Page 152 of And Now, Back to You

She grins at me. So wide her eyes squint shut. That tiny gap between her front teeth. “I got a plan.”

SIMONE LEEDS: We have a special guest in studio today.

SIMONE LEEDS: Over to the weather for a look at the five-day forecast.

CHAPTER 39

DELILAH

I lean forward in my seat and glance through the windshield of my car. “You’re sure she’ll be here?”

Gianna tucks her feet under her in the passenger seat, unconcerned. She’s reclined the seat all the way back, a bag of Doritos open on her chest. “She’s already here.”

“What?” My head snaps in her direction so fast, my neck cricks. “What do you mean?”

Gianna pops a chip in her mouth. “Her meeting with Keith started fifteen minutes ago.”

“What? I thought we were out here keeping watch.”

Gianna shrugs. “I thought you just wanted to have snacks in your car.”

“Gianna,” I hiss. “This isn’t part of the plan.”

“What do you mean? This is the plan.” She holds up one Doritos-crusted finger. “Get Ava Monroe to the office.” She flicks up another. “Casually run into her while picking up the rest of your things.” She holds up her thumb. “Lure her into a meeting space and speak your truth.”

I slap at her hand. “Don’t use the word lure. You make me sound like a psychopath.”

“Fine. Encourage her to find a meeting space with you.”

I swat her again. “But she’s meeting with Keith.”

Gianna slaps me back, then turns her body, clutching her chips to her chest. “She had to have a reason to come to the station, didn’t she? I sent her a bogus email from Keith setting it up.”

“And how do you expect me to speak my truth if Keith is in the room discrediting everything I say?”

She rolls her eyes. “He won’t be in the room.”

“What? How?”

“Because it is part of the plan.” Mark appears in the front window of the news station, executing a series of complicated hand gestures. Gianna huffs and very reluctantly gives him a thumbs-up back. “This man and his need for codes,” she grumbles. “He could have just texted me.” She reaches down and rockets the seat back up. “All right. Let’s go.”

I blink. “Go? Right now?”

Gianna is already halfway out of the car. “Yes. Let’s go. You have a very limited window of time.”

I rush to follow her, anxiety squeezing at my lungs. “What do you mean, limited window of time? This isn’t what we talked about.”

The original plan was to bump into Ava while she was at the offices for a routine budget meeting, then convince her to give me my job back. I have a file folder full of data points and testimonials, a Post-it note with a small Demand more scribbled on top slapped to the front of it.

I follow Gianna across the parking lot, resisting the urge to duck behind the light poles and trash cans like I’m in some budget-friendly spy feature.

“I thought Keith had a dentist appointment today,” I whisper-hiss.

It was the only reason I felt comfortable with this plan. I don’t want to see him at all.

“His dentist appointment was canceled.” She pulls the door of the station open. Mark is waiting for us, silently ushering us in the opposite direction we should be going. Gianna glances at me over her shoulder. “We called an audible.”

“Who is we?” I whisper-hiss. When was this decided? Why didn’t anyone warn me?