Unexpected Trouble (The Unexpected Series Book 3) Page 17

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Maybe, my ass. Jake already said that she’s going. If she can hit employee time with forty extra pounds on her, she’s fit enough to go. Especially if she does a good job today. He’s totally into this idea of a reporter joining our team.”

  I didn’t want to debate it with him. “You’re going to help Trevor?”

  “Yes, I’ll help him.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll catch you later.” I hung up before he could say anything else. Yeah, I knew it was suspicious, and I knew I wasn’t fooling him, but I didn’t care.

  I showered, made myself breakfast, and then headed to the lab. I wasn’t joking about needing a blood test; I did require one. I just hadn’t needed to get it today. It was a good excuse, though.

  After the lab, I went into the office. Alice was in an extra foul mood when I stepped in. “Where the hell have you been?”

  I stopped on a dime at her tone. “Getting a blood test. Is there a problem?”

  “No, Jake found out that Alex isn’t here today and wanted to know where he was. No one seems to want to answer their damn phone today! Is there something wrong with your phone?”

  I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the three missed calls. “Sorry, it was on silent and not vibrate.”

  She grumbled under her breath for a moment. “Go see Jake. I’m tired of dealing with his crap today, and it’s not even ten.”

  I started to step away, but paused and shuffled closer to her desk. “You okay, Alice?”

  “I’m peachy, Gregory. Go talk to your asshole boss.”

  “Blaire!” My name echoed down the hallway, and I grunted and went to see what his major malfunction was.

  “Your highness,” I muttered as I stepped into his office.

  “Jesus, where the hell have you been?”

  “Screamer, is there an emergency that you need me for? Did someone die? Is the world going to hell? Did a client back out of a contract?”

  “No, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about how you are losing your fucking mind because I’m not here, and you’ve got Alice so pissed off she almost took my head off when I stepped inside the door.”

  “That’s not my fault.”

  “Did you lose your shit on Alice? Because I would bet you a hundred bucks that you lost your shit on her, and that’s why she’s ready to murder the first person who crosses her.”

  “I might have demanded her to find you or Alex.”

  “Alex is at the range with Trevor.”

  “Why aren’t you there?”

  I sank into the chair across from him. “Because I had to get a blood test.”

  “That couldn’t have waited?”

  “No, my doctor wanted me to get it done ASAP.”

  The muscles in his jaw ticked as he clenched his teeth a few times. “Trevor said she did good yesterday and that she’ll be an asset on the trip.”

  “An asset? He did not say that.”

  “Yeah, actually, he did.” I frowned, and Jake leaned back in his seat. “Why don’t you want her to go? I mean for real?”

  “Because Maggie is a distraction that we don’t need. She’s nosy as hell, and she constantly gets herself in trouble. It’s not just me that I’m thinking of here. She will be a distraction for everyone because we would constantly be watching and waiting for her to do something stupid. Last night, she got brought in for questioning because one of the guys who did the robbery looked at her wrong that day right before they pulled the heist. She got pissed off, went inside their getaway car, and hid the keys. That’s why the cops wanted to talk to her. They found her prints in the car and thought she was involved.”

  Jake laughed. “Bold.”

  “Yes, bold and stupid. Jake, trust me, Maggie Valor is trouble with a capital T. She has been that way her whole life. Why do you think she is working as a romance advice columnist and not at the crime news desk? Because she gets herself in trouble, that’s why.”

  “You know that how?”

  “I know that because I know Maggie.”

  “What are you going to do if I decide she is going anyway?”

  “I’m going to tell you that I’m not going. I’ll give my position away to one of the PTer’s, and they can run it. Besides, if you are going, and I know you want to, then it makes sense to have one of us back here at the office. I can cover everything that needs attention while you are away.”

  He inhaled loudly and released it slowly as he glanced around. “I had thought about that.”

  “Then I’ll stay back. If you want Maggie to go, then you take her.”

  “You care about her.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Not how you think. Maggie drives me nuts and not necessarily in a good way.”

  “Bullshit!” Jake laughed. “I’ll think about it, but I’m just going to tell you now that I think you’re a wuss for not going.”

  I stood up. “You think what you want, Screamer, and while you’re so interested in other people's business, figure out a way to make it up to Alice.”

  “She’s fine.”

  “She is far from fine, Jake. You owe her at least an apology.”

  “Fine, whatever.”

  “You know, I’d watch it if I were you. One of these days, Alice is going to tell you to go to hell and walk out. She’s the glue to this place, man. You know that, and she knows that.”

  “We’d be fine without her.”

  I glanced at the open door, hoping that her radar ears couldn’t hear us. “For your sake, I hope she never hears you say that, and you know as well as I do that we would not be.”

  “Yeah, alright, I know that. I will come up with something.”

  “You do that. In the meantime, I’m going to go check with Mike and see if he heard from my client yesterday.”

  “I think he did, and I think there was a question.”

  “On it,” I stated as I left his office. Alice was not at her desk, so I went straight to Mike’s, which was on the other side of Alex’s. Mike had an office because he needed more space than the rest of us for all his techno-toys and gadgets.

