Lucy felt her eyes go wide.
“Only a few of them gave it a thumbs down. Totally impressive for a viral video like this.” Reuben waved a hand toward the monitor.
That wassonot her concern right now because William moved behind Reuben, and every muscle in Lucy’s body went rigid.
His gaze went to the screen behind her.
He told her to assign the stories, not do them herself. She got that. But this wasn’t exactly a situation that could wait.
Still, his eyes flared. A little vein in his forehead throbbed.
She didn’t need to look to know her image was still there, where she’d paused it on the screen, the alligator smiling like a maniac in the background.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The blood in Lucy’s head thrummed. She’d hoped to forego William and go through Parker from here on out.
At that moment she wanted to run. Wanted to hide. Wanted to scream into the nearest pillow.Deep breaths.This was work. She had a job to defend, even if it hurt like a million needles under her fingernails to look at him.
The wheels on her chair squeaked as she shoved away from the desk.
“Reuben, give us a minute.” Will jerked his head toward the hallway.
Reuben, not an idiot, excused himself with a questioning glance at Lucy.
The heavy soundproofing on the walls of the editing bay seemed to close in on her. His voice and the wordcaterpillarechoed in her head. She shook it off. This was work. Not home. This was work and she’d done a damn good job for the station that afternoon.
She rallied her courage. “We got a tip and didn’t want the other stations or the newspaper to get the scoop. If I called a reporter from upstairs, they would’ve noticed. Reuben and I got the story. The end.”
Kind of.
He pressed his lips together and gestured to the monitor. “Show me.”
Lucy scooted her chair closer, pushed a few buttons, and played the video for him. He didn’t relax, didn’t show any expression. Exactly one minute later, the story finished on the alligator’s funky smile.
Sheesh, not even a lip twitch.
“You had no alternative but to go behind my back? Again?” he asked without expression.
Well, yeah, of course she had other options. None of them were good ones. “This was the best choice.”
He remained silent.
She should probably lay it all out. Break all the news at once. Tear off the bandage in a single sweep. “There’s more.”
“You said ‘the end’ before. I’m understanding ‘the end’ is not ‘the end’?”
“Reuben posted some of the video online, and it’s gone viral.” She spit the words out as fast as she could.
He rubbed at his forehead. “How viral?”
“I’m not sure there are levels of viral. I found out right before you came in. That’s all I know.” She nearly added, “Forgive me Father for I have sinned.” She wasn’t particularly religious, but right now, a bit of divine intervention would be good.
“To be clear, I asked you to assign a story before, because you were too close to it. You did it anyway. Then I asked that you assign all other stories until we could work out the fact that you didn’t do as asked. You did this anyway. And the video is now being viewed all over the world?”
She gnawed at her lip. “It would seem so. I did what needed to be done to get the station an exclusive story.” Now she was repeating herself. Not a good sign.
Eyes fixed on the monitor, he didn’t say a word. Like he was on the precipice of deciding if he was angry because she hadn’t listened, or pleased because his station got the scoop on a big story.
