Chapter 36
I took the subway to the station closest to the care home Viv’s dad lived in. She’d taken me there once to meet him, and I’d been jealous of their back-and-forth banter.
At eight on the dot, she and Connor walked outside. Viv made a point of coming almost every night after dinner if she didn’t have work commitments. She spotted me and told Connor to wait in the car. He gave me a wave and headed for the parking lot.
She sauntered toward me, arms crossed. “You’re a long way from home. You take the train?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, I used to have a driver, but then I got my ass fired and acted like a moron to her.”
Viv bit back her smirk. “Must be some driver to get you to Queens.”
“She is. I mean, she takes corners a little too fast and lets me drink more tequila than I should, but I miss her.”
Viv smiled. “I miss you too, mule.”
I punched her on the arm. “Okay, can you stop calling me a mule now?”
She punched me back. “Last time.”
“How’s the office?” I asked. “Things settle down?”
Viv scuffed the ground with her sneaker. “I wouldn’t know. I got fired yesterday.”
“You what?” I shrieked. “Lacey promised she would keep you until you got your license.”
“It wasn’t Lacey who fired me. Clarissa did.”
“She can’t fire you. She’s not your boss,” I raged. “Does Lacey know about this? I’m going to call her right now and?—”
She put a hand on my arm. “She is. Lacey made her interim managing partner with everything that’s going on. Then she got a call about her mom in Florida, and she flew out yesterday morning. Clarissa called me in at 9 a.m. and told me I’m no longer required and to clear out my desk.”
Viv wheezed. “I help pay the shortfall for this place. How am I gonna cover it?” A tear slid down her cheek, with another close behind.
The revulsion I’d felt for Clarissa before didn’t compare to the tsunami rushing over me now. “I’m going to get our jobs back, that’s how. That Park Avenue Barbie has no idea what’s coming for her.”
* * *
We went back to Viv’s to strategize. We borrowed Connor’s whiteboard, and while Viv did her duty by making sure his teeth were brushed, I plotted out a rough timeline.
After I’d told Viv I believed Clarissa was behind the affair story and the previous article, she’d kicked her coffee table.
All the time I’d believed Jack had been behind the sabotage and stories trying to make me look bad. That explained why she hadn’t let slip about them dating. It would have put her in the frame, if they’d been connected in any way. Then at her open house, she’d already known the story would run, so what did it matter?
We knew confronting her would do nothing. She would balls it out until her dying breath, so we needed proof, a witness, or a lead. Something to take to Lacey.
Which is how we came to stalk Madison Beaker—the reporter who’d run the affair story—outside her office at The Daily Star the next morning.
Viv had used her contacts to find out that Madison loved to take a brisk walk while she listened to an audiobook during lunch. Both of us had memorized her face from The Daily Star byline and waited.
“Stakeouts look so much more interesting in movies,” Viv yawned.
Her yawn infected me. “Because they have guns. And donuts.”
Viv slapped her knee. “Knew I forgot something.”
We’d been parked across the street for the last hour in case Madison happened to take an early lunch.
Viv jumped up like a meerkat in her seat. “There she is.”
A woman with a blonde ponytail and pink running shoes paired with a navy suit walked out of the building and turned left.
In seconds we were on her as she headed for the coffee truck.
“Madison?” I tapped her on the shoulder when we caught up to her.
She balked when she saw my face. “Are you following me?”
“Call it a coincidence. You ever heard of slander? Defamation of character?”
She sidled out of the line and jerked her head for us to join her at the edge of the sidewalk. “Our legal department signed off on that article. You can’t come after us.”
“Correct. But I could come after you. File a civil suit. For slander,” I explained. “Your article got me fired.”
She fiddled with the clasp on her handbag. “Look, I’m sorry, but you can’t sue me. Please.”
“She won’t.” Viv stepped in. “If you give up your source.”
Her eyes darted everywhere. “Are you joking? Reporters never give up their sources. If we did, we’d get no stories.”
“Guess I’ll see you in court then.” I shrugged and nodded to Viv. “Let’s go.”
We got five steps away before she called us back. “Wait.”
Viv and I turned on our heels, and she moved toward us. “The girl works in your office. I went to high school with her, and she’s still as fucking terrifying. She had… compromising pictures of me with my high-school boyfriend. He took coke at the time, and I’m half-naked in the picture, so she threatened to send it to my parents. They’re both pastors, so they’d disown me. I know it won’t change anything, but I am sorry about what I wrote. I wanted… to save myself.”
My hatred for this woman evaporated. Just another victim of Clarissa Darby.
“You’re saying Clarissa blackmailed you into writing that article?” I confirmed.
She didn’t nod, but the slight tilt of her head to the left gave it away.
“How did she contact you?” Viv asked.
“She came through to my direct line. From her office. I remember because she started bitching about some girl Ariel, or whoever, taking her cell charger.”
Bingo. “Thanks,” I told her. “That’s a big help.”
Viv and I walked away. “Think that’s enough to take to Lacey?” she asked.
“No.” I waited at the crosswalk. “We need to get into the office.”
* * *
Like we had with Madison, we hunkered down in the SUV outside our old workplace, watching the comings and goings of people we’d shared elevators with but never words.
“How are we going to get in?” Viv asked. “Our passes will be disabled, and you know Clarissa will have put the security desk on high alert.”
I thought about it. The security guys were fond of us, but not enough to go against direct orders from the company that gave them the biggest Christmas bonus. We needed an inside man. Or woman.
I pulled out my phone and scrolled to The Lacey Group reception line.
“Who are you calling?” Viv whispered.
I held up a finger. “You’ll see.”
Fifteen minutes later, the back door opened and Kalani emerged, puffed out and holding a single sheet of paper.
“Is that it?”
“What is it?” Viv asked as Kalani passed the sheet to me and I looked at the section she’d highlighted.
“This is the call log for Clarissa’s extension. And right there is the call she placed to the reporter the day before the story broke,” I revealed, handing the sheet to Viv.
She scanned it. “Holy fuck.”
Kalani wiped her brow. “There’s more than one call. If you look at the day before, she tried a few times. Then I checked the message log to see if anything from that day popped out. Turns out I took a message from the reporter.”
“Do you have a copy of it?” I gasped.
She smiled and pulled a small, folded sheet from her pocket. “I took the original, to be safe. But we log it in the system as well, in case the paper copy is lost. That way no one can say we didn’t take a message.”
“Kalani, you are a fucking legend,” I told her, reading the pink slip. It showed the date and time Madison had called in, her name, and the newspaper, with the bonus of, “Returning your urgent call regarding SM.”
Viv thumped the steering wheel. “We’ve got her.”
“Is she inside now?” I asked Kalani.
Kalani nodded. “She’s in Lacey’s office, with Jack Shane.”
“Jack’s in there…” I choked. “With her?”
She looked down at her shoes. “Yes. She scheduled a meeting and told me not to put any calls through.”
I could swallow her threatening to fire me. Handle the sabotage attempts. Get over the desire to destroy my career.
But taking my man? No. Fucking. Way.