chapter thirty-one

chase

The last hand of the night ended with Mason raking in the final pot—a respectable $82 in cash. "How many Squishmallows can that buy for Finley?” Owen teased, clinking his beer bottle against Mason’s. We’d kept the stakes pretty low, with bets small enough to keep things fun but just enough to feel competitive. I ended the night down twelve bucks—not bad, considering I spent most of the first half pretending I remembered the rules.

Socializing with new groups of people had always been a little difficult for me, but those guys made it pretty easy. The conversation flowed effortlessly, along with the beer, making me glad Meghan encouraged me to come.

Eventually, the two parties merged, and we joined the women outside beneath the patio lights. Owen started a fire in the pit as I slid next to Meghan on the sectional. She scooted closer to Jill to make room, and I tried to ignore the creepy way Jill wiggled her eyes at me, almost sloshing her drink out of her glass as she scooted. She seemed a little wobbly.

“Someone’s going to be hung over for their morning broadcast,” I observed.

Jill lowered her glass, and in her booming news anchor voice, she slurred, “Good morning, Woodvale. Today we’re going to keep things very quiet and turn down the lights as this news anchor lays her head down on the desk. Back to you, Bernard.” She ended her monologue with a real hiccup, and everyone laughed.

On the other side of the patio, Mason leaned down to kiss Kendall on the lips, saying, “Hey, princess. Guess who just won eighty-two bucks?”

She widened her eyes and shot him a look. “Mason. You just kissed me in front of literally all the reporters in town.”

“Fuck,” Mason laughed. “At least the school year’s almost over.”

“You guys are really bad at keeping your relationship a secret,” Owen laughed, stoking the fire.

Meghan smiled, tipping her glass toward Kendall. “You’re safe with us. Nobody here’s breaking that story.”

I slid my arm along the back of the seat behind Meghan, close enough to touch her, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure if she wanted that kind of attention in front of everyone, and the last thing I wanted to do was make her uncomfortable.

On her other side, Jill let out an annoyed sigh. “We have to run all our stories past our CEO now, anyway. Silas is controlling everything we report, so that probably wouldn’t meet his approval.”

“Ah, Silas Brown,” Owen muttered, taking the seat next to Sarah on the swinging loveseat across from us. He looked into her eyes. “Our favorite person.” His tone was dripping in sarcasm.

“Stop,” Sarah whispered, her eyes widening. “That’s their boss.”

“Girl, spill the tea,” Jillian said, hugging the pillow on her lap. “Why do you guys hate him?”

Sarah and Owen exchanged a look. After a moment, Sarah let out a sigh. “This is off the record, right?” We all nodded. “Okay, first of all, that man has bad breath.”

Meghan almost choked on her drink next to me, and everyone else erupted into laughter. Even Xander was smiling.

“I’ve had to work closely with him a lot throughout the relocation,” Sarah continued, staring at the fire, “and I’m not sure about him. It’s obvious he’s a self-serving narcissist who barely has a grasp on reality.” She was pretty spot-on.

Owen cleared his throat. “Yeah, not to mention the fact he tried to use his generosity as leverage—”

“Bribery,” Sarah interrupted.

“— bribery to get a spot as a guest on my podcast.”

I couldn't imagine what someone like Silas Brown could bring to the table in a STEM-themed podcast. Xander seemed just as confused. “What? You didn’t tell me about this.”

With his arm draped over his wife’s shoulders, Owen took a swig of his beer. “He cornered Sarah with this whole ‘I scratched your back, now you scratch mine’ approach. Tried to get her to change my mind about it.”

Sarah shuddered. “He stood so close…”

“Yeah, all of that tracks,” Xander said, leaning forward in his seat. “Silas uses his position of power to persuade people. It’s kind of his whole schtick. And now he’s literally controlling the news—manipulating what we produce.” He motioned to the rest of the news crew sitting there. “He’s preventing us from telling the truth.”

“None of that sounds ethical,” Owen said. “Borderline illegal, even.”

“At the very least, we know we can’t trust our local news anymore.” Mason looked up at us as he spoke. “Not that it’s any of your guys’ fault.”

“Xander, you should report on this,” Sarah said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Expose this guy and show Woodvale who he truly is.”

Xander shook his head without even giving her suggestion any thought. “Hell no. I’ve pissed off plenty of politicians and city officials in my day, but none of them were the guy signing my paychecks. No thank you.”

As the conversation continued, with Sarah venting about her many run-ins with Silas in the halls of our building, I noticed Meghan had gone quiet. She stared at the flames in the fire pit, twisting her pendant necklace against her chest. Thinking she might be lost in a daydream about her mom, I hesitantly lowered my hand to her shoulder.

She turned toward me, took a deep breath, and said, “Maybe I should write an exposé on Silas.”

Around us, the conversation died down. “What’d you say?” Jill asked.

Meghan faced her. “The people in this town deserve to know what’s really going on. I’m going to compile all of his sketchy dealings in one big, fat exposé.”

“Are you sure?” Xander gave her a skeptical stare. “You didn’t handle the negative feedback on your Lenny article very well. The fallout from this will be huge.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I could tell from Meghan’s tone she meant what she said. “Yeah, I think I really want to do this. What do I have to lose? He’s determined to make sure the paper keeps going downhill, anyway.”

“Could you get fired for doing that?” Kendall asked.

“She very well could,” Xander answered, still staring at Meghan. “He won’t hesitate to come after you. You’ll have to be very careful in your wording. It’s a lot to take on alone.”

Meghan nodded like she understood. “I know.”

I glanced from Xander to Jill to Meghan, setting my beer on the ground between my feet. “What if you don’t do it alone?” She turned to look at me, and I rushed out the next words before I had a chance to change my mind. “What if you add my name to the byline? Then you won’t be taking the fall alone.”

