Chapter Twenty-Four

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"If anyone asks, I'm on a lead."

Samantha watches me pack up my things with envy. My bony fingers are still shaking, a shocking new reaction to joy that I've only recently experienced. By the silent pleased look she's giving me, it's not my imagination.

This is unlike me. I don't behave like this.

I shut down my computer, and open my drawer, lifting my purse.

"So, you're definitely not doing the story on him, right?"

"Right."

She enters the office further. "I'm only asking because I got that call from the officer this morning, who said he'd uncovered some information that he thought would be of interest us."

"Right, what was it? A police report?" I place the strap on my shoulder. "I've already seen it. And the coroner's report."

"He said this information wasn't included in the initial police report. He also said the officers that were on the scene are no longer cops."

I slow down by the door, deafening alarms going off. I turn on her. "Who are they?"

"They both went into high ranking military positions—instantly. One is overseas. They're making six figures a year."

I stare at her, letting that sink in. I'm smart enough to know how two cops were granted impressive new careers with next to no experience. "They were paid off..."

"Do you think so?"

"It makes sense." I rack through my brain, searching for some miraculous explanation. "His father was a senator, also an actor. Aidan probably had connections that he used to keep it as hushed as possible."

"But to retract things from a police report?"

"We don't know what's on it, Samantha."

"And you don't want to find out?"

"That is for him to reveal to me. I'm not going to sneak behind his back and try to get it on my own. I have to trust him."

"You know there is something fishy here, Jo. I know you know that. You are choosing to ignore it."

I look at her sternly, showing her that I'm in no mood to continue this conversation. "You don't know him, Samantha."

"I'll tell them not to send it then," she says, and I sense her judgment. She has been my friend for years. She must know how difficult it has been for me to put aside my questions, my natural instinct to investigate. I pass by her, exiting my office space without another word.

I want to erase what she said. I want to erase the itch in me that yearns to know the answers to all the questions that are just now at my fingertips. Somehow, I get myself to the elevators, and as soon as the doors are closed and I'm free of the burden of my work, I sigh, letting out the tension she created.

She's used to my immersive tendencies. She's used to my eagerness to understand everything.

She doesn't know what happened to me when I was burrowed into that manor with him.

To her, he's a man surrounded by danger who is secretive and unreliable. To her, Aidan could be a murderer.

She doesn't understand that there is no way on earth that is possible.

Aidan is a good man, and he's taken a huge step to be with me here.

So, I must take my own, seemingly impossible leap...trusting him.

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