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“Hold on,” I say. “Back up. What have you been doing? Spying on us this whole time? Is that the reason you agreed to go out with me in the first place?”
The color drains from Logan’s face. “Is that why you’re living in this building, Elena? Is that why you got involved with us?”
Her eyes are pleading. “No. Not at all. I love what we have. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“That day you came over.” Julian’s voice goes flat. “You were pumping me for information.”
I glance between them. “You two discussed our work?”
JJ nods. “We spoke at length. At no time did Elena identify herself as a journalist, however.”
Elena doesn’t deny it. My heart sinks. Of all the people that have tried to pull something like this, and there have been quite a few, I never expected Elena to be one of them.
“You betrayed us.” Logan’s eyes are icy with anger.
I’m still hoping she’ll deny it, but she doesn’t. She shakes her head slowly. “No. I didn’t mean to. It was that day I spoke to you, Julian. I was coming to ask Asher for an interview. Thenyou started talking about everything and you were so into it. I didn’t see anything wrong with writing about the stuff you explained so well to me. I wrote up an even simpler explanation for my story. In the end, the article I submitted didn’t have any personal stuff about you guys at all, and not a thing about our relationships. I’ve kept that secret. Except for my best friend.”
“You told your best friend?” Logan’s voice is strangled. “Why would you do that? Keeping it to ourselves means exactly that. Telling no one. At all.”
“You’re a reporter.” I almost choke on the words. “Not a waitress like you told us. You were lying the entire time.”
“No. I am a waitress, but I’ve always wanted to be a journalist. When I got the chance to write this feature story I didn’t know you guys at all. It was assigned to me right after you and I went to the charity ball, Asher. I promise you I didn’t reveal anything personal in my story. I meant to tell you I was writing it and I would have. It wasn’t supposed to come out for at least another month, not until next month’s issue. I was planning on trying to talk my editor around into not going with the gossipy angle at all.”
Elena crosses her arms. “I submitted my story to her today and all it covered is the work your company’s doing. Nothing personal like she wanted, no secrets being revealed about us. That’s when she told me the feature I wrote couldn’t run the way I wrote it. She told me she’s going to run it anyway after editing it significantly. I have no idea how she found out, but she knows all about our relationships. The worst part is that she’s going to add everything in. All the details she couldn’t possibly know about, but she does”
“Your friend is her source.” Logan’s gone from shocked surprise to bitter anger. “So, Elena. Did you split the money you made by selling us out? I hope it was worth it.”
“It’s not like that,” Elena says. “Riley would never. I trust her. I know she didn’t do this.”
Logan laughs bitterly. “You trust her? Like we trusted you? You can see how well that worked out for us. Is your friend as trustworthy as you are? If she is, then we absolutely know the source.”
“She wouldn’t betray me,” Elena insists, her tone turning a little less certain.
Logan’s lips curl up. “I thought the same thing about you.”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” I interject. “What matters is that the board could fire all of us.”
Her hand flies to her mouth. “Is that true?”
“If our investors pull out over this article that you wrote, they absolutely could and they will,” Logan says. “They’re very conservative. After everything I went through to acquire them, our funding could disappear.”
“If we get ousted, they could take the company in an entirely new direction,” I say with a glance at Julian. “Our cure could get buried.”
Julian makes a choking sound. Logan puts his arm around him and he doesn’t pull away. A flare of anger rises up in me at the devastation this could cause to everyone.
“We have to go to try and fix this, Elena,” I say. “Before it’s too late.”
“I’m sorry,” she says miserably. “I never meant for anything to get out. You have to believe that.”
“I don’t,” I say simply. “Because even if that’s true, you still wrote an feature story about us without informing any of us. You interviewed Julian without his permission or knowledge. You talked to him at length about our proprietary work. Nothing should be made public until we put it out there, if and when we decide to. So no, Elena. I don’t believe you and I can’t trust you.”
“I’ll make it right,” she says, her eyes pleading.
“How are you going to do that?” Julian’s the one who speaks up. He’s shell-shocked, more wounded than angry. Unlike Logan, who’s the exact opposite. I don’t know how to feel about her. It doesn’t matter now. Not anymore.
“We’re leaving,” I say firmly. “We’ve wasted enough time that we don’t have.”
“I’ll do anything I can to stop this from happening. It’s my fault,” Elena says as I herd everyone out.
