AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I… wasn’t seen.”
There’s shuffling over the line, followed by a round of muffled curses and banging.
My lips thin as I nod. “That’s it. Mm-hmm. Get it all out.”
“Do you think this is funny?”
Maybe.
“It was Turner. The asshole snuck up on me while I was keeping watch.”
Alice clicks her pen a couple of times. “Unsurprising. He probably has a whole group of paparazzi with him, too. The man’s an incurable virus that refuses to die. Herpes personified.”
In the privacy of a homeless man’s dwelling, I allow myself to smile.
“Tell me I didn’t waste money sourcing the rehab intel just for it to blow up in our faces.”
My psyche prods me to do what I do best. Come up with a solution, and fast.
“Just because he no-showed the event doesn’t mean we’ve failed.” I glance up at the afternoon sun and decide I’ll wait here all day if I have to. “I’ve got a plan that’ll make whatever Turner scrounges up about Marcus look like amateur hour.”
Alice is silent long enough to have me checking our connection.
“Ugh, I hate him,” she finally mumbles.
Remembering the way he used her, I offer a consoling, “I know.”
“There’s something else I need to tell you.”
I pause, my ears perking as I wait for her follow-up. I’ve worked with the woman for three years now, and not once has that tone failed to deliver some hot gossip or bad news.
“Hit me,” I say, dropping the camera bag that’s been weighing my shoulder down with athud.
More pen clicking, only this time, it’s fast and uncharacteristically nervous. “You remember Leah Matthews?”
I can’t help but cringe. “Marcus’s dead sister?”
Admittedly, turning her funeral into a gossip piece may not have been the moral highlight of my career, but it was the first article I’d ever written for the magazine, and one of the highest-ranking in their history.
I sift through an endless cache of files in my head. “She was a renowned model who passed away a few years ago. Drug overdose they say, though I was never quite convinced. You know that family keeps their secrets locked up tighter than Alcatraz. And on top of that, they’re impossible to interview.”
And I would know. I’ve been waiting for Marcus to slip up ever since he sabotaged my meeting with him.
“That’s just it,” Alice says. “I’ve got a hunch she may not be as dead as we originally thought.”
The very idea gets my blood pumping.
“That’s absurd. I was there when they lowered the casket into the ground.”
That funeral story is the reason I now hold the title of lead journalist,and it’s one of my greatest accomplishments after getting my journalism degree.
The only downside? Having to keep up with all things Matthews.
My phone vibrates, and when I unlock the message, I hold my breath as my eyes fly over the information she’s sent me, absorbing every finite detail.
Marcus Matthews Crashes Lamborghini After Wild Night Out. Will Cliffhart Studios Stake Their Leading Vampire?
An inebriated joy ride gets theFang For Hireactor suspended from the show, and it’s going to take a lot more than holy water and apologies to get the vamp in director Gregorio Giovanni’s good graces again. Our sources say the vampire-turned-vampire-hunter is laying low in an undisclosed rehabilitation center. But can another stint in rehab save Matthews’s career?
