Right Man, Right Time (The Vancouver Agitators, #3)(122)

“Shit,” Ross says as he scoops up our things and then takes me by the hand, right out of the classroom and into the hallway. “Deep breaths, Ollie.” He guides me to a corner and then sits us both down.

“I didn’t do it. I w-would n-never.” My teeth start to chatter, my body spasming with every second that goes by where this article is published.

“If you didn’t do it, then who did?” Ross asks.

I glance at him and say, “You’re . . . you’re the only one I accidentally told.”

His brow creases. “If you’re implying—”

“No, I’m not.” I shake my head. “I know you wouldn’t do that to me.” I press my hand to my forehead and try to think. “I just don’t get it. That’s not how I turned in the article. Who changed it? Can someone change it? That’s not allowed, is it?”

“I have no idea,” Ross says. “Obviously, someone did change it. Who did you turn the article in to?”

“Roberts,” I say. I sent it directly to him. “I don’t get how he would know about the cheating. Silas hasn’t told anyone. And I don’t know who else would know about the article.”

“The only correlation is . . . you,” Ross says, stating the obvious.

“Fuck,” I say as I pull out my phone and dial Silas’s number. I bring it up to my ear, and it rings three times before going to voicemail. When the phone beeps, I say, “Silas, it’s me. I really need to talk to you. Please call me.”

I hang up and then lean my head against the wall.

“Why didn’t you tell him that you didn’t write that part in the article?”

“Because he’s not going to listen to the voicemail,” I answer, knowing Silas too well. “There’s no point.” I draw my legs up to my chest and grip them tightly. “I think I’m fucked.”





**SILAS**





“Man, you have to eat something,” Posey says as he takes a seat next to me at a table in the arena while my phone buzzes on the table. Another phone call from Ollie, but I let it go to voicemail.

“I did. I had a protein bar,” I say.

“That’s not enough, and you know it.” Posey passes a plate of pasta salad toward me. “Come on, man. Eat something.”

“I don’t want to fucking eat something,” I say as I lean back in my chair. “Fuck, Levi, does it look like I want to eat something?”

He pauses, studying me. “It looks like you want to punch your fist through a wall.”

“Accurate,” I say as my leg bounces up and down at a rapid pace.

“Have you spoken to her?”

“What the hell would I say? Thanks for throwing me under the bus for your own career gain? Thanks for spreading my dirty laundry for the fucking world to see?” I shake my head. “No. Fuck her.”

“Okay, I can see where your head is at, but maybe something to consider, what if, I don’t know . . . what if it wasn’t her who wrote it?”

“What the fuck are you talking about? That’s the article she wrote. I read it before she turned it in. She told me she made a few changes. The part of me being cheated on, those were her changes. And why the hell are you defending her?”

“I’m not defending her. I’m just trying to figure this all out, okay? It doesn’t seem like Ollie would do that to you.”

“And you think you know her better than I do?”

“From what you know of her, is this something she would do?”

I glance away, my anger overtaking my common sense. “She knew about Sarah. She was one of the first to know. How did it end up in her article?”

“I . . . I don’t know,” Posey says as he scratches the back of his neck. “All I know is that I’ve seen the way she looks at you and cares for you. It’s hard to believe she would do this.” He pauses and then says, “What if . . . what if it was Sarah?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“What if Sarah went and told someone? I mean, she did have that altercation with Ollie at the bar. Maybe Ollie pissed her off, and Sarah went in for revenge?”

I run my tongue over my teeth, giving that idea thought. “How would she even know who Ollie was, that she was writing an article to begin with?”

Just then, the person of question, Sarah herself, walks into the cafeteria. It’s rare when marketing people go on trips with the teams, but because she’s been helping fill in for Penny, some duties have been split.

Sarah glances around, and when she spots me, she heads right for my table.

But this time, instead of her trying to attack me with her sex appeal, she has a worried expression on her face.

“Silas, can I have a word with you?” she asks as she wrings her hands in front of her.

“Whatever you have to say can be said in front of Posey.”

She glances at Posey and then back at me. I wonder what’s going on in her head. Is she guilty? She has to know about the article. I swear everyone knows about it at this point. That thing spread like wildfire.

“Okay.” She clears her throat. “I wanted to talk to you about that article that was written. I’m already getting emails from other news outlets asking for an interview, for a comment. My name is being tossed around because I was your last girlfriend, and now my boss is questioning me. Why . . . why did you have her write that? I know I hurt you, but this is playing with my livelihood now.”