She pressed one of her favorites on her phone. “Greg. I’m getting questions about Jack.”

“Who’s Jack?” her lawyer answered distractedly.

“Jamie’s name after he went under. A reporter just asked me where he was and knew that we traveled together to Montana. She had his full fake name.”

A loud breath sounded through the phone. “This shit keeps getting deeper and deeper. Who was running the operation in Montana, Stella?”

“I’m not sure, but Patrick would know.” Stella racked her brain to see if she could recall the name of the agent who’d talked Jamie into going undercover. “I’ll ask him.”

“Okay. I mean, I just don’t get what sort of operation is going on where they’re letting agents use their own name to fly back to DC to inform on…” he trailed off. “It doesn’t really matter. We just need to make sure we protect you.”

“I didn’t tell her anything. I said I couldn’t answer her questions.”

“That’s an accurate answer. Jack Ryder is a name that’s top secret, unless he fucking flew to DC using it.” Greg cussed under his breath. “You did well. Let me do some digging. Did you get her name?”

“No.” Stella inwardly chided herself for that misstep.

“It’s okay, Stella.” Greg cleared his throat. “Have you heard from Harris lately?”

“No, but I have a couple of ideas and I still think he’s the way to get this thing settled.”

“What do you mean?” Greg asked.

“I think if I get Agent Harris to ask if I would be willing to wear a wire, then all I have to do is get Jamie to talk about what he did. I already set it up for him and he said that’s the only way that he’d believe what I told him anyway. I honestly think it’s just a matter of time before he sets it up.”

“Oh, so all you have to do is get him to talk about what he did and not incriminate you in the process.” Greg’s voice was amused. “That sounds easy as pie.”

“You don’t know him. He’s been talking my ear off for a year.” And she was used to being underestimated.

“You can certainly try, but we need to have other contingencies in place if that doesn’t work.” He’d stopped laughing, realizing she was serious.

She smiled into the phone. “Oh ye of little faith.”

“Oh ye of protect your ass.”

“You have a tough job.” She laughed. “I appreciate you.”

“I’m sure you do. That’s why you pay me as much as you do.”

Stella laughed at the socially inept statement; she wasn’t surprised the smartest people usually had difficulty with communication. She didn’t care if she and Greg could have great conversations or if he thought she was stupid, just as long as he did his job.

“Talk later, Greg,” Stella said and clicked end on her phone. She immediately voxed Patrick. “Breaker, breaker. Hairy Ball. It’s Magic Box. What’s your twenty?”

A few seconds later, Patrick’s amused voice came across. “Fuck Hairy Ball. I’m headed home. Why?”

“You got a few minutes for a drink with me? Finnegan’s?”

“Anything for you, Magic Box.”

* * *

George leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms above his head. He had a pen behind his ear and Spotify playing on his computer. Papers were scattered all over the hotel’s desk. He was covering the race up to the primary elections and the election was still a year out. The potential candidates ran the gamut from political elite to up-and-comers. He was already bored by all the papers recycling the same stories. Hell, he was bored with his own story. This certainly wasn’t what he thought he’d be writing about when he’d agreed to use El to get back into journalism. He wanted to be writing cutting edge articles about things that mattered, not doing feel-good pieces for political campaigns.

Senator Ashby had asked him on the campaign trail because Jessica had given him the nod. George didn’t know what to think about the fact that she vouched for him after all these years. He’d thanked her when he saw her his first day. She’d aged, just like he had, but overall she looked the same, her wavy red hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and she was wearing a suit, every inch the young businesswoman. During the course of the last couple of weeks they saw each other routinely and were cordial.

He had the news on mute while he was writing, but he looked up at the TV and saw Stella holding a press conference. He smiled seeing her; he missed her. She was in professional mode and had her fake smile affixed to her very kissable lips. Then he noticed her right hand was in a cast. He sat upright and found the remote to turn up the volume.

“We appreciate you respecting his privacy right now,” she said soberly.

“Stella...how’s the hand?” a reporter called.

“How long will you be in a cast?” another asked.

“What happened?”

She looked down sheepishly. “I lost a fight with the treadmill yesterday.” She shrugged like “what are you going to do, you know?” and he almost bought it until she used her fake smile again. She was getting good at lying through her teeth. It made him very nervous.

George ran a hand through his unruly hair. He was pissed. He’d talked with her last night and she hadn’t mentioned breaking her hand. He sighed. “What the fuck am I going to do with you?” he asked TV El.

She smiled another fake smile and walked off the screen with reporters still yelling questions.

George pulled out his phone and voxed Stella. “You need to fucking call me.” He looked out his window. “Now.”

He selected Patrick next. “Hey, is Stella staying with y’all this week? What happened to her arm?”

His phone dinged immediately. It was Patrick, voxing.

“She’s staying on and off, why?”

“Because I just fucking saw her on TV with a broken hand or arm or...”

“Jamie,” Patrick responded immediately. “She punched him.”

George stared at the phone. When the fuck was she going to tell him that? Jealousy crept up his spine and settled in his throat. Of course she’d told Patrick.

“10-4,” George said and voxed Stella again.

“Stella Eugenia Murphy. I will come back to DC and spank your ass. Call me NOW!” He didn’t keep the anger out of his voice—he wanted her to hear it loud and clear.

* * *

“Okay. So I’m trying to get Jamie to admit to everything, but I need to get him somewhere where he won’t suspect that’s what I’m doing.”

