Page 76 of Hidden

Tom rounded his desk and sat in his chair. “It’s not a story this network is interested in pursuing. It’s just not worth it.”

“Why Tom? How can you say it’s not worth pursuing? I have solid leads, I have a missing stripper, and I’ve got a source that’s feeding me data that has so far proved to be accurate. With all that, I have a damn good reason to think Upwood is part of it. I think the American people deserve to know what their CIA director is up to.”

Tom closed his eyes, then stood, leaning over his desk with his palms flat on his calendar. “Please Carrie. I understand this is hard for you, but you need to walk away from this. Your source is completely unverifiable. You can’t be sure you have a missing stripper, you just think you do. And you have no actual connection to Upwood other than a few photographs of him with a man you still can’t properly identify. Give what you have on the missing girl to the FBI and let them pursue it if it’s really that important to you, but UNN will not be following this story.”

Carrie mirrored his posture, leaning over his desk and met his gaze. “Is someone threatening you, Tom? This isn’t like you.”

He pulled out his keyboard tray and turned his attention to his screen. “No. Nothing like that. Just listen to me on this one. I’ve always let you do your own thing because you’re good at your job, but I need you to trust me and take a step back.”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried to calm the battle between angry outburst and full-blown tears. Tom would appreciate neither. Though in the moment she didn’t really care what Tom appreciated.

“So, what do you suggest I work on now? You know I’m not just going to be Gina’s EP. I have to have a story to follow.”

“So find out what she’s working on and pick something. We’re in D.C. Carrie. There is no shortage of stories.”

His printer started to whir and Carrie wanted to scream at him for working while they were having such a serious conversation.

He reached over and pulled three pages out of the tray and handed them to her. “What about the piece on the black budget?”

Carrie took the papers but didn’t look at them. She couldn’t stop staring at Tom as if he needed medical attention. “Budgets? First, that’s your baby. Why would you give it to me? Second, you want me to abandon a potential sex trafficking ring for budgets? You’ve lost your damn mind.” Without another word, she turned and walked out of Tom’s office.

Feeling numb, she made her way to her cubicle and stared at her screen. It displayed the list of missing girls from the handwritten journal in a spreadsheet she had made. Carrie was this close to connecting all the dots, she just didn’t know how to convince Tom to let her keep working on it.

“Black budgets, my ass,” she muttered as she closed out the document. Now she wasn’t sure what to do next. Leaving early was always an option. Tom had told her to take the rest of the week off, not to mention she’d racked up enough vacation time to take six months off if she wanted. Calling in sick had never been her thing. She occasionally took days off at the end of an out-of-the-country trip so she could explore without working, and she went camping with friends from the kink community twice a year, but otherwise she always worked.

Wandering to the break room, she filled her coffee cup, but it wasn’t what she wanted, so she dumped it and filled a paper cup with some water instead. She felt lost.

She pulled out her phone to call Darci. She always knew what to say to soothe her.

“Hey, I’m heading in to a meeting with a senator in five minutes. What do you need?”

She sighed. “Nothing. It can wait. I just wanted to check on you after last night. I meant to call earlier, but last night got crazy after we dropped you off.”

“I saw the news—and Peter.”

Carrie winced. “Yeah… but go to your meeting. We’ll talk soon.”

“Hey, I was going to go out to the club tonight to help get it ready for the grand opening. Gage wants to rearrange a few things after the test-run party. Want to come?”

“Yeah. I’ll just have to talk to Peter.”

They said goodbye, and she went back to her desk.

An hour later, she was still staring blankly at her screen, but her thoughts had drifted to Peter. What was he doing? At first, she thought he was the one who’d had her benched, but Tom didn’t know who he was. It was more likely the FBI agent she’d run into at the Cabaret. She picked up her phone and dialed Peter’s number. To her surprise, he answered.

“What are you doing right now?” she blurted.

“Carrie?”

“That’s me. What are you doing?” she asked again.

“Working…” His voice trailed off.

“I know that, dummy. But what exactly are you doing?”

“You’re being weird. I’m sitting at a desk doing paperwork.”

“Boring. I thought you would be doing something more interesting.”

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