“You do that.”
Sophie took the opportunity to flee, casting a series of glances over her shoulder as she made her way to her car. Thankfully, no one was following her – at least not that she could see. Once she was inside, she locked the door and took a few moments to catch her breath. She was being silly, she told herself. There was no way that two sheriff’s department deputies – two lieutenants, for crying out loud – would be stupid enough to threaten her.
It was just a coincidence.
Once Sophie had calmed herself, she started the car and pointed it in the direction of the Daily Tribune. She had a story to file – an important one. Once she was done, she could escape to relative safety. The fact that relative safety resembled Grady Hardy was not lost on her.
Despite her best efforts, she was falling for him. That meant only heartbreak could be around the corner.
Twenty
Sophie didn’t fully catch her breath until she was in the Daily Tribune’s parking lot. She’d watched her rearview mirror for signs of someone following her the entire ride across town. There were even a few times she was convinced she saw the same dark SUV moving in and out of lanes on the highway behind her.
No one had followed her into the newspaper’s parking lot. She was sure of that.
Sophie gathered herself, grabbing her notebook before exiting the car. Marge was sitting behind the desk in the reception area, the look on her face full of disdain when she caught sight of Sophie.
“I wasn’t sure you still worked here.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Working on a story,” Sophie replied. “Something you would know nothing about, Marge.” Sophie had no idea why Marge’s negative attitude was so chafing today. Usually, she just ignored the gossipy secretary. Today, the sight of her round face and pointed glare was just too much.
“You’re so full of yourself,” Marge snapped. “You think you’re better than everyone here.”
“I think you’re projecting,” Sophie said. “You’ve got a rich fantasy life up here, don’t you? You think you know everything that is going on, and you really don’t know anything that’s going on.”
Marge’s face colored with rage. “And you think, because you look like a model, that everyone is just going to bow down and do what you want.”
“I don’t think anything of the sort,” Sophie shot back. “I’m here to do my job, and nothing else. What bug crawled up your butt and died, by the way? You’re never pleasant, but you’re usually not this unpleasant.”
“You’ve been quite the talk around here the past couple of days,” Marge sniffed. “You probably didn’t know that because you haven’t been here, you know, doing your job.”
“And what are people saying?”
“I heard the women in advertising talking,” Marge said. “They said you were attacked outside a bar two nights ago. What? Did some guy want more than you were willing to give? Did he find out you’re frigid?”
“Who told you that?”
“That you’re frigid? Everyone thinks it.”
“Not that. Who told you about the guy attacking me with the knife outside of the bar?”
Marge shifted uncomfortably. “He had a knife? I’m sorry. I didn’t know that. The way everyone was talking, it sounded like you had just ticked some guy off at the bar and were purposefully making a scene.”
Sophie was surprised by Marge’s apology. “To be fair, he didn’t get that close to me. I was with three other women, and two of them noticed him before I did and stopped him.”
“You were out with friends on a Sunday night? I didn’t even know you had any friends,” Marge said. “I thought you were married to the job.”
Were they friends? Were they her friends? Sophie still wasn’t sure – although the pang in her heart told her that was something she actually wanted. “I haven’t known them very long,” Sophie admitted. “It was just a friendly couple hours at the bar.”
Sophie moved toward the glass double doors that led to the inner sanctum of the newspaper.
“The ad reps said something else,” Marge said.
Sophie stilled. “What?”
“They said that you were picked up at the bar by a man.”
Oh, that’s what this was about. “They know a lot about a situation they weren’t present for.”
“Actually, Jolene was there,” Marge said. “You just didn’t see her.”
Jolene was one of the blonde ad reps who had been fawning all over Grady when she dropped him off in the advertising department the day they met. Sophie didn’t know her well – but what she did know wasn’t complimentary.