Page 83 of Breaking News

Isaiah looked over his shoulder at Xander’s truck. “Wait,” he said, slowly turning back around. “Do other people not know?”

“No,” I answered, stepping closer to the kid as Xander’s truck door opened. “And we’d like to keep it that way, Isaiah. Get what I’m saying?” My words come out in a rush, my eyebrows raised so high it was a wonder they didn’t pop right off my forehead. I was grateful Xander was distracted by his phone or something, because he wasn’t walking our way yet.

“Yeah, I get what you mean,” Isaiah said, shifting on his feet. “But it’s like Xander says. The truth always finds a way of coming out.”

I blinked a couple of times. “Xander taught you that, did he?”

Isaiah nodded, looking up as a second pair of headlights turned into the lot. Meghan and Chase were here. “Yeah,” the kid said, glancing down at the coffees in front of him as if double-checking they were correct. “He’s always saying that the longer people try to hide something, the sloppier they get when they try to cover it up. So… just be careful, I guess.”

I held my breath with my hand over my mouth, having difficulty finding the words. This couldnotbe happening right now. With an exhale, I dropped my hand and said, “Great. I’m glad Xander’s been… imparting his wisdom on you.”

I’d assumed Isaiah had just been fulfilling drink orders all summer, but it appeared he’d also been absorbing some of Xander’s methods.

And now he was warning me about the consequences of my secret relationship with my employee.

My soul had officially vacated my body, and I was now standing in the pits of hell.

The others sleepily joined us, and Isaiah passed out everyone’s drinks without saying a word about what just went down. But he was more smiley than normal, and he didn’t even break a sweat when Meghan complained about her ice being “all melty.”

Before we got into separate cars, Jill and I lingered in the parking lot between them.

“I want the ground to open up and consume me whole,” Jill whispered, her wide eyes fixated on the asphalt.

I couldn’t think of anything to say. Xander was watching us closely from the front passenger seat of my car—dammit—and I didn’t want to risk him overhearing anything. “It’s going to be fine,” I mumbled, though I didn’t really believe it.

Our fate rested in the hands of a clumsy seventeen-year-old. And for the next two days we wouldn’t even be in Woodvale to control the narrative.

I would not be enjoying this trip.

chapter thirty-two

Jillian

When Meghan asked if I was okay on the way to the airport, I lied. “I’m just tired” was the only explanation I offered, because I was too numb to talk about the situation. It was still too fresh. But she was sleepy, too, so I followed Graham’s taillights all the way to the parking garage at the Indianapolis International Airport in silence.

Meghan teased Graham about his dad-like tendencies all the way to the security checkpoint, especially his insistence that we arrive so damn early. And the way he triple-checked that we all had our mobile boarding passes ready. Graham took it in stride, too rattled to argue with her. “Well. Come along, children,” he joked without cracking a smile, shaking his head as he waved for all of us to go ahead of him in the security line, like we were a group of unruly kindergarteners. Xander rolled his eyes.

“You okay?” Graham quietly asked me, touching my arm when nobody was looking.

“Feel like I might be sick,” I muttered under my breath.

A TSA agent barked at us from up ahead. “SHOES OFF, BELTS OFF, LAPTOPS OUT!”

We inched forward, and I slipped out of my sandals as Graham unbuckled his belt. “Yeah,” his voice so low, I almost didn’t hear him. “Me too.”

“EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR POCKETS!”

That wasn’t helping with my anxiety.

In fact, even after we’d made it through security and slumped into the chairs at our gate, my anxiety didn’t lessen one bit. Xander was brooding and sighing, sitting across from the rest of us, but I didn’t have the energy or mental bandwidth to wonder what was irking him so much.

I was still anxious when we sat on the plane, all of us along the same row. Our seats were assigned weeks ago, and I was in an aisle seat across from Meghan and beside Xander.

Meghan closed her eyes, resting her head against the back of her seat once we were settled. “Here’s hoping Isaiah doesn’t burn the newsroom down today.”

I just nodded, worrying about a different kind of disaster Isaiah could cause.

Xander cleared his throat on my right, speaking up for the first time since we’d arrived at the airport. “I gave Isaiah a list of menial tasks to do today. That should keep him busy.”

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