Page 83 of My Rock Star Neighbor
“If it’s Karigan Fonston, she’s going to put it up on her channel,” I say.
“Sarah at the paper is going to have a field day with this, isn’t she?”he asks.
I nod.Nemesis is totally going to crow thatshe knewNick would never date me.
“What about your label?”I ask.“Now you have to tell them that you signed this contract to fake date and you’re not in a relationship with me.”
“Iamin a relationship with you,” Nick says.“But yes.I’m not sure how I should tell them I misled them about this, but I didn’t lie to them about YouTuber.”
“It’s bad for me as a reporter that I lied about being in a relationship.”I sink into my couch.“What if this ruins my reputation as a reporter who tells the truth?I didn’t think this through.”I wanted the chance to date Nick and hoped that our contract would never be revealed.
Nick drops down onto the couch next to me.“And that’s not like you.And it’s not really like me either.Let’s stick to the truth—that we both liked each other, but neither wanted to admit it, so this seemed like a win-win situation where we could explore these emotions safely and then maybe muster up the courage to tell the other one we liked each other.”
I stare at Nick.“Is that why you wanted to fake date?”
“Not consciously.I’ll admit this wasn’t at the conscious level.But I was being honest in that interview when I said I looked forward to talking to you at the end of the day.Sometimes I’d play music so you’d come out and talk to me.”
“Are we in kindergarten?”
Nick pulls me into his lap and kisses me on the lips firmly.“Thankfully not.But there must be some way we can preempt this reveal.Maybe you could reach out to the YouTuber and do a story on her?She seems to want publicity.And she probably wouldn’t be able to resist crowing that she has this contract if you interviewed her.”
“But still, would she have really hired someone to break into my apartment?With a hammer?For what reason?It doesn’t make any sense that it’s her.The fact that the guy was looking through my desk makes me think it’s related to my corruption investigation.He was probably looking for any notes and was told to destroy my computer, but since that wasn’t here, he destroyed my monitor.”
“What about the picture?”Nick asks.
“To me, that seems like a red herring.The intruder even brought that photo, because it’s not like I had clipped that picture out and hung it up,” I say.I had saved it on my phone.“If that was the message they wanted to send, they could have mailed that to me since they know my address.”
We stare at each other, digesting these points.
“It’s between Galliano and Ward, or it could be that they are both corrupt,” I say.“We know Ward is getting kickbacks from the property manager because he’s signaling to Beatrice via the Instagram posts the library where the hand-off should be made, and she told him which book via the bookmark.We know Demoraux was getting Galliano’s daughter booked to play at various clubs as a quid pro quo for closing violations.That benefits Galliano, but it could be that Ward is behind that to throw shade at Galliano.Or Galliano is also corrupt.Galliano was introducing his daughter to the Parks Commissioner, and Ward said how much Galliano is always promoting his daughter.”
“I’ll reach out to his daughter again to see if I can figure anything more out,” Nick says.“But should you reach out to the YouTuber just in case?”
“No,” I say.“She’s been neutralized, and it doesn’t make sense to bring her back into the picture.”
“‘Neutralized.’Are you hanging out with Luca?”
“We did meet with our security team today.”
“You did?”Nick’s eyes search mine.“And you weren’t going to mention that?”
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“It makes me worried that your boss thinks it’s serious enough to bring in the security team, but I also feel better that they’re taking precautions.”Nick tucks my hair behind my ear.“We need to communicate.You need to tell me what’s going on.”
“I agree.But back to our missing contract.Given that this is a bribery investigation, I bet he’s going to offer a bribe—drop the investigation, and he won’t reveal the contract.”
“So, we still need to ‘neutralize’ its disclosure.”
“But it would be good if he approached me with that bribe.That might reveal some clues.In my limited experience, people want others to know how clever they’ve been, and I can get them to open up.”
“No.”
“No?”I ask.
“He hired a guy with ahammer.It’s not safe.”
“You’re right.I don’t want to meet Hammer Guy again.”I sigh.“I need to tell Felicity about the missing contract.”
