Phillip shook his head hard and fast.

Diesel just looked at him.

Lisette sighed. ‘Things haven’t been . . . comfortable around here lately. Nobody wants to add to your stress, Marcus. Or yours, Stone. Nothing’s suffered on the business side or on the special business side. We’ve got your back. You know that.’

Everyone around the table nodded, and Marcus’s shoulders sagged wearily. ‘Thank you. But you don’t have to treat us with kid gloves. We need to know what’s going on around here. And that means what’s going on with all of you. We’re not going to break. No more secrets. Right, Stone?’

‘Right.’ His brother raised a brow in challenge. ‘So on that note, tell them the secret you’re keeping, Marcus.’

All eyes turned his way. With a sigh, Marcus retold the story, from the first time he’d seen Tala in the park, all the way up to finding Jill alone in the building that morning and assigning Stone to watch her. When he was finished, they were all twitching in anger, but it was directed squarely at him.

‘You have the nerve to get pissy with us?’ Lisette said from behind clenched teeth. ‘You nearly get yourself killed and you’re pissy at us?’

‘I’m not pissy,’ Marcus said. ‘I’ve never been pissy once in my life.’

‘No,’ Diesel drawled, his eyes angry. ‘Not you.’

Marcus ignored him for now. He’d deal with Diesel’s temper later. He was more worried about Cal, who’d paled, his hands trembling. ‘Cal, are you all right?’

‘Yeah. I’m fine. Absolutely peachy. I’ll order you another vest.’

‘I’m okay,’ Marcus assured him. ‘I had the paramedics on the scene check me out, but you can look at my back yourself if you want.’ Cal had changed his diapers, as the old man often reminded him. Marcus supposed he owed it to him to at least offer.

Cal shook his head. ‘No. If the medics checked you out, I don’t need to. You’re a grown man now. You’re going to do whatever you want to do, and what I say doesn’t matter.’

Marcus frowned. ‘Of course it matters. And I was going to tell you this morning. I was going to tell everyone in the world. I had Stone write up an article for the website.’

Stone slid a printed sheet across the table. ‘Make sure I didn’t leave anything out.’

Marcus dropped his eyes to Stone’s story, grateful for the momentary respite from the accusatory stares around the table. ‘It’s complete,’ he said after scanning it twice. ‘Thank you. Put it up online.’

Lisette reached for it, her own hand trembling. ‘You do so get pissy,’ she muttered. ‘Who is this Bishop woman? Can she be trusted?’

‘No,’ Stone said.

‘Yes,’ Marcus said at the same time.

Diesel resettled himself in his chair. ‘Now this just got interesting.’

Marcus rolled his eyes. ‘God help me,’ he murmured. ‘She’s a good cop,’ he told Lisette. ‘She and Stone have history, so you have to take his opinion with a grain of salt.’

‘I remember her,’ Phillip said, looking up from his phone. He held it up so that everyone could see the photo of Scarlett he’d pulled off Google. ‘She was at Mikhail’s funeral. I’m not ashamed to say that she scared the livin’ shit out of me.’

Lisette studied Scarlett’s photo on Phillip’s phone. ‘Why?’ she asked her brother.

‘Because she looked . . . cold. Like she’d freeze a guy’s balls with a single look.’

‘Told you so,’ Stone muttered under his breath.

‘I’d like to let her try,’ Diesel said, speaking to Phillip, but his curious gaze never left Marcus’s face.

Marcus sighed. ‘If you’re expecting me to go all jealous caveman, you’ll be disappointed,’ he said to Diesel, then turned to Cal. ‘I’d like you to find a consultant who does training in sexual harassment in the workplace. Schedule a session for Monday at the latest. Everyone attends. Everyone.’

Everyone except Cal groaned.

‘I don’t need no training on that,’ Diesel said.

‘He’s plenty good at it already,’ Lisette said. ‘They all are.’

‘Which is why we’re having it,’ Marcus said firmly. ‘Phillip, you know you shouldn’t talk like that. I don’t care if you’re talking about a cop or a hooker or the lady who makes the damn doughnuts. And if you say it about a woman like Scarlett Bishop, be prepared for unpleasant consequences if she finds out, because she’s every bit as tough as you think she is. And Diesel, no more comments like “Miss Lush-n-Lusty”. What the hell was that about anyway?’

Diesel just smiled his curly-mouthed Grinch smile. ‘She has been snuggling up to Stone ever since she started working here. Even a blind man could have seen it. Oh, wait. Sorry. Was I supposed to filter stuff about disabled people too? And minorities, too, I bet. Damn. What’s left to say?’

‘You’re an asshole, Diesel,’ Stone said, shaking his head. But he was biting back a smile.

‘Thank you,’ Diesel said with a magnanimous nod. ‘I strive for perfection in all things.’

Lisette sighed loudly. ‘Back to the Jill issue. She’s been angling for Stone even before she started working here. I really can’t believe you didn’t notice, Marcus. Even I feel sorry for Stone. The child is relentless.’

Marcus turned to Stone, who looked uncomfortable. ‘Is this true? Why didn’t you say something? I wouldn’t have put you with her if I’d known.’

‘She’s had a crush on me since forever,’ Stone said. ‘She’s just a kid and I didn’t want to hurt her. I was always able to hide from her because I was off on assignment, but the past nine months since I’ve been home have been increasingly . . . difficult. I had to confront her about it sooner or later, so I did it this morning, since we’d be spending time together on this list project you gave me.’

‘How’d she take that?’ Cal asked quietly.

Stone’s answer was terse. ‘She cried. I feel like shit. We both decided we should complete this task and never speak of it again. So please don’t tease her.’

Lisette rose and gave Stone a hug. ‘You did the right thing.’

‘Thanks.’ Stone sighed, patting her shoulder. ‘Though every time anyone says that, they sound so damn surprised. Anyway, we’re going over the old list and the one Jill had been keeping from Gayle. There are some pretty explicit threats on it. I don’t think Jill understood all of them, but at least she doesn’t think you’re a mob boss anymore, Marcus.’

Lisette took her seat, eyes wide. ‘She thought you were a mob boss?’

Marcus nodded dryly. ‘She thought I was rubbing out my detractors, which was why they stopped threatening me.’

‘Now there’s an idea,’ Diesel said.

‘Shut up, Diesel,’ everyone said together.

Diesel shrugged. ‘I’m just sayin’.’

‘Well stop sayin’,’ Cal said. ‘What kind of threats are we talking about this time?’

‘Mostly more of the same,’ Stone said, ticking them off in an affected bored voice that fooled no one. Stone took these threats as seriously as any of them did. ‘I’m going to gut you, shoot you, slit your throat, ruin you. About half are targeted at Lisette, Phillip and me for reporting the stories. But the worst ones were targeted at Marcus as the publisher of “that rag”.’

‘Same old, same old,’ Marcus said, playing it down like he always did. Play it down and never go anywhere unarmed was pretty much his motto. ‘Any escalations?’

‘Just one – a woman who said she was going to stake “that lying reporter” down, pour honey on him and leave him for the fire ants for even suggesting that her “innocent” husband – “the real victim here” – could have molested young girls. The “lying reporter” was you, Phillip.’

‘I guess the fire ants are a nice touch,’ Phillip said lightly.

‘I bet that came from the drama coach,’ Lisette said. ‘The one whose husband had recorded said molestations with his iPhone and uploaded them to the cloud.’

‘Breaking into his account was child’s play,’ Diesel said with disgust. ‘His password was the name of his dog.’