“It was.” She ducked her head and he realized that she was hiding a smile. “But I didn’t see you doing that at the funeral and I was there the whole time. So I figured it was only fair to use the photos I took instead of photoshopping in the destruction.”
“Thanks.”
“I mean,” she continued in a voice laced with amusement, “I could have gone ahead and assumed that you went back after everyone had left so you could defile a cemetery, but I just don’t feel like it’s very much like you to do that sort of thing.”
“You would be correct.”
Skye pursed her lips for a moment. “You’re the youngest, right?”
“I am.”
Now she bit her lower lip. It was a very enticing gesture although she probably had no idea that it made her look so very fetching. “And your family probably never really takes you seriously, right?”
“Exactly.”
“But when they do its only long enough to tell you that you made a bad decision or did something they don’t approve of or something equally ridiculous, right?”
Jason took another long swig of his coffee. “You must be a youngest child.”
“Yes. My brother is six years older and perfect. Just ask my mother.” Skye rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that. It’s probably a lot more complicated in a household where you’re kind of tied into a family business and practically living in each other’s shadows your entire lives.”
“It does suck,” Jason agreed. He hadn’t expected this sort of insight from a woman who had a reputation like Skye’s. “But I’m surprised you get that. Your editor seemed to be convinced that she needed to assure me that you were a cutthroat and that you would not take any kind of pressure from me about your writing.”
“Oh God, what else did she say?” Skye moaned and put her hands over her face.
She was dressed so very casually in navy-colored jersey capris and an oversized gray T-shirt. The neck of the tee was half off her shoulder. She reminded Jason of one of those old workout videos where the women had their hair up in high ponytails and were wearing horrendous amounts of makeup when the video was filmed. Jason could not help but think that the woman was charming. Absolutely charming. And nothing like her editor had described her to be either.
“Let’s just say that I get the feeling Carolyn ‘Barracuda’ Phillips doesn’t know you that well.” Jason smirked. He took another drink of his coffee and savored the taste on his tongue. Then he winked at Skye. “Actually she describes you kind of like I would probably describe her.”
“Ugh!” Skye made a frustrated noise of disgust. “You spent what? Five minutes with her? And you figured that out right away. The woman drives me absolutely crazy. She’s fully convinced that the public wants nothing more than dirt on their neighbors. They don’t want any kind of real news. They are too stupid to understand current events. They’re just basically idiots who can be led from one topic to the next and convinced to part with their cash as long as they’re dazzled by the dirt.”
Jason sat back in his seat. He picked up his coffee and enjoyed the warmth of the mug against his palms. “That’s a really negative view of humanity in general. It’s hard to imagine that people really think that about their fellow humans.” Although, in Jason’s experience—which was rather extensive in some regards—humans in general had a pretty low opinion of each other.
“I just can’t bring myself to believe that the whole world is”—she looked almost helpless—“well, I guess like those two moms pushing strollers in their hideous yoga pants. Because if that’s true? Then I think I need to quit journalism and open up a coffee shop.”
“True dat!” Shawn shouted from behind the counter.
Lou was not about to let that just go. “You don’t want that, Shawn. Then we would all be hanging out at Skye’s Coffee Palace and you would go broke in a week.”
“That’s harsh, Lou.” Shawn was grinning at Skye. “How about I offer you a partnership then?”
“I might take you up on that someday,” Skye threatened. Then she sighed and looked at Jason once again. “I’m sorry that my boss fed you that song and dance. Is that why you came down here to find me? You were afraid that I was currently planning the next installment of the King family saga?”
“Actually, I came here because I wanted to talk to you about doing just that.”
“Excuse me?” Her green eyes went wide with shock. Her mouth opened and closed and then just sort of stuck halfway between. “Why would you want me to write another installment in the family saga? Aren’t you tired of that sort of thing? Aren’t you ready to be done with the society stuff? I kind of thought that’s why you were here.”
“Sort of.” Jason looked around at the eclectic décor, the prominently displayed newspaper racks where people could catch up on their current events and then he realized exactly why Skye favored this place. “You come here because the people who spend time in this place are not morons.”
She didn’t even bother to hem haw around about it. “Yes.”
“The people here pay attention to current events. They would probably not care more about the current reality television winner than the next political election, and you appreciate that because it validates everything that you like about journalism.”
“Okay. So you have me completely figured out. Let’s talk about what’s up with you.” She put both hands on the table and just stared across at him. “You’ve obviously got an idea of what you would like me to write. Why don’t you just tell me and we can forget all of the dancing around.”
“Right.” Jason shrugged. He could respect her desire to get to the point. But at the same time he wasn’t entirely sure what it was he wanted from her. “Let’s just say that I’m planning to do some poking around in the next few weeks at the office.”
“The offices of King Security Solutions, Inc?” She seemed to need clarification. “Or are you talking about poking around your mother’s personal home office?”
Jason snorted. “My mother doesn’t have a home office.”
