"I think I'd better step out," I said to Charles when Amy left the room. "I don't want to make her feel any worse than she actually does." He nodded but looked at me with weary blue eyes. "I would prefer it if you stayed. Believe it or not, I don't enjoy crying females." I smiled slightly and he smiled back, a quick moment of support for each other before I went out and into the conference room. I saw Jessica walk in but then take a detour and sit at her desk.

"Elena, there's no we involved here," Charles said about five minutes later, his large hands wrapped around a mug of freshly made coffee.He had slumped down on my couch and was leaning back, looking at the ceiling. "You already have people following you. We don't know who those donuts were targeting. I don't want there to be anything else."I sat next to him with my own cup and leaned against the cushions. "Okay, but I don't want to stop working on my story."Charles sighed. "I really need you to be okay with some security, please. If you don't care about my feelings, then think of it for insurance purposes for the company."I sat up. "What makes you think I don't care about your feelings?"He looked at me with tired eyes but said nothing. I slumped back down against the cushions."Okay," I said. "I'm not going to lie. All of this scares the heck out of me.""You can stop. It's totally okay."I shook my head. I couldn't stop now.Charles smiled and reached an arm out to me. I knew wh

Ten minutes later I was seated next to Sally in the conference room, my colleagues all looking at us with curiosity. Across the room, Kevin made eye-contact with me. I gave him a quick smile, and he looked away."Elena," Sally leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear. "I don't need anything, actually. Your scent is just comforting is all."She inhaled subtly and leaned away, smiling at me. Then she cleared her throat and stood."I'm afraid I have some sad news. One of our colleagues from another division, Nicolas Middleman, was found dead in his apartment late last night."There was a collective gasp around the room, some people raised hands to their mouths in shock."Right now there are no official reports, but Mr. Rafe, who was there to help find the body, is certain that there was foul play."More murmurs went around our table."Mr. Middleman was working on a similar piece as our own Elena, looking into something involving the city government, and while we have no proof as of ye

Twenty minutes later Charles was wrapping up his statement to a silent, transfixed audience. What he was saying was major news, and they couldn't wait to be the ones who broke it."And on behalf of Rafe media and all of Nicolas Middleman's colleagues, we would like to offer our sincere condolences to the Middleman family and to his friends. He will be missed, and I want to assure you we will do everything we can to look into his death and ensure that justice, if it is necessary, is served."With that, Charles thanked everyone for coming. He leaned toward me, covered the microphone and whispered, "You can head to my office now if you'd like. Unless you want to watch me take questions and annoy everyone by giving no answers."I gave a quick nod and stepped away from the warm lights of the cameras, heading toward the office door. But I didn't go in.I paused and looked back, watching Charles stand in front of the audience and answer questions from a nervous, somber room.His demeanor was

"I have to go anyway," Cathy said, standing. "I have a date.""Don't go, Cath, I'll tell him I'm with you and that will make him happy. I'm sure it's just that he wants to make sure I'm safe.""I'm not playing, I have a date," she said, mysteriously. "I'll tell you about it later."She gave me a squeeze and grabbed her coat. "Have a good time," she said, wigging her eyebrows.I promise to keep it respectful, came Charles' texts.Is that what I want? I thought to myself, smiling.Cathy is just leaving, I typed back. Come on by.I see her, he replied.What? You're already here?I'm relieving the guard.I went out onto my patio, and sure enough, the guard was checking his blind spot before pulling out into traffic.I hurriedly put the glasses into the dishwasher, thinking it may look bad that Cathy and I were having celebratory drinks when a colleague had so recently died.He knocked, and I opened the doored the door to find him leaning against my threshold."It seemed a good economic mo