  I took a seat in his guest chair. “Heard there was a question with the client.”

  “Yeah, what are you doing here? I thought you were working with your girlfriend.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Does she know that?”

  “I did not come in here to talk about Maggie; can we just stick to work, please?”

  “Fine,” he grunted.

  As Mike and I talked, in the back of my mind, I wondered if Maggie was into some of the kinky shit that Mike was. Would the two of them get along? I gripped the arms of the chair tightly and then forced myself to relax. It didn’t matter to me what she did or who she was with.

  I was just thankful that Jake had given me the green light to stay here. At least I think I was—fuck!

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Maggie

  “Can you come over tonight?” I asked Heather as I rushed up the steps to the building that housed the newspaper.

  “Sure, what time?”

  “Eight? Unless you want to come for dinner.”

  “No, eight will work. I have a few other things going on after work.”

  “Alright, I’ll see you then.” I opened the door to the paper and prepared to hang up on Heather, but she stopped me.

  “Wait! Did you really get arrested last night?”

  I stopped in the middle of the lobby. “Where did you hear that?”

  “Donna mentioned it, said Tobin told her after he heard it from Sarah, whose brother is a cop.”

  “No. I was not arrested,” I snapped.

  “You weren’t?”

  I sighed; it wasn’t her fault that my life was going off the rails. “I’ll explain it tonight, Heather. I gotta go.”

  I hung up before she could respond and wondered what I was going to be walking into when I got up to the third floor. I’
d already received three voicemails and six text messages from Jeff about being arrested. How had they heard that?

  After lunch with Trevor, the two of us had gone back to the training center and worked on some other safety protocols. It was simple stuff. Well, simple if you had common sense, and we got through it quickly.

  I glanced at my watch and winced. It was almost three. Okay, maybe not as quickly as I had hoped. I rushed to the elevator and waited for the car to arrive. When the doors opened on the third floor, I practically exploded out of it. I glanced nervously toward Jeff’s office and then made a beeline for my cubicle, hoping to at least be able to hide there for a few minutes before I was demanded to make an appearance in his office.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Jessica, a co-worker, said as I slithered into my desk. She looked both ways in the narrow aisle between our cubbies and then rolled her chair into mine. “Did you seriously get arrested?”

  “No, I did not get arrested. I was brought in for an interview.”

  “But you were handcuffed!”

  “How the hell do you know that?” I asked her.

  “Because I saw the picture!”

  “What picture?”

  “The picture that they are going to run in the evening edition and post online at five!”

  “What?” I squeaked.

  “If you weren’t arrested, Maggie, you better go talk to Jeff!”

  “Yes, you damn well better talk to me. Where the hell have you been, Maggie Valor?” Jeff growled as he rounded the corner and almost bowled over the top of Jessica in her chair.

  “I told you I have been working on a story.”

  “Does your story have anything to do with being arrested? Were you released on bail? I couldn’t find any charges filed on you.”

  “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I taunted. “No, I wasn’t arrested, and I wasn’t charged because I didn’t do anything. I met with Detective Highmore because he had more questions.”

  “We have a photograph of you in handcuffs.”

  Who took that damn picture? “I was not arrested, Jeff.”

  “What were they questioning you about? Was it a false arrest? We could do a story on that.”

  “No, it was not a false arrest. I was not arrested, Jeff!” I threw my hands into the air as I lifted my face into the air. “I was not arrested!” I shouted so that everyone else listening could hear. “I was detained to answer a few questions.”

  I turned around and glared at Jeff. “You do know what detained means, right? Or do I need to explain that too?”

  “Of course, I know what detained means, Maggie.”

  “Well, that’s good,” I said sassily. “I was brought in to answer a few more questions about the robbery. Something got distorted, and I had to clear it up. It was all a misunderstanding.”

  “What was the misunderstanding?”

  I tugged my bottom lip under my teeth and glanced away. “I can’t tell you.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Maggie,” he screamed. “Why can’t you tell me? This is a newspaper, goddamn it! We report the news! You were smack-dab in the center of the biggest story we’ve had in months, and you refuse to talk about it. Do you know what this could do for your career?”

  I burst to my feet and got in his face. “And I told you that I was not going to talk about that because it could screw up the chances of those dirtbags being prosecuted. I’m a witness, a victim in this case. I cannot give the details until after the hearing. I could influence potential jurors.”

  He shifted back, glaring down at me. “So what the hell have you been working on? I know for a fact that you haven’t been watching over your column. You have over a hundred comments online that haven’t been answered, which is bad even for you. You’re slacking on your duties; I should fire you.”

  “Then fire me, Jeff! I told you I was working on a story.”

  “What story?” He put his finger into my face, “And you better not tell me it has anything to do with politics.” I tried not to wince, and he glared at me with bulging brown eyes. “I told you that unless you did this article about the robbery, you weren’t getting near the news desk with a ten-foot pole.”

