CHAPTER 39 DELILAH
DELILAH
I lean forward in my seat and glance through the windshield of my car. “You’re sure she’ll be here?”
Gianna tucks her feet under her in the passenger seat, unconcerned. She’s reclined the seat all the way back, a bag of Doritos open on her chest. “She’s already here.”
“What?” My head snaps in her direction so fast, my neck cricks. “What do you mean?”
Gianna pops a chip in her mouth. “Her meeting with Keith started fifteen minutes ago.”
“What? I thought we were out here keeping watch.”
Gianna shrugs. “I thought you just wanted to have snacks in your car.”
“Gianna,” I hiss. “This isn’t part of the plan.”
“What do you mean? This is the plan.” She holds up one Doritos-crusted finger. “Get Ava Monroe to the office.” She flicks up another. “Casually run into her while picking up the rest of your things.” She holds up her thumb. “Lure her into a meeting space and speak your truth.”
I slap at her hand. “Don’t use the word lure. You make me sound like a psychopath.”
“Fine. Encourage her to find a meeting space with you.”
I swat her again. “But she’s meeting with Keith.”
Gianna slaps me back, then turns her body, clutching her chips to her chest. “She had to have a reason to come to the station, didn’t she? I sent her a bogus email from Keith setting it up.”
“And how do you expect me to speak my truth if Keith is in the room discrediting everything I say?”
She rolls her eyes. “He won’t be in the room.”
“What? How?”
“Because it is part of the plan.” Mark appears in the front window of the news station, executing a series of complicated hand gestures.
Gianna huffs and very reluctantly gives him a thumbs-up back.
“This man and his need for codes,” she grumbles.
“He could have just texted me.” She reaches down and rockets the seat back up. “All right. Let’s go.”
I blink. “Go? Right now?”
Gianna is already halfway out of the car. “Yes. Let’s go. You have a very limited window of time.”
I rush to follow her, anxiety squeezing at my lungs. “What do you mean, limited window of time? This isn’t what we talked about.”
The original plan was to bump into Ava while she was at the offices for a routine budget meeting, then convince her to give me my job back. I have a file folder full of data points and testimonials, a Post-it note with a small Demand more scribbled on top slapped to the front of it.
I follow Gianna across the parking lot, resisting the urge to duck behind the light poles and trash cans like I’m in some budget-friendly spy feature.
“I thought Keith had a dentist appointment today,” I whisper-hiss.
It was the only reason I felt comfortable with this plan. I don’t want to see him at all.
“His dentist appointment was canceled.” She pulls the door of the station open. Mark is waiting for us, silently ushering us in the opposite direction we should be going. Gianna glances at me over her shoulder. “We called an audible.”
“Who is we?” I whisper-hiss. When was this decided? Why didn’t anyone warn me?
Gianna’s eyes soften as we hustle down a hallway. “Trust me, okay?” Her hand reaches for mine. “We’ve got it covered.”
“Where’s Jackson?”
Her mouth twitches. A smile lingers behind her eyes. “He’s executing his part of the plan.”
“He has a part?”
“It was his idea.”
I am flying blind. Not a single thing is going how I thought it would. Mark grips my arm and steers me into an unmarked room. Gianna follows quickly, snapping the door shut behind us.
I glance around, bewildered. “Is that a crab?”
There’s a mascot costume discarded in the corner, the head tipped on its side, crab legs protruding from the cheeks like some sort of aquatic Frankenstein’s monster. One of the pincers is holding a microphone. I’m honestly sort of surprised Keith has never made me wear this on air.
“Oh. Yeah. There was a short-lived mascot for the television station back in the eighties. This is where he stays now.”
I stare at the grotesque, crumpled heap on the floor. “How short-lived?”
“He was on one broadcast, and the viewer outrage was swift and unanimous.” She snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Focus. Ava will be here in a minute. Do you feel ready?”
“She’s coming to the room with the crab?”
“Delilah.”
“I mean, I guess I’m ready.” I clutch at my file folder. “You guys are handling Keith?”
Mark doesn’t look up from his phone, thumbs moving furiously. “The distraction is in place.”
“What distraction?”
“Honestly, Delilah. You’re asking so many questions and none of them are the right ones.
” Gianna grips my shoulders. “There have been some adjustments, but your part of the plan hasn’t changed.
Do exactly as we practiced. Get your job back.
Take Keith down.” She shakes me back and forth. “Save the day.”
“That seems a little dramatic.”
“It’s exactly as dramatic as it needs to be.”
A knock sounds at the door. Three quick, light raps. Gianna cracks open the door, and Maggie pokes her head through.
“Ava will be walking down the hallway in three minutes,” she whispers. “Everyone is in their places.” She flashes me a smile. “Good luck, Delilah.”
“That’s our cue.” Gianna grabs Mark by the wrist and starts hauling him out of the room. “Count to thirty, then walk down the hall toward your desk. Make it seem like an accident, okay?”
I nod. This part of the plan I remember. We were supposed to make it look like I was coming to retrieve the rest of my items, then run into Ava in the hall.