Stella and Patrick were sitting at their old stools at Finnegan’s, knocking back beers. It was almost like old times, except that Owen was behind the bar. When they’d come in, he’d given her the third degree about Patrick as well. Stella was positive George must’ve said something to Owen about keeping tabs on her. It was ridiculous, but she understood it, especially after hearing his latest vox, which she was ignoring.

“Okay,” Patrick said, taking a sip of his beer. “How’re you planning on doing that?”

“I’ll get him to meet me somewhere and record him telling me he did it.” She honestly didn’t think it would be that hard; he liked to hear himself talk.

“I don’t know, El.” Patrick shook his head skeptically while examining the cracks in the bar. “You’re going to have to make sure when you’re recording that you only get the parts you want. If it’s clear that you knew he shot you earlier, you’ll be in trouble. If it seems like you knew he was part of the bombing, you could be charged with being an accessory after the fact. I mean, there are so many things that could go wrong.”

“But, it’s really the only way I can get Agent Harris to act on this. I mean, if I’m taking Jack Ryder down, I’ve got to give him this admission. I want him arrested.”

“Well, I guess if you record him there’ll be proof that he told you, but…” Patrick doubted she’d be able to pull it off; it was all over his face.

“Come on, Patrick, give me some fucking credit. I can coax people to talk about what I want them to.” She shrugged. “I’m good at distracting boys.”

“Oh, really,” Patrick mocked, running his fingers up and down his pint of Bass.

“Yeah, really,” Stella said, grinning. “My job of distracting people from what’s really going on will be helpful in this adventure. For example, my current client, who’s fucking a dude even though he’s married to a woman and has two kids—send me in there and the media forgets all questions about him, but wants to talk about death threats and string bikinis. It’s fucking easy.”

“Job kind of sucks, huh?” Patrick ruffled her hair. It was growing out of the bob she had during the trial.

“Kind of.” She nodded and leaned away from his hand. She hated being petted.

“Most jobs do.” Patrick took a gulp of his beer. “You want to stay at the house?”

“Maybe...” She was nervous to stay by herself since she ran into Jamie. While it was hard to have media outside her house at all times, it was also like a security blanket. Agent Gunter had seen her rush back to her house, but hadn’t said a word about it. Everything was so fucking complicated.

“When does George get back?” Patrick asked, throwing down a bill on the bar.

“This weekend.”

“He in Iowa?”

“Yep.”

“You better call him. He voxed me and he was pissed.” Patrick smiled and drained his drink. “See you in a bit. I’ll tell Millie to buy some wine.” He kissed her cheek and left her sitting there contemplating whether she could pull off the only plan she’d come up with so far to deal with Jamie.

“Owen?” Stella called.

“Yes, Stella?”

“I need another one before I go.” Stella lifted her empty glass toward him.

“Of course.” Owen nodded and got her a Snakebite. When he set it in front of her on the bar, he smiled sympathetically. “Rough day?”

“You could say that.”

“What’d you do to your hand?” he asked.

“Broke it. Fell off the treadmill,” she answered, feeding him the same story she’d told the media. Liar. She’d found it easier that once you lied, just keep lying; just fall into the lie and wallow in it. You may end up even believing the story you’ve created for yourself, anyway, and then it will be less likely others will know you’re a liar.

“Damn, seriously?” Owen’s eyebrows rose.

“Yep. It was a sneaky bastard.”

“You know, I don’t care what everyone says about you. I think you and Will are good together.”

Stella’s mood darkened. She already knew George’s family didn’t like her, but shit. “Thanks.” She shrugged and gulped her beer down, now ready to leave. She waved as she walked toward the door.

Stella fell into her car, which she’d named Delilah, and headed home to grab her things and Cooper. On the way she listened to her Voxer messages from George. He was pissed because she hadn’t told him about her hand, but she didn’t tell him because she didn’t want him to worry. Then she made a rookie mistake by holding a press conference and not telling him before then. She and Cooper got in Delilah and made their way to Patrick’s.

She called George and listened to him berate her as soon as he answered.

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling and fucking voxing all fucking day. How do you not tell me that you ran into Jamie and it ended in you breaking your hand?”

She was silent. Stella had no valid reason for not telling him, she just didn’t want to worry him, which was stupid.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry!?” George’s voice boomed from the phone and Stella pulled it from her ear.

“I don’t have an explanation. I just didn’t want to worry you.”

“So you’d rather me see it on TV with everyone else when you smile your fake fucking smile and tell your pretty little lies?”

“George, I’m sorry. I’ll do better.” She wasn’t even putting up a fight and that seemed to take some of the air out of his fight.

“Stella, I can’t be here and know you’re lying to me.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Cut the bullshit.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay....” There was a strained silence. “I was running and Jamie was waiting for me. He wants his money. I punched him in the face.”

“Pay him,” George said unequivocally.

“What?”

“Pay him,” George repeated. “Write him a motherfucking check and get him out of our lives.”

“I bought Delilah with it and some shoes,” she said sheepishly.

“I have money to pay him; do it.”

“B-but…” Stella stuttered, not knowing what to think.

“I’m not asking, Love. Pay him.”

She continued to make the dumbest decisions. What was her problem? She reluctantly agreed to pay him out of George’s bank account. By the time she pulled up to her old house, she’d told him she loved him as big as the world and he’d laughed because that’s what Finn always told him. Stella thought they ended the call on the best note possible.