  I straightened my spine and rolled back my shoulders. “You know what, Jeff? You will not dictate what kind of articles I am going to write anymore.”

  “Of course I can, I’m your boss. Or did you forget that, Maggie?”

  “Oh, I did not forget that you are in charge of some people, but as for being my boss, you are not my boss anymore. I quit!”

  He shifted back as if I had slapped him—I should have. A moment later, he began to laugh. “You quit? Where do you think you’re going to find a job, Maggie? Do you think anyone else around here is going to hire you? Not a chance in hell.”

  “Don’t worry your elephant-ass-head about me,” I snapped at him before I turned back to my desk and started collecting my possessions.

  “My what?” Jeff sputtered. “What are you doing?”

  “I just told you I quit. I’m gathering my stuff, and then I’m out of here.”

  “But you have a column to finish!” he seethed, and the vein in his temple began to bulge. The man was going to have a heart attack right here if he didn’t calm down. “You can’t walk out in the middle of a series.”

  “You wanna watch me?” I snapped.

  “Maggie, you didn’t give your two weeks’ notice.”

  “I think you’ll live.”

  “It won’t look good, you just walking out of here like this. It will only be harder for you to get a job.”

  I laughed. “Like you are worried about me getting a job. Give me a break, Jeff.”

  “Fine, I’ll accept your resignation, but you have to finish your series at the very least. It’s doing well for the paper, and we can’t just stop it in the middle.”

  “Alright, I’ll finish the series, but only because I already have them written,” I told him as I opened one of my drawers and started digging through it for my personal items.

  “Then what are you doing? If you’re going to stay until you finish that, why are you still packing?”

  “Because I can do that from home, Jeff. I do not need to be here. I will send the rest of my columns to you tomorrow, and then I’ll oversee them, but then I’m done. So find yourself someone else to write stupid romance advice that doesn’t work!”

  He grew quiet for a moment, and when I peered his way, he had his eyes closed. That was when I noticed that Jessica was still squashed between us, her chair pushed back as far as it could get in my little cubby, her eyes wide with excitement. The only thing missing was a bucket of popcorn in her lap.

  “Jeff, please move so Jessica can get back to her desk.”

  He startled like he hadn’t even seen her, and his cheeks started to pinken. He stepped out of the way, looked at me and opened his mouth as if to speak, and then turned and walked away, shaking his head.

  “I can’t believe you just quit,” Jessica said as she rolled herself backward toward the aisle. “That was awesome. I wish I could do that. What are you going to do now?”

  “I already have another stick in the fire. I’ll let you know how it pans out soon,” I told her as I went back to packing my things. Maybe I should have been more upset over the fact that I’d just quit my job. The problem was, I wasn’t. In fact, I was trying really hard not to break out in song and start dancing.

  A few people stopped by, said a few words, wished me well, and then went about their business. Forty minutes later, I was carrying my copy paper box filled with my favorite pens, a couple of pictures, some files, notebooks, and an eclectic assortment of bobbleheads that people had given me. I’d return my ID badge once I was officially done with my column, just in case I needed to come back for some reason.

  On the street, I paused and looked back at the building. I’d had big dreams when I started here a few years ago. I knew it would be hard starting over, but I had been excited
about the future. That future hadn’t taken me very far, or in the right direction, but I had a feeling that this one would—maybe, hopefully—oh, my god! I just quit my job!

  I turned slowly, struck by the sudden decision, and began to walk away. What the heck did I just do? I know it wasn’t a great job, but it had been a paycheck—a little paycheck—and insurance. It had been health insurance! Holy crap! I was getting close to forty. Wasn’t that when your body starting going to hell? Wasn’t that when I was going to need my medical insurance the most?

  The whole way home I was trying to keep from panicking, and I was just pulling into my driveway when I got a phone call from Jake.

  “Hey, Maggie, how are you?”

  “Hi, Jake, I’m doing alright. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I’ve talked at length to Trevor, Greg, and Alex.” He sighed loudly.

  I gnawed on my bottom lip as he paused, a bad feeling growing in my gut. “And?”

  “And I’m not sure if it’s going to work out, at least right now.”

  My entire body went stiff. “What? I thought I had passed everything. I thought that you were on board with this.”

  “I am Maggie, or I was. I love the idea of having a reporter along for the ride, but this might not be the right time.”

  I clamped my eyes closed, telling myself that I was not going to cry about this. “Did Greg talk you out of it? Is that what happened?”

  “No, Maggie, that’s not it.”

  “Then why not? You’re the one that thought this was such a great idea. What has changed?”

  “I still think it’s a great idea; I just don’t think now is the time.”

  I heard a woman’s voice on the other end of the line. “Look, I’ll talk to you soon, Maggie. I have to take another call.”

  “Okay—” I started to say, and the phone went dead. I glared at the phone, and the urge to cover my face and sob tore through me, but I forced myself to get out of the car and go inside.

  I pushed it all to the side and started dinner. With the chicken in the oven, the pasta cooking, and the veggies ready to warm, I signed on to my computer and started reading the comments on my column.