31. Chapter 30
“How do you guys deal with this all the time?” Hope couldn’t sit still as Berlin worked on her laptop communicating with everyone.
Hailey was doing the same thing on her own laptop.
Both women were sitting at the kitchen table and had on headphones. They couldn’t hear her as she spoke to Magnolia and Fleur, who were both sitting at the island countertop.
She had a feeling that the two women were only downstairs to keep her company. Because they seemed so calm about Ezra and Tiago being gone on this very dangerous operation.
“Honestly I’m too tired.” Magnolia leaned back in her chair, rubbed her pregnant belly. “Don’t get me wrong, I definitely worry about Ezra, but fate brought us back together. I like to think that she wouldn’t be so cruel as to rip us apart now.”
“Oh my god,” Fleur said with a laugh. “While Magnolia is wonderful, she’s lying through her teeth.
She’s trying to put you at ease. We both worry like crazy.
We even have a group text with the partners of this crew—oh, I’m going to add you to it.
We send each other funny memes. Sometimes dark ones…
It’s nice to have others to commiserate with. ”
Magnolia gave a tired laugh. “She’s right, I’m totally lying.
I was hoping to make you feel better. But I’m not lying about the tired part.
I don’t remember being this tired with my first. Probably because I wasn’t having a ‘geriatric’ pregnancy then.
All I want to do is sleep, but then I can’t get comfortable when I am in bed. So.” She shrugged.
“Wait, did you call your pregnancy geriatric?” Hope stared at the gorgeous woman.
“Any pregnant woman over thirty-five is considered to be geriatric.” She rolled her eyes.
“I…sort of hate that. It seems like such a hateful term.”
Magnolia grinned at her now. “I knew I liked you.”
Fleur snickered even as she typed something into her phone. “Okay, now I’ve added you to our group text.”
Hope wanted to tell her that she wasn’t Bradford’s partner, that she shouldn’t be included, but who was she kidding?
She wanted to be included. She wanted him so badly her chest ached with it.
And this was it; she was in this thing even if she hadn’t told him.
She had to take this chance at life and stop letting the past control her chance at happiness.
“Thank you.” She shot a glance over at Berlin and Hailey, who were quietly talking into their comms.
Then she looked back at Fleur and Magnolia. She’d already talked to Bradford and Berlin about this and they’d been waiting to execute this part of her plan, but she felt like it was time to just do it.
“I reached out to a friend of mine about releasing that video of those guys breaking into my house. I keep going over the pros and cons of it.”
“I say do it,” Fleur said around a yawn.
“Yeah.” Magnolia nodded. “And I think you guys should release the video of Edward Killeen screwing that waitress. The only con is if the waitress gets caught in the crossfire from online fallout. I mean, I think she sucks for screwing a married man, but I still don’t want to expose some woman to a bunch of hatred like that. That stuff can be toxic.”
“Maybe…we could just send it to his wife instead?” Hope felt a little mean doing it, but if they were going to blow up this guy’s life, they needed to do it right. And they should do it while Bradford and the others were destroying Killeen’s heroin.
Which was awesome in itself.
“Ooh, I love that. And you know Berlin will do it.” Fleur looked very pleased with the idea.
Berlin turned around to face them as she slid her headset off.
“They’re on their way back now. And yes, I love that idea.
I can send the video to Killeen’s wife using an encrypted message.
She’ll never be able to figure out who sent it but…
I almost guarantee she knows who the woman is, considering she’s the owner of the café.
At least on paper. This might make things very uncomfortable for Edward Killeen. ”
“It might also give the Feds something to use to sway her to help them,” Magnolia added.
Oh, that was a great point. “I’ve got someone who can release the other video of those guys at my house,” Hope said.
“Once my coworkers and professional acquaintances get wind of it, this thing will spread. A bunch of masked men breaking into a journalist’s home…
It’s going to piss off a lot of people.”
Whether that would fall back on Killeen, directly or not, wasn’t exactly the point.
It was part of it, because she wanted him to feel pressure from all sides—and to leave her the hell alone.
But she also wanted the public to know about it in case something happened to her.
And hopefully whoever was working with Killeen would back off once that video was live.
“Do it now,” Berlin said. “Unless you want me to?”
“No, I’ve got this.” She needed to be doing something anyway. After grabbing her laptop, she got to work, sending it to her most trusted allies in the industry. Two she didn’t actually like on a personal level, but she respected them and their work.
Once she was done with that, she texted her friend Thea, hoping it wasn’t too late, considering it was now four in the morning. But she knew that Thea woke up early to jog so she took a chance that it wasn’t on Do Not Disturb.
Hey, just wanted to let you know that a video related to me might be dropping soon and that I’m okay. I’m safe. She started to set her phone down, figuring Thea would text her back whenever she woke up.
But Thea’s response was immediate. What? You can’t just leave me hanging without details! What’s going on?
You’re up?
Hell yeah. Couldn’t sleep so I started on my treadmill. Gonna go for another forty-five minutes.
I say this with love, but you’re a freak.
Tell me something I don’t know. So. Spill. Now.
Hope quickly typed out the details about the video, leaving out all the other stuff.
Just that some masked men had broken into her dad’s place while she was out, and some weird things had been happening.
She alluded that it might be related to a story, but didn’t give anything more.
She simply wanted her friend to know she was safe.
Thanks for letting me know, I definitely would have worried. And keep me updated. If you need a place to crash, you know I’ve got you.
Thank you. She paused for a moment, then added, In case I don’t tell you enough, you’re a great friend and I’m lucky to have you in my life.
Thea responded with three big-eyed, tear-filled emojis, then a couple hearts, which made Hope smile.
Just as quickly, her smile died when Berlin cleared her throat pointedly .
Hope looked up at her, felt her stomach tighten at the woman’s expression.
“Listen, I just heard from the guys. I don’t want you to freak out or anything, but Bradford has been injured.”