Last Summer(47)

“I’m not sharing anything with him.” Nathan sinks his hands into his front pockets. “He needed something to chew on or he wouldn’t have left, not with you here.”

“Do I have anything to worry about?”

“No.” He shakes his head and gently touches her arm. “Will you stay? Dinner’s cooking in the Crock-Pot. We can spend the rest of the afternoon on the assignment, see if we can finish this up.”

“Thanks. I’d like that.” She waves her phone. “I have to make a few calls first. Do you mind?”

“I’ll unhitch the trailer and meet you inside.”





CHAPTER 19

Ella settles inside her car, grateful that Nathan’s Wi-Fi is strong enough to reach out here, and checks her phone. Eight missed calls from Damien. She’ll get to him later, because right now, she needs to call her editor.

“Talk to me, Ella,” Rebecca greets.

“We have a problem. Nathan leaves for Alaska tomorrow.”

“Wrap it up, then. Use your notes from before. Can you get a draft to me by Monday?”

Five days.

“There’ve been some, ah . . . developments.” Like she doesn’t have her notes or her memory, developments. “Miles Jorgenson showed up today. He’s pissed Nathan gave us the exclusive. Apparently, they’re friends.”

“Nathan signed a contract. He can’t talk with anyone until we go to print.”

“I know, but I don’t trust Miles, not around a story this big.”

“What are you saying?”

“I want to go to Alaska with Nathan. I’ll wrap up the interview there. He’s heli-skiing so I can get some great action shots for the article.”

“Nathan agreed to this?”

“Yes.” Lie. But she should be able to convince him to invite her along now that she’s convinced they had an affair. She wants the details. Nathan also owes her. He agreed to help her with her memories when she first got here.

“Go then,” Rebecca agrees. “I’ll give you until Thursday, but that’s a hard deadline.”

She victory-punches the air. “You’ll have it in your in-box first thing.”

“Paul was in my office asking about it this morning. Both our jobs are riding on you getting this right. We had to scramble last summer. Don’t let me down again.”

“You have my word.”

She ends the call with Rebecca and calls Damien. He answers after the second ring.

“Where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you all day.” Gravelly and urgent, Damien’s voice rumbles over the phone. She knows he won’t be happy with what she has to tell him, but it’s such a relief to finally hear his voice.

“Still in Truckee with Nathan Donovan. The coverage is really bad up here. I only just got Wi-Fi again a few minutes ago.”

“I’ve been worried.” Ella feels the impact of his words. It pulls at her. His frustration that she’s far from him and unreachable.

She could say the same about him. She hasn’t heard from him since his cryptic text message yesterday morning. Everything’s going to shit.

“How’s the internal investigation coming along?”

He sighs, and she pictures him standing by the large front window in the bedroom of their darkened London flat, staring out into the night sky. Scrubbing a hand over his mop of hair, the city lights reflecting in his eyes, his sleep pants riding low on his hips, the perfect V of his lower abs disappearing beneath the waistband. They can see Buckingham Palace from their Kings Gate apartment. To the east, the Thames glitters under the lights of the London Eye.

“Legal department’s casting a wider net and we’ve brought in our IT security team,” he explains. “This is bigger than we thought, El. It doesn’t stop at the client list or with one employee.”

“Do you still suspect your dad’s behind this?”

He takes a beat. “My gut tells me yes but the employees involved that we’ve identified aren’t talking yet. We’re keeping this on the down-low until we’ve collected as much evidence as we can. I can’t get into specifics, you know that. My attorneys will shit if they find out I’ve told you anything. But I trust you’ll keep this between us. The last thing we need is for the media to catch wind of it. When’s your flight? I miss you, and . . . we need to talk.”

“Of course, you want to talk now,” she snaps, the words escaping before she can lock them down. “So here’s a question for you: Did I sleep with Nathan?” She swears he knew she had an affair with Nathan and he didn’t tell her. He didn’t stop her. Yeah, he tried, but looking back, his efforts were weak. Doesn’t he care about her? What about their marriage? Anger pours through her.

“I’ll answer that but not over the phone.”

Ella lets the arm holding her phone fall into her lap. Are you freaking kidding me?

She puts the phone back to her ear. “Do you know how pissed off I am?” she asks. “Why now? Why didn’t you tell me last November or every other time I’ve asked what happened?”

Say it, Damien, she silently wills. She wants him to admit it out loud. Say, “You fucked Nathan.”

“Not. Over. The. Phone,” he clips, irritated. “I’m not getting into this with you when you’re with him and eight time zones away from me.”