Looking at the clock on my computer screen, I saw that Jace would be waiting for me downstairs in a car in exactly fifteen minutes. Unlike everybody else in the world, he was always on time, so there was no point in even texting to confirm.
I needed to get as much of this outlining done in the next few minutes as I could. After today, I’d have the last piece of my puzzle, and I’d be able to build the whole thing a lot quicker if I knew my structure. Somebody cleared their throat behind me.
I turned to see Lucile standing there with a wad of papers in her hand. “Hey, I need you to photocopy these and get Dan in research to sign both copies, then bring them to my desk. I need them in twenty minutes,” she said, dropping the documents on my desk without waiting for an answer.
My heart sank. Ever since I’d started here, Lucile had taken it upon herself to delegate to me various things she couldn’t be bothered doing, things that weren’t part of my job description as far as I understood it. I was the bottom of the food chain, sure, but I wasn’t supposed to be her PA.
She’d been even worse than usual since the shootout at that biker bar that was being attributed to the Picolli Crime Family, because it contradicted more or less everything her article about the police had said. Everything is looking good in the city, and the Picollis are long gone… except for that bloodbath they orchestrated. She’d been through the wringer on that one.
“Wait,” I called out and she stopped and turned to look at me. “I can’t do this right now, I’ve got-”
“Are you kidding me? You’re here to follow instructions. Get on it, you fucking wannabe.”
That old familiar fear gripped me when Lucile raised her voice, like freezing fingers around my lungs. People were starting to look up from their desks, and I wanted to hide under mine. Who was I to say no to a senior reporter? When did a confrontation between myself and a beautiful woman like her ever end up with me on top?
Then I thought about Jace and what he thought about me. I remembered what he’d said to Lucile and stood as tall as I could. I still would have got a face full of her breasts if she walked into me, but that didn’t matter.
“If you want to go tell Mr. Kinsley why photocopies of your fuck up are more important than the exclusive article on Jace Barlow, then be my guest. Otherwise, I believe a wise man once said, get the fuck out of my face.”
I pointed back in the direction of her desk and glared at her. Lucile changed color between bright red and pale at least as fast as a chameleon for a few seconds, but then stormed off.
As soon as her back was turned, I collapsed into my chair and took deep breaths while I waited for my heart to stop threatening me with a cardiac arrest. My hands were still shaking by the time I was able to start messing around with my outline again, but deep down there was this river of exhilaration running through me. Maybe that would be the last time Lucile ever spoke down to me, who knew?
Chapter 20
Jace
Kendall had been taken aback to come out of the building where The Weekly Enquirer offices were located to see three identical cars parked there. Her face lit up the way it always did, when she bent down to look inside the open door of the middle one and saw me.
“Is this like a giant ‘find the ball under the cup’ game?” she asked, before climbing in and kissing me.
“No. You know how the President gets like fifty death threats every day and the Secret Service goes “yeah, yeah, whatever”? But then they get one they take seriously, so they put the president in the nearest tank?”
“You had a death threat?” She looked incredulous.
“Lots. Not as much as the President. We had one we had to take seriously though, so I had Lorenzo beef up security until we… uh… the police bring the guy in for questioning. Don’t worry, we’re safe.”
“OK,” she said.
Simple as that. She trusted me so much that I felt something I hadn’t felt before. Guilt about lying. My whole life had been full of lies, I’d have lost my life a long time ago if it hadn’t been.
I’d lose Kendall too if I told her everything. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I mulled that over. Kendall seemed like she was on top of the world today, even chattering away happily about how she could work this into her article, but my mood had no reason to improve by the time we arrived at Wellfort Group Home.
Why in the ever-loving fuck I agreed to come back to this place I’d never know. It had only been abandoned for about seven years by this stage, but it already looked like a relic from a past civilization.
The lead car, with three of my security detail in it, headed around the other side to monitor the other entrance. The men from the following car stayed within sight, but mostly looked outwards. They were all carrying guns, of course, as were the men in the decoy convoys that would leave from the underground parking lots of wherever I stopped for more than fifteen minutes. Lorenzo and I had reinstated the procedures from the early days after I seized the Picollis’ assets and heads.