing as she started down the steps. Really, what was there to say to that? Nothing. Nope. She wasn’t touching that one with a 10-foot pole. Man, she really hoped her dad had a 10-foot pole, so he wasn’t touching dead animals with his bare hands.
Piper huffed her way down the stairs without saying anything. She was out of breath when she finally got away from the music and could hear her mother making a series of impatient noises on the other end of the line.
“I’m away from everybody,” Piper announced once on the main floor. “What’s the bad news?” She paused a beat, her sisters suddenly flooding her mind. “Are Penny and Poppy okay?”
That was another bone of contention in the family. Her mother had insisted on going cutesy when naming her three daughters. Penny’s real name was Penelope — Piper didn’t blame her older sister for avoiding that name like the plague — but Piper and their youngest sister Poppy were stuck with what they’d been given. As children, they’d been bullied relentlessly for it.
“Your sisters are fine, if a bit disappointing,” Elaine replied. “Neither one of them is dating, which means there are no grandchildren in my future. Do you know how embarrassing that is at my weekly tea?”
Piper stifled a chuckle. Elaine’s tea group consisted of a bunch of gossipy women who liked to judge one another. Elaine was just as guilty as the others. “Somehow I think you’ll survive,” she said blandly.
“I deserve grandchildren,” Elaine insisted. “Instead, I have three daughters — all in their 30s, although you would never know it with how Poppy acts — and no grandchildren. I want my grandchildren.”
“I’ll try to get right on that, Mother,” Piper said, clearly not meaning it. “If Poppy and Penny are okay and Dad’s only sin is that he picked up a disgusting new hobby, what’s the problem?”
“It’s your grandmother.”
Piper’s heart skipped 10 beats. She technically had two grandmothers still alive, but somehow she knew that Elaine wasn’t talking about Madge Knight, her father’s mother. The only trouble Madge ever stirred up revolved around knitting needles that didn’t fit her afghan projects.
That meant the problem was Wanda Alden, Elaine’s mother. People say that daughters eventually turn into their mothers. Piper hoped that wasn’t true for her own sake. She forced herself to believe it wasn’t true because Wanda and Elaine couldn’t have been more different. That gave her hope for her own future.
Wanda had been Piper’s escape as a child. She was … eccentric. Or maybe that was a nice way of putting it. Elaine claimed her mother was terminally crazy and tried to lock her up in mental hospitals off and on for the duration of Piper’s life.
Wanda wasn’t crazy, though. Even at a young age, Piper recognized that. Wanda just lived life on her terms. She did what she wanted and didn’t care who judged her. And what Wanda wanted to do more than anything was run her boutique hotel, the Salemdipity, exactly how she wanted.
In a town like Salem, where tourism was the name of the game, Wanda could have been making money hand over fist. She refused to sell out to a large conglomerate, however, which meant that they were constantly trying to sabotage her. She’d managed to survive despite their efforts. She was hardly thriving, however.
“Is she … ?” Piper was afraid to ask the question.
“Dead?” Elaine let out a harsh laugh. “No. If only.”
Piper held her phone away from her ear so she could glare at it properly. Somehow, she managed to hold it together when speaking to her mother again. “Is she hurt?”
“She fell and broke her hip,” Elaine replied. “She’s going to be fine — although she has to go through rehab — but she’s refusing to change her lifestyle once she gets out. She can’t stay in that hotel. The elevator doesn’t even work and she won’t be able to climb the stairs.
“I’ve talked to her about selling — the hotel itself isn’t worth a lot, but the land is — but she refuses,” she continued. “I’m going to have to get her committed. I’m being serious this time. She is incapable of taking care of herself.”
Piper’s heart pinged. “You can’t get her locked up. That will kill her.”
“What would you suggest I do? I’ve offered for her to come live with us.”
Piper could only imagine how that suggestion had gone over. Wanda would rather die, and Piper didn’t blame her. “There has to be another solution,” she insisted.
“Your grandmother needs constant supervision.” Elaine was matter-of-fact. “That hotel is falling down. Somebody needs to be there to oversee renovations because your grandmother refuses to do it herself.
“I don’t have time to drop everything and serve as her babysitter,” she continued. “We’re going to have to force her into a conservatorship.” Elaine didn’t sound broken up about that prospect, Piper realized. She’d been trying to take the Salemdipity from her mother for years. The property was worth a great deal of money in a city that desperately needed more hotels.
Piper made a humming sound as she considered her options. It didn’t take long. She knew exactly what she had to do … and it wasn’t going to make her mother happy.
Ah, well, that would just be an added bonus.
“I’ll do it,” Piper blurted.
“You’ll do what?” Elaine sounded distracted. Maybe Peter was showing her a dead stuffed animal. Piper wanted to giggle at the imagery that evoked in her mind.
“I’ll take over the Salemdipity.” Piper had been initially leery when considering it, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized that she meant it. Not only that, but she was excited at the prospect.
“And how are you going to do that from Seattle?” Elaine challenged.
Piper swallowed hard. She was about to tick off her mother royally. “I’ll move home and do it,” she said as she braced herself.
“You’re going to move home to run the Salemdipity?”
“I am.” Piper made sure there was no give to her tone. “I think it’s the best thing for Grammy.”
“What about what’s best for me?” Elaine challenged. “Why aren’t you taking that into consideration? I’m prepared to get your grandmother committed. That’s the best course of action.”
Piper had to hold onto her temper. If she exploded at her mother now, everything — including the best memories of her childhood — would be lost. “You have to let me try,” she insisted. “I’m not saying I’ll be able to pull it off, but you have to let me try. For Grammy.”
“Uh-huh.” Elaine sounded suspicious. “And what about your job there?”
“I’ll quit,” Piper replied. She’d never told her mother how much she hated her job at the farmer’s market food co-op. She’d always lied and said the opposite. That didn’t matter now, though. “I want to do what’s right for Grammy.”
“And when I asked you to move home all those times?”
It was typical of Elaine to make this about herself. Piper refused to rise to the bait, however. “I can be home in two weeks. Does that work for you?”
Elaine’s silence was calculating, and Piper didn’t have to ask what she was doing. Her mother wanted her grandmother committed a great deal. She wanted that property so she could sell it and pocket the money. What she wanted more was Piper home. This might be a way for Elaine to get both things eventually. It would start with Piper’s return, however.
“Fine,” Elaine said crisply. “If that’s what you want, we’ll make it work.” Her voice lowered. “You’ll have to turn that hotel around, though. It can’t continue on as it has been.”
“I’ll do it,” Piper promised. “Heck, I was looking forward to a new challenge.”
Elaine’s laugh was low and hollow. “Oh, you sweet summer child. I think you’re about to find out.”

Button Text