“He already does. Jane told him everything.”
“So he’ll let Jo stay.”
“I don’t know. It’s a big risk.”
“Manny’s here.”
“Because Payne mated him. You think Syn’s getting her name carved in his back anytime soon?”
“Jane’s here.”
“I let her go first, though.” V got a distant look in his eyes. “Worst hot chocolate I ever made.”
“Murhder has Sarah.”
“Again. See also, mated male and shellan.”
“Goddamn it. Doesn’t it count if she’s my sister? Manny’s?”
“If she stays a human? I don’t know, cop. I really don’t. What I am sure about is that we’re stretched thin as it is and the war is hitting a crucial point. Plus there’s that little supernatural bait-and-switch shit with that ‘old friend’ of yours in the basement of that building we visited tonight. You want to tell where, in this panoply of crap, we have room for an unattended human to come join the party?”
Butch cursed and looked at the glass Balz had been drinking out of. If his stomach still wasn’t iffy from what he’d done in the Tomb, he would have been sucking back the Lag like you read about.
But he was kind of done with the sucking for the foreseeable future.
Or . . . at least until nightfall.
You’re fired. Effective immediately.”
As Jo sat across from Dick in his office at the paper, she was somehow not surprised. What was a shocker, if you considered the strong-arm tactics she had used just earlier in the week to keep her byline, was that she really didn’t give a shit.
Having made his pronouncement from on high, Dick smiled with all the trademark satisfaction of a letch who had gotten what he wanted. Not sex, this time, no. But she was out, and that clearly made him a happy congestive heart failure patient.
“And before you ask, Miss Early, we’re restructuring the newsroom and eliminating the online editorial position as part of a further round of cost savings.” Dick sat back in his chair and put his hands on the flanks of his protruding stomach like he’d just eaten. “Going forward, we’re outsourcing all our online support. It’s the wave of the future. So there is no way you can frame this in any other fashion, and I’ve already cleared it with our lawyers. If you try any kind of retaliation against me personally, regardless of what you may think the grounds are, I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you a reference—”
Jo got up. “Do I get severance or am I filing unemployment right away?”
Dick blinked like her pragmatism had stunned him. “Two weeks’ severance, effective today, and you’ll have health benefits through COBRA for eighteen months. But I want you out of the newsroom right now.”
“Fine. Do you have anything for me to sign?”
“My lawyer is mailing everything to your home address with instructions. But you have the termination letter on your email as we speak. It is nonnegotiable, however.”
“All right, then.”
As she turned and walked away from him, she could sense his confusion. But it wasn’t the kind of thing she was going to bother clearing up for him.
“I’m serious, Early,” he belted out. “Don’t try anything. You won’t like what happens to you.”
With her hand on the doorknob, she looked over her shoulder. “I’ll sign everything and you won’t hear from me again. And you won’t last long at that desk. It’s a race between the paper closing and your heart clogging from that diet of yours. Either way, I’ll leave you to your fate.”
She didn’t wait for a response, and closed the door quietly behind herself. Heading over to her desk, she sat down and glanced at Bill.
Her friend was staring at the monitor in front of him, clearly not seeing the email displayed on it.
“So I’m going now,” she said.
Bill jumped and glanced over. “Sorry, what was that?”
She swiveled her chair to face her friend. “I’m leaving.”
“It’s early for lunch—”
“They’re eliminating my position.”
“He just fired you?” Bill said with a recoil.
She put her hand out before he could entertain any thoughts of trying to be a hero. “No, it’s okay. Really. I’ll find something else. I’d rather you keep your job than have my own.”
Bill glanced at all the empty desks around them and then pedaled his rolling chair over to her. As he kept his voice low, she was tempted to tell him not to worry about discretion. It wasn’t like there was anybody else to hear.
“You should fight this,” he whispered. “You’ve done tremendous reporting on the—”
“Like I said, I’ll find something else. The economy’s good, you know? And at least I have some bylines now.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll land on my feet. I always do.”
“This isn’t right.”
“Actually, it’s good timing.” She looked at her uncluttered desk and realized she didn’t need a box to put her personal things in. She had no “personal things” to box. “I feel the need to reinvent myself.”
“Away from Caldwell?”
“Yes. And Pennsylvania. And . . . anywhere else I’ve ever been.” Jo looked at her friend and knew she was covering her bases. Whether she went through the transition or not, she was not staying where she was. “But we’ll still keep in touch, I promise. You and Lydia have been beyond good friends to me.”
As her phone went off, she didn’t bother checking to see who was calling. It was undoubtedly another scammer. Telemarketer. Survey about nothing she wanted to be surveyed about.
It sure as hell wasn’t going to be Syn.
“Let me send you all my notes and drafts so you’re up to speed on the articles.” Jo signed into her computer. “I’ll email them now before my login gets canceled.”
After she was finished, she turned to Bill. Her friend was staring down at the floor.
“I’m going to be fine,” she told him.
“It’s not right.” He shook his head. “Dick is . . .”
“Named appropriately.” Jo leaned down under her desk and got her purse. “We can just leave it at that.”
To make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, she quickly went through all the drawers. Nothing but stationery and office supplies that were owned by the paper anyway.
“I don’t know how to cancel my pass card,” she murmured.
“I can take care of it. I was the one who created it.”
“Okay.” She got up. “So . . . I guess I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Promise?”
As the man stared up at her in a forlorn way, she had a feeling she wasn’t going to see him again. Or maybe that was just her mood talking, rather than any kind of prescience. Either way, her chest hurt.
“Yes, I promise,” Jo said.
Before there could be any kind of awkward hug thing happening, she took her swipe card out of her jacket pocket and handed it to Bill.
“That’s that,” she said with a smile.