“Are you sure?” Skye frowned. “I realize that you probably view her as a piece of fluff, but I have to tell you that, for the most part, women like your mother are the most organized sort of force of nature with the social whirlwind shit that you could possibly imagine.” Skye lifted her hand to her mouth. “Sorry. Excuse my language. It’s just that I’ve met a lot of women like your mother and they are so incredibly organized that they could probably micromanage a company like your father’s in their sleep.”
Jason’s brain had been going in one direction. Now it skidded to a stop and sort of turned around to head in a new one. “That’s a thought I’m going to keep in the back of my mind. Thank you. But for now if my mother does have a home office I don’t know where it is.”
“That’s fair.” Sky shrugged. “So you’re poking around. Are you going to give me dibs on whatever you find?”
Jason hadn’t actually thought that far ahead, but what did it really matter? “Sure. I can do that.”
“Uh huh.” She made a face and narrowed her gaze. “I’ve heard that before.”
“No seriously. I can do that. I just hadn’t thought about it. What I really need you to do is keep my mother busy.”
“Excuse me?” Skye pushed herself back into her chair and looked confused. “What does that mean? Keep her busy? You want me to keep publishing stories in my society column that make her mad?”
“Yep.” Jason realized how horrible that sounded.
Skye cursed beneath her breath. “I can’t do that! Your mother will sue me!”
“She can’t.” Jason snorted. “You’re not telling any lies. And I’m going to feed you the information.”
“Oh!” It was obvious that this idea appealed to Skye in a very basic way. “But if you actually find something—something real—you’ll let me have dibs on the story? Like if you discover that your father’s death wasn’t really an accident and it was all some
weirdly elaborate cover up for a murder?”
“Yes.” Jason put his hand over his heart. It was actually a little enough promise to make. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t need help getting the word out if that turned out to be true anyway. “I will let you break that story wide open. I don’t know how else I would do it and I would pretty much prefer that my father’s killer not get away with murder. So obviously the story has to be broken somehow.”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked suddenly.
Skye’s expression was adorable. Jason was struck once again by the fact that she was a beautiful woman in a very unique sort of way. He felt attracted to her and that was a wonderful thing. An unusual thing.
“I’m sure,” Jason told her firmly. “And here is what I want you to lead with. Story-wise anyway.”
“Okay.” She picked up her tablet and held it ready in her hands. “Hit me.”
“My mother spends an inordinate amount of time with my father’s business partner, Tex Johnson.” Even saying this out loud made Jason want to grind his teeth off at the gums. “She seems to hang on his every word. She tells us all that she won’t make any kind of decision until she consults Tex. It’s all very strange.”
“I see.” Skye pursed her lips and looked thoughtful. “You know I have some previous photographs and commentaries on social events that kind of back up the angle you’re suggesting. At least I assume you’re about to allege some kind of impropriety. Right?”
“Exactly.” Jason could not help the smug smile of satisfaction that ended up on his face. “So let’s make her think twice about how often she goes running to Tex.”
Skye started laughing. Then she shook her head and rolled her eyes very expressively. “God help your mother when you get done with her. She’ll be rethinking every bit of her behavior for the rest of her life!”
“That’s my hope,” Jason said grimly.
Then he paused for a moment and reached over the table. He held out his hand and waited. When Skye hesitantly put her fingers in his, Jason tried not to groan with the sheer pleasure of just touching her in this most basic way.
“So we have a deal?” She pulled out a business card. “I’ll expect you to be in touch regularly if you want this to work.”
Jason gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then took the business card with a little more enthusiasm than probably made sense. “I’ll be calling you often,” he assured her. But maybe it wasn’t just because of their deal. Maybe it was something else as well.
Chapter Eight
Skye was still trying to process what had happened when she tiptoed her way through the newsroom back to her cubicle at the rear of the Dallas Star offices. This was most definitely the first time that she had ever been asked to use her column to harass someone. But the temptation of a real story at the end of this campaign against Tisha Olivares-King was too much to resist.
The Dallas Star offices were busier than usual. It was all rather odd. Almost everyone was at their desk pounding away at their keyboards. The laptops were practically smoking with the fierce usage. Every few moments the top reporters would call out something to their assistants and then someone would be running pell-mell through the newsroom on their way to the elevator because they’d been sent to the copy room or even the photography floor on an errand. Usually this kind of activity was reserved for election nights or other big events. So what was going on that required that sort of attention?
Then Skye happened to glance up at the television. There was breaking news all right. The Dallas chief of police was standing on the front steps of the municipal building giving a speech to the press about a bank robbery that had apparently taken place while Skye was at the coffee shop. She had been so involved with Jason King and his bizarre request that she hadn’t even noticed the breaking news on the television hanging over the coffee bar. Great. What kind of reporter was she turning out to be?
Skye pushed into her cubicle and sat down. She had no sooner managed to pull her tablet back out and set it on her desktop when Carolyn came charging into the cubicle as though her gray hair were on fire. Skye raised her brows and stared at her editor much like she would have viewed a rattlesnake all coiled up and ready to strike.
