AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He says it like it’s a badge of honor. However, that paper is the smallest one in the city. It has a circulation of fewer than ten thousand subscribers or something like that. It’s not a huge imprint and has maybe double that amount of online followers, which is nothing compared to the heavy hitting presses.
Yet, any article that points to illegal dealings is bound to garner some negative attention. Not what Townsend Industries would want.
“Listen,” Dean continues, “I’m going to need you to meet someone.”
“What? Who? I’m not—” I break off as my eyes meet those of the driver. Lowering my voice I say, “I’m not meeting anyone for you.”
“You are. I’ll text you the name, time, and location. He’s got something he’s going to give you to help you gather more information on those sons of bitches.”
With that he disconnects the call.
My mind is going a million miles a minute. Between Eve, this bullshit with Dean, and whatever is growing between me and Kyle, I can’t keep up with it all.
CHAPTER21
Kyle
“This is defamation,” I growl at the five people on the conference call. One of which is my father, calling in from Paris, and another is my Uncle Joshua.
Earlier this morning that fucking article inThe Williamsport Dailycame out. Even though it’s Sunday, the first thing I did was demand that two of my family’s top attorneys make time for this call.
I’m at Buona Sera, an Italian restaurant owned by my family, in one of the private dining rooms.
“First we’re going to sue those fucking reporters, and second, I’m going to sue the entire paper and put those sons of bitches out of business.”
“Calm down, son,” my father says.
I blink and glare at the phone. “Did you just tell me to calm down?” I can hardly believe what he’s saying.
“He’s right, Kyle,” Uncle Joshua adds.
I shake my head in disbelief.
“Nothing good will come of this if we make any rash decisions,” Dad replies.
“Do you hear yourself?” My father has gotten soft in his old age.
“Jake, I want the defamation paperwork filed for tomorrow,” I instruct, ignoring my father’s advice. Him being in the City of Love has gotten to him. I can tell. As soon as he’s back home he’ll be singing a different tune.
Which is why I’m not waiting around to get the ball rolling.
“Kyle, we can do that.”
“Then do it,” I order, feeling like he’s about to stick a ‘but’ on the end of his sentence.
“But we’re not quite certain anything contained in that article constitutes defamation.”
A growling sound escapes out of the back of my throat.
“We know that article is not accurate,” Amelia, the other attorney on the line, adds. Her voice is firm. “If you want to sue them to hell, I’ll get the paperwork done by the end of business tomorrow. But you may also want to think about how this all looks,” she continues.
While I want to tell her to go to hell and just get the job done, my uncle instructs her to, “Keep talking.”
Reluctantly, I listen.
“The Williamsport Dailyis a small fish. A few thousand people may have come across that article. And with the latest report I’ve seen on the paper’s demographics, they don’t have the pull they had even five years ago.”
Amelia is a former PR associate and she’s obviously putting that experience to use.
