Then he shoved the guy into the wall. “I told you to drop the story.”
Real fear widened Abe’s eyes. “I-I did! Or I tried to. But my boss had a copy and printed it anyway. It was a slow news week.”
Zane pulled him off the wall and thumped him against it again. “I shouldkillyou for what you’ve done.”
Abe lifted his arms and tried for a nervous laugh. “Come on, I was just doing my job.”
“The entire town thinks I’m a murderer!”
“Well…I mean…aren’t you?”
Zane threw him to the floor and took one step before the door flew open and someone grabbed his arms. “Zane. Stop.”
Ethan. Of course his friend had learned the news and come.
“I’m going to tear him apart with my bare hands,” Zane growled.
Suddenly, Ethan was in front of him. “No. You touch him, and you’ll just make it worse.”
“So what? He just gets away with it?”
“Hell no.” Ethan turned to the reporter. “You’re going to print a retraction. Write therealstory.”
The guy frowned. “I don’t know if my boss—”
“You figure it out.” Ethan said the words slowly, like the idiot wouldn’t understand otherwise.
Abe’s mouth opened and closed. “And if I don’t?”
Ethan took a half step closer. “You don’t want to know.”
Zane’s jaw clenched. He didn’t want to leave. The rage was crawling through his gut like poison, and he needed to get it out. But Ethan was right. This wouldn’t achieve anything. And it sure as hell wouldn’t make anything better.
“You print the retraction, and you do it fast.” They were Zane’s last words before he stepped back out of the apartment and stormed down the stairs.
When they got outside, Ethan grabbed his arm again. “Zane, wait. Are you okay?”
“How did you know?” Zane asked, turning.
“The second you told me about the guy, I signed up for theChronicle. Drove straight up this morning.”
Fuck, Ethan was a good friend.
Zane ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to hit something. To drown out the frustration with some kind of physical pain.
Ethan stepped closer. “Hey. The town will care for a second, the retraction will be printed, and everyone will move on to the next small-town gossip.”
“I don’t care about the damn town.”
“Then what—”
“Bonnie. You should have seen the way she looked at me this morning. Like I was a murderer. Like I was a stranger. Amistake.”
Mistake…the word tasted like acid on his tongue.
Ethan’s brows flickered. “You slept with her?”
“Yeah, I slept with her. I slept with her without telling her about anything I’d been through. And now I look like the asshole.”
