He sat in his chair, a tank top revealing his muscled arms and a pissed off expression revealing more than I wanted. “I can’t believe you.”
Well, that could mean anything. I shut the door and strode into the office to sit on the other side of his desk, noting the nice view of the darkened Lilac Lake outside his wide window. Nothing came to mind that I’d done lately to elicit that reaction, and surely calling for help when I had thought Kelsey was going to self-harm wouldn’t make him mad. “Could you be more specific?”
“More specific? Sure.” He turned to the monitor of his computer and started to read. “This is online now, and the print edition hits theTimber City Gazettefirst thing tomorrow.”
I swallowed. “I’m in a newspaper article?”
Nick barked out a laugh and turned the monitor so I could see a picture of me taken that morning holding Aiden’s hand beneath the headline: “Possible Corruption in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”
My belly cramped. “Oh, crap.” The photographer that morning worked for the paper?
“Yep,” Nick said, his voice low as he turned his monitor back to himself. “Shall I paraphrase it for you?”
I winced and tried not to puke. Everyone would see Aiden leaving my place in the morning with us holding hands. And by everyone, I meant my family. They’d know I’d slept with Aiden. I was a big girl, and a grown-up and had privacy and all, but no girl wanted her Grandpa to know she’d tangled up the sheets with a hottie Irishman who might be on the wrong side of the law. “Go ahead.”
Nick kicked back and looked at me and not the monitor, obviously having read the gist enough. “Let’s see. Anna Albertini, who found both Aiden and her sister standing over a dead body, who works for the prosecuting attorney’s office, is having an illicit affair with the prime subject in the murder—a guy who belongs to a motorcycle club that was just disbanded for distributing drugs. Can you say conflict…of…interest?”
A headache started in my shoulders and shot up my neck to my head. “Um.”
“Yeah. Um.” Nick’s dark hair was standing on end as if he’d yanked on it, and his usually mellow brown eyes held a sharp edge.
“Shouldn’t they have tried to contact me for a comment?” I asked lamely, trying to drum up anger instead of embarrassment and dread.
“Why yes,” Nick said, sarcasm heavy in his tone as he leaned back to read from the article. “Anna Albertini confirmed that the rumors surrounding this situation are true and that her sister did not murder Danny Pucci.”
What in the world? I leaned forward.
Nick continued, “Ms. Albertini also confirmed that she found her lover and her own sister standing over the dead body of Mr. Pucci. Mr. Pucci was arrested in the past for assaulting Ms. Albertini’s sister as evidenced from court files.”
I couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t confirm anything. Who wrote that?”
He faced me again. “The byline says Jolene O’Sullivan.”
“Oh, that bitch,” I muttered. When we’d had lunch by the beach. What had I said to her? “I didn’t confirm anything, and I had no clue she was a reporter.”
“This is her first story,” Nick confirmed. “Apparently she got the job last week and moved here. She didn’t tell you that you were on the record?”
“No,” I burst out. “Not only that, she’s twisting my words. I never said those things.” Yet I hadn’t denied finding Tessa and Aiden standing over Danny Pucci’s body, and there was no way to deny that I’d been leaving my cottage in the morning while holding Aiden’s hand. That was there in black and white. “What can we do?”
Nick shook his head. “There’s no law that a journalist has to identify herself when getting quotes, but most organizations have a code of ethics that require it.”
My fingernails cut into my palms when I curled my hands into fists. “She didn’t write anything that’s technically false, so I don’t have a case for libel.”
“Okay.” Nick pressed his palm to the bridge between his eyes and closed them for a minute. “Here’s the plan.” He sat back and looked at me, obviously thinking it through fast. “You have no comment on this. Period. We’ll issue a press release tomorrow, and by we, I mean me and the office. You will say nothing. Do you understand?”
I nodded. Saying nothing seemed like a good way to go for me right now. I couldn’t believe Jolene had set me up like that.
Nick’s expression didn’t alter. “You’re also taking a leave of absence.”
I jerked. “No, I’m not. That’s not fair.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Anybody else would be fired. I like you and you helped me out big time with that last case, and you’re a good lawyer when you stick to the job. But this does scream of a conflict of interest, so until Devlin is either convicted or cleared, you’re on leave. I don’t have a choice here, and you know it.”
“But Nick—”
“You’re sleeping with a murder suspect, Anna.” His chin rose along with his voice. “Both Devlin and your sister were arrested and are out on bond, and I thought we could screen you from the case, but this is too much. Having a relationship with Aiden Devlin is a mistake, and it shows poor judgment. I can’t have that here.”
Yeah. That’d probably screw up his chances to run for governor someday. Anger flushed through me, mostly because he was right and I was wrong. I’d screwed up on the professional front.
