Page 10 of Control

“And I was so panicked after I talked to you today. I felt so guilty about having approved you taking over the Annie Sanders case after Yasmine got attacked and then you winding up needing to race through town two weeks later.”

Nothing she was saying was doing anything to ease the overwhelming sense of doom I could feel in the air. She had bad news. News that I didn’t think had anything to do with Yasmine or Annie—news that had to do with me and my ability to cover these stories. Without her confirmation, I knew that was the case. “Did Dale decide to let someone else take over where I left off?” I asked, feeling the painful tightening in my throat.

“Not exactly.”

Her tone did nothing to make me feel any better. “So, what is it?”

Rita shot me a sympathetic look. “He’s decided that nobody except for the police will be doing any investigation into either story. At least, nobody at our news station.”

“What?”

Nodding, confirming I hadn’t heard her incorrectly, she added, “Dale didn’t know about the note you found that Yasmine had received. Between that, Annie’s murder, Yasmine’s attack, and what happened to you, he’s not taking any more chances. He believes it’s apparent that whatever happened to all of you is the result of some very dangerous people. Dale doesn’t want you, oranyone else at the station, pushing this further and ending up in a worse situation.”

I stared at her, feeling utterly dumbfounded. “That’s not fair. He can’t do that!”

“He did. I thought it was crazy, too, but now that I’ve had some time to think about it, it’s probably for the best. Alana, you could have been killed.”

There was that.

And maybe I should have taken a step back and heeded the warning that these people, whoever they were, would stop at nothing to conceal the truth. A smarter person might have used Dale’s decision to let themselves off the hook.

I couldn’t do that.

“I can’t, Rita. I can’t just stop.”

“He’s not going to let you do this.”

“I’ll talk to him,” I reasoned. “Maybe once he sees that I’m okay, that I’m still eager to get to the bottom of this, he’ll change his mind.”

She shrugged. “I mean, you can try to do that. Maybe he’ll feel differently in a few days or can be persuaded to change his mind. But I’ll warn you now, he was livid today. If it’s any indication, I think you’re going to have a difficult time trying to convince him.”

Letting this go wasn’t an option for me. If I hadn’t just gotten out of surgery two hours ago, something I still felt slightly groggy from, I might have found a way to march myself out the front door. “I don’t understand. He just wants to give up?”

She sighed. “It makes no sense. I know. I wish I didn’t have to be the one to deliver the news. In fact, I didn’t think I’d have to do that today. I thought I’d have some time, that you’d want to rest and recuperate for a few weeks, and I’d have an opportunity to come up with a way to break the news that wouldn’t make it seem so bad.”

For several long moments, I sat there in tense silence with Rita. My mind was racing, my pulse pounding. I was mad, so mad. It felt like the biggest injustice, and I just couldn’t stand for it.

“This isn’t what we do,” I murmured.

“What?”

“We don’t quit, Rita,” I clipped, my voice rising. “We don’t just give up. I certainly don’t. And this just doesn’t make any sense. Do you agree with this?”

Her expression was grim. “I get why you feel the way you do, but I’ll be honest, Alana. This has taken a very serious turn. It might be better to pull back on this one.”

“Since when? Who does that? What person in my position, in Yasmine’s, takes a step back when things get dicey? Journalists and reporters know what they sign up for when they get into this career. They know there’s the potential for dangerous situations. We go to war-torn countries, for crying out loud. And so now, I’m expected to just give up. It’s like everyone has adopted the mindset that bad things happen, we don’t have any answers, and it’s okay to forget about it. I can’t accept that. And I certainly can’t sit around when my coworker is unconscious, sedated, and intubated in a bed in this hospital, pretending like it’s normal.”

“I’m not saying that you should pretend it’s normal.”

“Dale is. And you’re not exactly saying you disagree with him wanting to take this story away from me.”

“He’s just worried, and he wants us to leave this one to the authorities, because it’s clearly become dangerous. There’s so much that’s unknown,” she said, a failed attempt at justifying his reasoning.

I shook my head, feeling so much disgust. “You should go.”

“Alana, please don’t be like this,” she begged.

My eyes narrowed, and by some miracle, with the strength I didn’t know I had inside me, I sat up and pulled my back awayfrom the mattress. “Like what, Rita? Angry that this decision was made for me? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why that would be the case. I was born to do this job, and now I’m wondering if I even have one to go back to.”

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