Page 60 of Baby Take Me Home

“Penn is on the phone with your editor as we speak,” he said, “finding out about your building’s high-security protocols and arranging to keep anyone who’s not working on your story off the fourth floor until you’re finished.”

I took a deep, shaky breath. I’d tossed around a lot of bravado about my job preparing me for potential danger, but now shit was getting real.

“You’ve got this,” TJ told me.

I closed my eyes and let his voice and words wash over me.

“I’ve got you,” he told me. “My whole team is looking out for you. Just do what you were born to do. Write your heart out and put the truth into the world.”

“Bedtime affirmations might be even better than bedtime stories,” I said sleepily. “But I’m still cashing in my rain check for my story the first chance I get.”

We said our goodbyes and I settled down into the cushions. Tomorrow night at this time, I would be lying in my own bed with TJ curled around me, and the world would be a little safer because of the work we’d done together. I fell asleep knowing Aiden would be proud.

CHAPTER 25

TJ

The team had been sleepingin four-hour shifts, but at 0500 hours on Monday, everyone who wasn’t staking out The Sun’s office building gathered on the first floor of the HEAT building. This group of warriors didn’t need any further instructions. They knew our playbook cold, and if things went sideways today, I was happy they would have my back and Ashlee’s.

“We leave in five,” I told them. “Jensen will do a final check on everyone’s comms.”

Samantha stood beside me while everyone prepped their gear. “The van is all set up with medical supplies.” She glanced at me. “You don’t really think they’ll be necessary, though, do you?”

Her question was rhetorical. Or maybe it was more wishful thinking because she knew the answer to that as well as I did. The team had spent the weekend gaming out the ways Calder could learn what Ashlee was doing and how he might retaliate because he was the one we would have to worry about when Kovac’s arrest hit the news. That information would get out hours before Ashlee and her team could release the article that would provide cover for her.

We had assessed that the real danger would come when the reporters started calling people who would be name-checked in the story for comment. Ashlee’s editor had agreed they would avoid Calder and his staff until the first iteration of the story was online, but that didn’t mean someone somewhere wouldn’t give him a heads-up.

Hours later, early in the afternoon, Jensen, Samantha, and I were parked in a van across the street from the Sun building, Alder was monitoring systems back at HQ, and the rest of our makeshift team was scattered in various parked vehicles nearby when my phone rang. The number was from the cell phone Jensen had set up for Ashlee.

“This is the call,” I told the team. “Everyone on high alert from here on out.”

I picked up the call. “Hi, Ash. How are you holding up?”

“I’m great, we’re all great.” She sounded hyped up on adrenaline, which wasn’t surprising. “The lawyers have signed off on the story. We’ll start making final calls in fifteen minutes, and we should be able to publish by 4 pm.”

“1600 is the magical hour,” Jensen relayed the message via the comms to the team.

“And no one else is working on the fourth floor today, right?” I asked her. It was important to confirm information early and often.

“Just the nine of us who have been here all weekend. The lawyers have already left. Jayne asked if we could let the copy editors and fact-checkers go home. They’d be safe in their homes, right? No one will know who worked on the story until the later edition when we credit them as contributors, so they wouldn’t be targets.”

“Give me a minute,” I told her. I checked in with Penn, who was relieved to hear the number of people we would have to worry about would go down to five.

“I have floaters,” Penn said, referring to some of the friends he’d called in to help us. “I can spare a couple to drive everyone home and do perimeter checks once they’re there.”

“Ash,” I said into the cell phone, “that’s fine, but they need to leave now. Penn is texting you the makes, models, and license plate numbers of the cars that will pick them up. If anyone drove themselves here Saturday, they’ll have to pick up their cars another day.”

“Got it,” she said and relayed the message to Jayne. Then she spoke to me again. “Are we alone?”

“Jensen,” I said.

He glanced over his shoulder and nodded. “You’re clear now.”

“Hey beautiful,” I said quietly into the phone. “What is it?”

“I just need you to use your soothing voice on me.”

“Nerves?” I asked.