Mark, Gianna, and Maggie quickly leave, the door snicking shut behind them.
I take a deep breath, hold it in for the count of two, then release it.
I squeeze my eyes shut. As much as I love Gianna, I wish it were Jackson who had waited with me in the car.
Maybe he could have kissed me as a distraction this time.
“Like a lamp,” I whisper to myself, starting the slow count to thirty. I hear heels clicking own the hall at twenty-seven, and I slip out, file folder under my arm.
Ava Monroe is the picture of professional elegance. Sleek gray bob. Dark, winged eyeliner. An evergreen sweater and a smart pencil skirt. A flicker of surprise flashes across her face before she schools her expression.
“Delilah,” she says, her low voice melodic in the otherwise empty hallway. “This is certainly a surprise.”
“Hello, Ava.” I clutch my file folder so hard the thick paper crinkles under my grip. “I was hoping for a minute of your time.”
“I was wondering why I was summoned for an emergency budget meeting Keith seemingly had no idea about.” A rare smile breaks across Ava’s severe features. “Though I will say, I did enjoy watching him hustle around his office looking for something to present to me.”
I roll my lips against my grin. “I’m sorry there was so much . . . subterfuge, but I wanted to have a chance to speak with you. Uninterrupted.”
“I can see that.” She gestures at the file folder that’s beneath my hands. “All right, Ms. Stewart. What do you have for me?”
I glance down at the file folder holding the evidence we compiled against Keith.
Gianna and I practiced my talking points.
The order in which I’d reveal all my facts.
I know exactly what I’m supposed to say, but I flatten my palms against it instead, keeping it closed.
I’m so tired of the scheming and the plotting.
I’ve been twisting myself into knots for weeks trying to be a version of myself that’s damned near perfect to make up for all the mistakes I’ve made. But I don’t need to be perfect.
I’ve just got to try.
“Do you know why I wanted to be a meteorologist?”
Ava settles back in the busted-up chair that’s missing an arm, looking like a queen on her throne. “Why?”
I blow out a breath and summon my courage.
“When I was a kid, my grandpa used to turn on the weather report while I was getting ready for school. The five-day forecast was the soundtrack to every half-soggy bowl of cereal I had between the ages of five and eighteen. My whole day was shaped by those forecasts. What to wear. What to expect. But do you know what my favorite part was?”
Ava shakes her head, still with that unreadable look on her face. It’s easy to see how she became the head of a multimedia powerhouse. She radiates calm, competent energy.
I try to channel some of it.
“I loved that the reporter knew the city. He knew what streets were prone to flooding. He knew which neighborhoods had outdoor festivals and when they were. He knew the best tailgating spots, and when people would start lining up at the lots. He knew Baltimore, and he made sure the rest of us did too.”
I twist my fingers together. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is be a part of that, but Keith has made it impossible to do my job well.
Last week I quit because I thought it was my only option, but I know my value.
” Finally. I know my value. “You might look at me and think the way I behave on camera is silly or juvenile or—I don’t know—some sort of a gag.
I know I’ve made my fair share of mistakes.
But it makes our viewers feel like they’re a part of my community.
Because they are. And I’m a part of theirs too.
” I squeeze my hands together beneath the table.
Gather my courage and try. “The real mistake I made was when I quit a week ago. This is where I deserve to be. I would like my job back. And I’d like for some changes to be made. ”
Ava watches me with sharp, contemplative eyes. I try not to fidget, but the silence is unbearable.
Finally, she says, “I agree.”
“You do?”
Ava’s smile is faint, but there. “Was that not the whole point of your speech? To convince me?”
“It was, but—” I decide now is probably a great time to stop talking. “It was,” I say.
She nods, then leans forward with her elbows on the table. “Some things are starting to become clear,” she says wearily. Her pointer fingers taps against the back of her hand as she studies me. “I’m assuming that you were not the one who made the request to move to features?”
I shake my head. My heart feels like it’s about to flutter out of my chest, and not entirely in a good way. I’m not built to withstand high-stress situations.
“Keith has been my only line of communication into this news station for quite some time. I can see now that somewhere along the way, he began to shape the narrative to suit himself. I apologize for the oversight, Delilah. It won’t happen again.”
I’m almost afraid to ask, but I force myself to. I won’t come back to this office if things don’t change for me. It will hurt to walk away again, but at least I’ll do it with the knowledge that I’ve tried everything I could. “And Keith?”
“I believe Keith will find it’s time for him to retire.
” She stands, smoothing down her skirt. I do the same, rising slowly.
I can’t believe it was truly that easy. It’s both an incredible relief and unbearably frustrating.
That I could have ended Keith’s reign of terror years ago, if only I was brave enough to stand up for myself.
Ava collects her things. “I’ll give him the news before I leave, assuming he’s done with that man in the turtle suit. ”
The words float around me like alphabet soup, arranging and rearranging.
“Turtle suit?”
This time there’s no mistaking Ava’s grin. “There’s a man in a turtle suit currently rambling his way through a weather report.” She grips the door handle and pulls, eyes sparkling. “It’s a very good distraction.”