yet. One or two more days in Boston wasn’t going to kill her.
She wasn’t sure where she stood with Derek. She’d like to find out, to see him again, sooner than later, but she wasn’t going to ask to stay there. Too soon. Too needy.
Unfortunately, Naomi’s power was out, and the roads on that side of town were still dealing with water and damage. She could go back to O’Donnell’s, but she’d rather die.
Carter.
“All right! A story!” her boss sang into the phone twenty minutes later. “I canceled your plane ticket and got you a room. You are going to love it, less than half a mile from the hospital where your friend is.”
“Thanks.”
“Just wait until you see the place.”
“You didn’t have to go to so much trouble.”
“Oh, I had to. I’ve always wanted to stay there. It’s called the Liberty.” Carter hooted with laughter, making her think that he’d had more Irish than coffee that morning. “It used to be the old Charles Street Jail! The hotel bar is the Alibi, used to be the drunk tank. So clever! There’s an Italian restaurant called Scampo—which means ‘escape’—in the section where guards transported prisoners from the paddy wagons to their cells. Seriously. I might fly out and join you.”
“Wha—”
“Honey, don’t you worry, this is a luxury hotel in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The renovations cost over $150 million. I wouldn’t stick you in a dump. But I’m sure there are ghosts. I mean interesting ghosts, not just old pickpockets. There was a captured German U-boat captain being held there who broke a pair of sunglasses into shards and slit—”
“Gross.”
“I’m just sayin’, there are bars over the windows in some places. This’ll be an experience you can write about. Might as well get as many articles out of this trip as possible.”
“Speaking of,” she said, “I need to get out my notes from last night’s game and the crazy power outage. I know other reporters have already beaten me to the punch, but I can send off a game review by tonight, if that’s okay. I should go.”
“Wait. Don’t hang up on me yet. First of all, I put money in your bank account to cover the food and travel. And, second, I’ve got to know … you said this girl’s apartment didn’t have heat or electricity and the roads were flooded. You didn’t go back there, did you? Where did you stay? The airport again?”
Hara opened and closed her mouth. There was so much building inside her. Without using names, she’d already told him about Naomi’s accident, and she’d told him about “a player” whose family had taken money from a college to secure placement. But she wanted to tell him more, to tell him all the details and how she felt about them, what the people were like here. She wanted to tell him about Derek, the good and the bad, and how attracted she was to the ballplayer, and how confused …
“Another friend let me stay. I’ll tell you more later, okay? Right now, I just want to get started. If the information checks out and we do end up printing it, the story could be huge, Carter.”
She shut her eyes. Her daddy had nothing to do with this story. If this happens, it’s because of me.
CHAPTER 16
There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.
—Pride and Prejudice
Derek rolled up to the gate in front of the O’Donnell residence, said his name into the speaker, and felt the grinding creak of the gate in his joints. He didn’t drive forward right away, staring across the brick roundabout in front of the historical residence. There was storm debris and standing water on the road, and quite a bit of water in the driveway.
Why was he there? It couldn’t be good.
He was greeted at the front door by O’Donnell himself, his fine white hair sprayed up into a wave. “Thanks for coming. Let’s go into my study. Do you want any coffee or tea, anything sent over from the kitchen?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.” Derek followed him into his study and took a chair. His gaze landed on a group of three paintings on the wall behind O’Donnell’s desk. The player froze in shock. It was hard not to stare. He wanted to turn away but couldn’t.
Each painting was a different sexualized scene, all sadomasochistic acts set in nature. In one, a man was tied to a