I didn’t even regret it as my hand started stinging from the impact of the blow. I looked at Derrick’s face and saw the crisp white outline of my hand on his cheek, and tried to keep the blossoming smile from my lips.
“That’s it. You’re fired,” he said with a hard edge in his voice that I didn’t recognize.
“You can’t fire me,” I said. “We have a contract, at least until tomorrow. Remember?”
“I can do whatever I want, Savannah. Now get out.”
I walked out of the room, not even glancing at Kelsey as I did. In all honesty, I’d forgotten she was there, watching us the entire time.
What had I done?
And more important, what was I going to do now?
Chapter 3
I HAD TO CALL ZACH AND TELL HIM WHAT HAD JUST HAPpened. When I flipped open my phone, I saw that he’d left a message when I’d hung up on him so abruptly before. I nearly cried as I heard him say, “Sorry about that. I’ve got a meeting with the prosecutor, so I can’t talk. Hope everything goes well with you. Call me tonight. Bye.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Love you.”
I wanted to talk to him—I needed to—but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. He was smart enough to turn his own phone off when he was in a meeting.
I had to think. If either one of my uncles were around, I would call them, but they were currently near the Arctic Circle, and I’d been warned that they’d be out of cell phone reach until further notice. It had surprised me when their voices had sounded so close when they’d last called from Anchorage, but Chena Hot Springs was a lot farther north than that. They were taking in the natural springs, the ice sculpture museum, and a plane ride to the Arctic Circle itself, using the trip as an excuse to get reacquainted.
At least for the moment, I was on my own. I thought briefly about going straight to Jenny’s place, but I didn’t want to burden her with my troubles. Besides, I needed some time alone to think.
I got into my car and started driving around Raleigh, no destination in mind, just a chance to clear my head. I found myself near the capitol building, and by some miracle I found a parking space in front of the promenade across the street. The grounds around the capitol were lovely, carefully manicured and dotted with statues, tributes, and cannons, but I needed a place to sit and think. On my side of the street, there was a tree-lined expanse of geometrically laid gray square pavers, with buildings on both sides, a museum in one direction, and an office building in the other. I walked over to a stone planter and sat down facing three bronze statues perched on the steps to the museum. One of them, a Native American woman, had her hands held up to the sky, as though she were pleading for help from above.
I knew the feeling.
I was in serious trouble, and I fully realized it. Could I fix this? Surely if Derrick had originally intended to transfer my contract to the other group he wouldn’t be able to fire me out of hand, not if my columns were part of the deal. Didn’t that give me some kind of leverage? I realized that maybe this change would be a blessing in disguise. I didn’t mind the idea of not working for Derrick a minute longer than I had to. I certainly wouldn’t miss his threats and complaints about my work. Would working for someone else really be that bad? Now that I had some time to think about it, I realized that the jerk might have actually done me a favor by selling my contract to someone else.
But I’d taken care of that with one swift slap.
I wouldn’t deny that it had felt good, but I wasn’t about to pay for my rash behavior for the next five years if I could help it.
There was only one thing I could do, no matter how distasteful it was going to be. I had to get down on my knees and grovel until Derrick forgave me and included me in the sale.
It wasn’t going to be pleasant, but I didn’t see that I had any real choice.
I walked back to my car, glanced at my dashboard clock, and saw that I’d been sitting there for nearly an hour and a half. Was he even still at the hotel? I drove there as fast as I could, pulled into the parking lot, and then slipped inside.
The door to the conference room was closed, but that didn’t mean anything. He could be in there firing someone else, for all I knew. I waited five minutes, and then I knew I couldn’t just stand around hoping that he would come out.
I opened the door and instantly saw that something was very wrong.
It looked like I was too late for my apology to matter anymore.
Derrick was slumped over the table, his face buried in prime rib, and even from the doorway, I could see that someone had stuck a steak knife into his back.
IRAN TOWARD HIM. MAYBE THERE WAS STILL A CHANCE TO save him.
“Derrick? Can you hear me?” I tried to find a pulse as I leaned over him, but there wasn’t any that I could find. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there, though. I flipped open my phone and dialed the first two digits of 911 when his assistant, Kelsey, walked into the room. As I pressed the last 1 she dropped the tray in her hands and started screaming.
I doubted the operator could hear me over her shrieks, but Hotel Security was right behind her, and it was only after they charged in that I realized how this must have looked to them all.
I had just elevated myself to a whole new level of trouble.
“I DIDN’T DO IT,” I SAID AS I FACED THEM. “WHEN I WALKED IN, I found him like this.”
Kelsey was still screaming, and I wasn’t sure they even heard me over the noise. I’d expected a pair of weapons to be aimed at me, but all they had were cell phones. Unless one of them had a stun gun in his pocket, I should be all right.
“Would you stop that?” I snapped at Kelsey. She wasn’t making the situation any easier.
“You stabbed him,” she said, now whimpering.
“I did no such thing. I just got here.”
Kelsey wasn’t buying it. “Don’t lie. You hit him before. I saw it.”
That got the security team’s interest, and I really couldn’t blame them. “It’s all very simple to explain,” I said.
“Save it for the police,” one of the guards said. “Now step away from the body.”
I knew better than to try to argue with them. I did as I was told, and a minute later, paramedics arrived, along with a police escort. Before I could say a word, one of the security men pointed to me, and a man in a nice suit walked over to where I was standing.
“What happened here?” he asked me as the paramedics began searching for a pulse.
“We had a disagreement, I left, regretted it, then came back to apologize. When I did, I found him like that.”
“You seem pretty calm after just discovering a body.”
I nodded toward Kelsey, who was now collapsed in the arms of one of the security men. “I’m not like her. I’ve been a cop’s wife a long time.”
That got his attention. “Someone on our force?”
I shook my head. “No, he used to be the head of the Charlotte police department.”
“But not anymore.”
“He was shot in the line of duty, so he had to retire.”
“You’re Zach Stone’s wife?” he asked.
Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad after all. “I am. My name’s Savannah,” I added as I extended a hand to him.
He ignored it, and I put it back by my side. If he was impressed with the new information, he didn’t show it. “My name’s Shawn Murphy. Let’s go to the station.”