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The door was almost closed behind me when I heard Ali call my name.
“What about your car?” she asked when I went back in.
I held up my keys. “Rental. Which reminds me.” I handed Chloe the keys to Ali’s car along with the valet ticket.
“Cope?” Ali said again when I opened the door to leave for the second time.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for staying with me today.”
I could tell myself that, like I’d told Ali, her reporting on Warrick’s trial would help us both. But would it? Whether I was feeding her information or not, I wouldn’t be able to control what she wrote. In the little time we’d spent together, my opinion was that Ali seemed intuitive enough to decipher the truth. I sensed that if she thought I was lying, she’d call me out on it, just like I would with her. The only difference was, she had a newspaper to do it in.
I checked the time while I waited for the elevator. Before I went home, I needed to swing by and see what I could get out of my car. It was also still early enough that I could have a conversation with Money about my plan to give the Express reporter an exclusive.
I’d have to spin it in such a way that he’d buy I intended it as a response to the leak from yesterday—rather than me helping a woman I found so attractive that she was becoming all I thought about.
When I pulled into the lot where the police had towed my car and saw the shape it was in, I felt nauseous. It was a miracle Ali was still alive. The airbags were probably what had saved her; if she were a larger person, her skull might’ve been crushed, judging by the way the roof of the car had buckled.
I gripped the steering wheel when the ramifications of that thought tore through me like a gale-force wind. If she were a larger person—like me—her skull might’ve been crushed. Jesus fucking Christ. Ali was driving my car. My car. The one I should’ve been driving.
She’d also said that the guy who “gave her the creeps,” was standing by my car.
Ali’s accident had been intentional, except I was supposed to be behind the wheel. That meant someone had figured out my carefully crafted plan and was attempting to stop me before I could execute it. Given there was one person the plan was intended to take down, I now knew that the hook I’d baited caught the fish. I just had to pay close attention to what he did next.
I pulled out my cell phone and called my boss. Money answered on the first ring.
“Cope?”
“Hello, sir. I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the accident this morning, involving an Express reporter who was driving my car.”
“I have.”
“The reason for my call is to let you know I’ll be taking a leave of absence from all other cases on my roster. I will, however, still continue to oversee Warrick’s trial.”
He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you come into the office tomorrow, and we’ll discuss this further?”
“I won’t be able to do that, sir.”
“Why not?”
“Because I believe the accident that almost killed Ali Graham was intended for me. Until I figure out who was behind it, I’ll be operating independently.”
“That isn’t your decision to make, Cope.”
“No? The alternative, then, would be to fire me.”
“There’s no need to overreact. All I’m saying is I want you to come into the office so we can discuss this in person.”
“And all I’m saying is no.” I disconnected the call, turned off my cell, and tossed it on the passenger seat. I’d thrown down the gauntlet; now I’d sit back and watch who from the agency responded and how.
I stopped by the café before going up to my apartment. While I waited for my order, I told Lindsey about Ali’s accident. She came around and sat at one of the high tops, motioning for me to join her.
“Talk to me, Cope,” she said. “What’s with you and this woman? First you order enough food to feed her for a week, now you’re telling me she’s in the hospital and you’ve been there with her most of the day.”
I shrugged. “I thought you’d want to know.”
“That’s not my point. Two days ago, you didn’t know her. Now you’re her knight in shining armor. What’s that about?”
