“Right.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the nose to see her wrinkle it. “Which is what exactly?”
She paused. “Making sure the truth gets out?”
He held up his keys. “On my way to the office to make that happen.”
“Do you want company?” Nadine asked.
He considered this before shaking his head. “We can’t risk you being associated with the story. It’s better if you stay here.”
She didn’t answer at first, too busy looking at her phone. “I can’t believe this.” Nadine pushed her phone under his nose and leaned over his shoulder. This was an extremely sucky experience, but Wes had to admit having Nadine there made it slightly less so. He’d take the small win because the rest of the morning was a huge loss.
On Nadine’s phone was another message from Lisanne, with a link to a story published on theHeraldhome page. It included quotes from John Wilson, who said he’d called his legal team to defend his honoragainst libel. Wes read it again because he hadn’t been able to make sense of the words the first time.
“I’m shocked theSpearstooped to gossipmongering and lies in a blatant attempt to increase their readership and negatively impact my important and selfless work on behalf of my fellow Canadians,” said Senator Wilson. “This story is absolutely false and a disgusting fabrication. I resent the implications about my character.”
Nadine whistled when they finished. For the first time, they hadn’t competed about who could read fastest. “Legal team,” she said. “He’s coming out swinging.”
Wes didn’t need to see more. “I’ll see you later.” He gave her a quick kiss and lingered when she hugged him fiercely, icy hands on his arms.
“Go get ’em.”
He hadn’t made it halfway down the driveway before his phone beeped again, this time with the message he’d been waiting for. It was from Jason and simply saidCall mein the subject line. It wasn’t sent in reply to any of Wes’sHey, can we talk?messages, which gave him the nasty feeling Jason was not going to have his back on this.
He didn’t want to take this call in the car. Going back into the house, he met a surprised Nadine coming out of the kitchen. “Wes?”
“Jason wants to talk to me.” He faltered. “I don’t think it looks good.”
Nadine wrapped her arms around him again, and Wes took comfort in the solid pressure of the hold. “I can give you a continuous thumbs-up for moral support from the corner.”
Her suggestion, bad as it was, was enough to give him courage. “You can do that when I’m off the call.”
She sobered a bit. “Good luck, Wes. You did nothing wrong. Remember that.”
He let himself enjoy the feel of her for another minute beforeuntangling himself. “Here I go.”
Nadine’s eyes were serious, but she smiled at him. “You got this.”
Forty
I’ve got this, repeated Wes as he went through the kitchen doors. He wanted to take the call in the salon to channel the indomitable spirit of Dot.I’ve got this. I don’t need to fix this. This was not my responsibility. I didn’t do anything wrong, and I’ve got this.He was confident the truth would come out, but it was hard to fight the strain.
Jason picked up on the first ring. “You’ve got some explaining to do,” he said in greeting.
Wes tried to ignore Jason’s combative tone and kept his voice steady. “As I said in the email, I came into the office the other day to talk to you about a story I’d been working on. It wasn’t Tyler’s story, and it was in no way ready to go. I don’t know why he did that or why or how it ran.” There. His main points were out.
“The story no one had assigned you?”
Wes paused his pacing. Of all the things Jason could pick up on, say for instance Tyler’s blatant theft and unethical journalism, why was he talking about that? “It was something I was looking into during my vacation, but I don’t think that’s the primary issue.”
“I know you want back on this team, but this is not the way to do it.I’ve talked to Tyler about his lack of judgment here, but I know he’s a good guy. What you did was completely out of bounds.”
“WhatIdid?” Was he in some alternate reality? “I did nothing except mention it to Tyler when I came in to pitch it to you.”
“That’s not what I hear from Tyler.”
Wes’s gut dropped. “No?”
“I know it’s not Tyler’s story. Tyler says you told him it was ready and thoroughly researched and begged him to read it over. He caught the lack of a comment from Wilson and said you asked him to get it because Wilson ignored you. Since Tyler had better credibility, he’d get a reply.”