Page 39 of Ink and Ashes
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What do you want me to say, Rhodes? Whoever left it shouldn’t have threatened you, but the note is only saying what the rest of the town is?—”
He cuts himself off, so I fill in the blank myself.
“Thinking. That’s what you were about to say, right? Real nice, Caldwell,” I huff. “I’ll see myself out.”
“Rhodes, wait—” His hand wraps around my arm, spinning me back around to face him.
“I don’t want to hear it.” I tug my arm out of his grasp. “I get that you don’t like me and don’t want me here. I don’t knowwhat it is you have against the press, but whatever it is isn’t reason enough for you to be this ignorant toward what’s happening, and it’s definitely not enough to insinuate that I deserve to burn if I don’t quit looking into the fires.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t mean it. I just?—”
“I don’t know that, actually, because as you’ve made abundantly clear to me in the past few weeks, I don’t knowyouor anyone else here. But that’s not going to stop me.Youdon’t knowme. I don’t quit. This is not my first threat. Won’t be my last either. But none of the threats I’ve ever received have stopped me from doing my job. In fact, they only make me more determined to show the people doubting me just how wrong they are.”
I take a step forward. “You think you’re the first person to ever stand in my way? God, no. I’m a big city journalist who’s dealt with big city corruption. This is nothing but a roadblock in the grand scheme of resistance I’ve faced throughout my career. But you know what, Lieutenant?” I pause, getting in his face as much as I can with our height difference, even in my four-inch heels. “Resist all you want. I still always win.”
CHAPTER 14
Colson
“I’m an ass,” I say after taking a sip of my beer. Beau and Dom flank either side of me where I sit at Wildfire.
“What did you say to her this time?” Beau asks, assuming that I’m referring to Holland. He’d be right.
I know from Dom that he filled his brother in on everything he’s found with Holland. I’m the lieutenant Dom reports to directly, but he figured it was important for Beau to know too. I don’t disagree—I’m just glad I wasn’t the one who had to share it all.
“She found a note on her car at the station this morning. It said, ‘Stop investigating and leave town before you burn with it.’”
The two men freeze, their eyes burning holes into the sides of my head.
“Someone threatened her?” Dom asks slowly, trying to make sure he heard me right.
I jerk my head.
“That’s why she stormed back in with fury in her step. What did you say that makes youan ass?” Beau asks.
I finish off my beer, then mutter, “That the note was only saying what the rest of the town is thinking.”
It’s silent for a moment before Dom smacks me upside the back of the head.
I don’t flinch. I deserved that.
“You’re right,” Beau says simply. “You are an ass.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Dom asks.
I shrug, shaking my head. “I don’t know. She just gets under my skin, and I end up saying shit I don’t mean.”
Dom raises his brows. “So you don’t want her to leave?”
“No, I do.”
Do you, though?the voice in my head asks.
I want to say yes. The weight of her lie sits heavy on my shoulders, and that alone should be enough for me to want her gone. But I still haven’t told either of my best friends about that, and my hesitance to share tells me that maybe I do think she should stay.
I know Cassidy spoke to her about her identity, because she came back to me and called me an idiot for even daring to think that Holland is a fraud. I guess Holland filled her in on more of the story than she did me, and Cassidy ate up every word—then refused to share a single piece of it with me.