Her eyes locked onto mine. “You’d be willing to do that?”

I nodded, holding her gaze. “You go down, I go down with you,” I said, echoing what we’d told each other that day we kissed by the waterfall. The corners of her lips turned upward in a smile.

Xander leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ve already got a ton of research on Silas’s involvement with Weston that you could use. You can throw my name on there, too. If you want.”

“Well hell,” Jill said, slapping Meghan’s knee. “Don’t leave me out of the group project. I want to help with this.”

With the four of us forming an alliance to take a public stand against our CEO, it was still a huge risk. But together, we had a real chance of making a change. There was strength in numbers, after all. An exposé written by most of the reporting staff would carry more weight than it would if it came from just one person.

“He can’t fire you all, right?” Owen asked, motioning across the patio toward us.

Meghan pulled out her phone. “I’m FaceTiming Graham.”

“I was going to suggest you leave him out of this, but okay,” Xander muttered, settling back into the cushions again.

“We have to have his support, or he won’t let us print it,” Meghan said just as Graham answered the FaceTime call. As Jill leaned over Meghan’s shoulder so they’d both appear on the screen, the man let out a long, melodramatic grunt.

“Ah, jeez. Sorry, ladies, I don’t have bail money.” He wanted to appear grumpy, but I could see his smile over Meghan’s shoulder.

Ignoring his joke, Meghan got right down to business, explaining everything we knew about what Silas had been up to. As she spoke, Xander walked around the fire to squeeze between her and Jill, detailing some of what he knew about John Weston.

I even took the phone for a minute, sharing what Sean had witnessed outside the comic bookstore. “You don’t know anything about him wanting to downsize us, do you?”

“No, I don’t,” Graham said, and though he could have been lying, his shock sounded genuine. He repeatedly ran his hand along his stubble as he listened to Meghan describe the exposé she planned to write, adding our names to the byline for protection.

“But,” she said, making sure she had his full attention, “we can’t do it without your approval.”

Graham let out a low whistle, shaking his head in disbelief. “Meghan, you’ve got some serious balls.”

Jillian leaned over Xander’s lap to look at the screen, her grin wide. “Ovaries, Graham. They’re called ovaries.”

Meghan didn’t miss a beat. “So, do I have your support or not?”

Graham let out a sigh, pulling away from the phone to yell at someone over his shoulder. “Sorry, it’s my weekend with the kids, and my son’s playing Fortnite—let me go out to the deck.”

The screen wobbled as Graham stood, the sound of a sliding door whooshing open in the background. As we waited, Meghan exchanged a glance with me, and then Xander.

We were all quiet as Graham settled into what looked like an outdoor chair. Finally, he stared into the camera again, saying, “You guys, this is insane.”

“He couldn’t fire us all, could he?” I asked, leaning against Meghan’s side.

“He absolutely could,” Graham said flatly. “Silas has the power to clean house if he wants to. He could start fresh with all new reporters. Pay them a hell of a lot less, too.”

“And just what would the community think about that?” Meghan locked her eyes on the screen. “If he fires Jillian fucking Taylor?” She shot a glance at Jill, who gave her hair a dramatic flip and pretended to inspect her nails.

“There would be an uproar,” Sarah interjected.

Graham frowned. He knew just as well as we did that Silas was the one who needed to go. He shook his head, but it wasn’t a no. “It’s so risky for me. I’ve got child support. I’m trying to buy a new house right now. I’ve got—"

“Womp, womp,” Xander said, leaning over to appear on the screen. “And I have a motorcycle payment.” It made the entire group laugh. Jill shook her head at him, mouthing something inaudible.

“Come on, Graham,” Meghan urged. “Do the right thing.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment and cursed under his breath. And then, adjusting his position in his deck chair, he moved his phone closer to his face. His eyes seemed to darken as he said, “Fine. Do it. Light the damn match. And add me to the byline.”

Meghan clapped her hand over her mouth and Jill squealed, but Graham quickly spoke again before anyone had the chance to interrupt.

“But we have to go about it the right way. I’ll have my personal lawyer review the story, and my buddy up at the Star could look at it, too. And if it’s solid, we’ll put it above the fold. How soon can you put this together?”

“With everyone’s help?” Meghan glanced up at me. “Give me one week.”

Xander and I exchanged a nod over Meghan’s head.

“Alright. Let’s shoot for publication next Friday, guys,” Graham said, blowing out a long, melodramatic sigh. “And that’s when we’ll all meet our demise.”

“We’re all in this together,” Jill sang out, making Graham shake his head.

“Wow, Jillian,” he said, blinking a few times. “You should bless the town with that singing voice of yours on the morning news.”

“Maybe I will,” she said, leaning over Xander’s lap again so she’d appear on the screen. “I’ll do it just for you, Graham.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“Alright, bye now,” Xander said, his hand shooting up to end the call.

The energy on the patio shifted the second Meghan put her phone down. A collective cheer went up, including those who’d been quietly watching this conversation unfold. Sarah rubbed her arms, flashing Meghan a grin. “That gave me goosebumps. I feel like we just witnessed something historical.”

“I’m both scared and excited for you guys,” Kendall said, glancing from Meghan to Jill.

I watched Meghan grin down at her lap and take a few deep breaths. She looked even more beautiful than usual under the soft, golden glow of the patio lights above. There was something different about the way she carried herself, too—a quiet kind of confidence that hadn’t been there before.

I knew, without a doubt, this was the woman I wanted to be with forever. It was going to take some time and effort to get it right, but she was worth every bit of it.

She caught me staring, shooting me a sweet, sly grin. And, rolling her eyes in surrender, she leaned over and kissed me right there in the center of that chattering group. It was just a quick, light, kiss, but that tiny display of affection told me she, too, believed this was going to work.