“Where have you been?” Carolyn demanded. She was pointing emphatically out at the main newsroom. “Do you have any idea what’s going on out there?”
For just one brief second Skye thought that Carolyn wanted Skye to cover the bank robbery. It was probably the most incandescent moment of joy that Sky had experienced since coming to work at the Star.
And it was also fleeting. Because Carolyn wasted no time clarifying her irritation. “There is a bank robbery going on in this city!” Carolyn snarled. “It’s going to bump our stuff right to the back of the freaking paper! Do you know how bad that is for us all? We have to be on our toes in order to keep our spot. They’ll toss out the society section altogether if the paper gets too big because of all this bullshit about a robbery.” Carolyn threw up her hands and scoffed. “A robbery! Can you imagine? How ridiculous do you have to be? In this day and age nobody gets away with robbery. There are cameras all over the city and helicopters in the air following the getaway car. It’s all just a bunch of stupid drama!”
Skye almost did herself the disservice of reminding Carolyn that only a short time ago Carolyn had been touting the importance of drama in selling papers. Apparently the only drama that Carolyn wanted involved destroying people’s personal lives. Anything else was just crap!
“Are you even listening to me?” Carolyn spat the words with such force that Skye was pretty sure she was going to need to start wearing a face shield to protect herself from Carolyn’s spit-laced wrath. “How can you just sit there? Do you realize that if they cut our section then our jobs will go too?”
Why did that not feel like a bigger deal to Skye? Her brain actually started spinning around Shawn’s half shouted, probably half joking offer to be a partner at the coffee shop. Skye had a little savings built up. She loved the way Shawn ran the shop. She loved being there. Why not just throw in her lot with him and try to reach people with the news in that way? It would probably be more personally satisfying. Right?
“Skye!” Carolyn roared the word and Skye felt as though her eardrums were about to burst.
“Would you just be quiet?” Skye fired back at Carolyn. Wow! It was weirdly liberating to suddenly not care about your job. “I’m trying to think and it’s kind of hard to accomplish when you’re just yapping at me nonstop like some kind of crazy person.”
“Excuse me?” Carolyn drew back so quickly it was almost as if Skye had just struck her. “You don’t get to talk to me like that!”
“I just finished talking with Jason King.” There. That shut her up almost immediately. “He’s asking me to write some more pieces on his family. He wants certain things known around the city I think.”
“He does?” Carolyn nearly launched across the desk. For just a moment Skye was actually afraid that the woman was about to wrap her fingers around Skye’s neck and start strangling Skye with the sheer force of her excitement. “Oh my God! Can you get the story done now? Is it finished already? Can you write up the column and have it ready for the next edition?”
Skye felt the blood draining from her face. The whole thing about making sure she wasn’t spreading lies was going to be tricky as hell with this particular assignment. She had to be careful. When she was actually taking her cues from a disgruntled black sheep of a very rich Dallas family, Skye needed to check her facts or risk making a total mess.
And yet Skye needed to give her desperate and slightly psychotic editor something or the woman was likely to go off the deep end. “Yes. I can do that for the next edition. If you leave me alone,” Skye said pointedly. Then she scrambled for something to say to soften that statement. “I came back to the office in order to pull up some old photos and columns so that I can use those as background information.”
“Oh! Good idea!” Carolyn gush
ed. Then she actually patted Skye on the shoulder as though she were giving some kind of patronizing praise to a small child. At that point Skye was ready to smack Carolyn upside the head just to try and get her to snap out of this ridiculousness. But Carolyn was totally absorbed in her own personal thoughts about trying to upstage a freaking bank robbery. “Okay, so you can write that before the deadline for the next edition. It has to be juicy. It has to be super exciting and completely off the chain!”
“Off the chain?” Skye could not help it. She laughed out loud. “You must be joking. You can’t possibly think to push a bank robbery to a back page.”
Carolyn started to gnaw her fingernail. “No. You’re right. That would be totally impossible. There’s no way the EIC would allow that even though our stuff would sell way more papers.”
“Than a bank robbery?” Skye shook her head.
Sometimes she was absolutely sure that she and Carolyn Phillips did not live in the same world. They could not. Because in Carolyn’s world people were small-minded little sheep. Sheeple. That was actually what Carolyn had been known to call the general public.
“Nobody cares about reading about a bank robbery! They go online for that news. They get the videos from the local TV stations and they get the rest from the paper’s website. Nobody reads that crap in the actual paper.”
Perhaps Carolyn could be forgiven for her callousness if she was going to put it like that because that was probably true to some extent. Average Joe was used to getting their news real time on their smartphones. But as far as Skye was aware, even her society page was available online. So it was pretty much all the same at the end of the day.
“Okay, you get working. Fast. You hear me?” Carolyn pointed at Skye with such force that it was almost like there were laser beams shooting out of her fingertips. “And you make it juicy. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 6