On the Run (Whispering Key #2) - May Archer Page 0,77
totally. Just my boss.” I rolled my eyes. “You know how it goes.”
“Mmmm, nope. Put all my money in bitcoin back in ’09 and cashed out in ’17. Ain’t worked a day since.” He winked, and I stared at him. “But just remember, you need anything—money, fresh passport, SpaghettiOs—I’m your guy. M’kay?”
I blinked and shook my head, amused and weirdly moved. I’d never had anyone offer me a fake passport before. “Yeah, Littlejohn. Okay. Thank you.”
He clapped me on the shoulder just as Jeanette called again, and I motioned at the patio by Mason’s house. “I’d better get this.”
I walked a few feet away before engaging the call. “Jeanette! Oh my God, honey, how have you been this week? Are you languishing for want of me?”
“Tobias—”
I could tell from that one word that she was none too pleased, so I hurried on. “Sorry about the confusion earlier. I called you, then I was suddenly busy all morning. And, um, afternoon. And honestly, I’m still busy, but I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you when—”
“Tobias, stop. Patricia in HR got a call this morning asking about you by name: Tobias Elford. Someone wanted to confirm your employment.”
Ah, motherfucker.
“Did they? Ha. Well. Good gracious. I’m… I’m… I’m stunned, that’s what I am. The lawlessness. The fraudulence! I—”
“Tobias, need I remind you that you are under contract with HiWire for five more years? It’s a contract that cannot be broken unless you are convicted of murder, and even then, I’d find you.”
“Well, yes, darling, I’m aware.” I frowned, genuinely bewildered as to where she was going with this.
“We traced the phone number back to BlazeNewz, so either you’re planning to jump ship and take the column to Blaze, which would imply you’d broken your nondisclosure agreement, or else you somehow managed to leak that you’re Hagatha, and would also imply you’d broken the NDA. Which is it?”
“Orrrrr, door number three, someone’s checking my identity for a totally separate purpose. HiWire is my legal employer of record on my credit report, you know.”
“Hmm. Well, Patricia refused to confirm your employment, in any case. So, while I’m giving you reminders that you might find pertinent to your life, let me remind you that we are all sunk if your identity gets out. Ratings would plummet. No one wants advice from a middle-aged man with no partner, no children… not even a pet.”
Middle-aged? That was low.
“Ah, Jeanette. You are a ray of sunshine lighting the cold and empty darkness of my existence. What would I do without your constant encouragement? And for your information, I have recently acquired a pet.” Temporarily. “She’s a cat. Her name is Marjorie. She’s feral.”
“Hmm,” she said dubiously. “You have so much in common. Anyway, just remember what I said, alright? You need HiWire.”
I clenched the phone in my hand. I remembered what Beale had said about embracing Hagatha. About owning it. “And HiWire needs me.” I swallowed hard. “And while I would never willingly break the NDA, if someone has somehow found out, we’ll simply have to deal with it. Your threats only go so far.”
Jeanette made a frustrated noise. “What the hell happened to you in the past week? Is there something noxious in the air in the Maldives?”
“I’m not in the Maldives,” I informed her. “I decided to visit a friend out of town, instead.”
“A friend.” She snorted. “You mean your one friend who lives Upstate somewhere?”
Except he didn’t, because Mason had moved down here. “No, actually. I haven’t seen Mase in months. A different friend.”
“Hmm,” she said once more, like she couldn’t believe more than one person put up with me.
Honestly, I couldn’t believe it either, but evidence suggested it was, indeed, possible. I had Littlejohn now. Maddie. Mason…
Beale.
“Fine,” Jeanette sighed. “Keep your secrets. But I expect you back next week or so, and no more calls from our rivals.”
After she disconnected, I grabbed a hank of my own hair and tugged roughly.
Next week was the new timeline, and I sure as hell hoped Mason had a good idea of how to get this resolved by then, because from what I’d read online earlier, it didn’t seem like Jayd would be coming forward anytime soon.
Keep your secrets, she’d said. But the trouble was, I didn’t want to keep my secrets anymore. I had to tell Beale what was going on. We’d passed a point, sometime in the middle of sex last night, or maybe long before that and I’d pretended not to notice, where