***
Tess passed Molly a bowl of Chinese takeout and sat on the sofa. They’d just watched the six o’clock evening news. Senator Gibson had made national headlines for two nights in a row. His thirty seconds of fame had evolved into forty-eight hours of political hell and interest was still running high.
Tess’ hour-long interview with Mitch Maderson on the local station had been sliced to twenty seconds in the editing room at NBC. But the message had been clear. Senator Gibson was a predator and needed to be held accountable for his actions.
“I did the right thing,” Tess said.
“Of course you did.”
“I couldn’t hide in my café forever. I had to tell everyone what happened to Evie.”
Molly speared a slice of chicken with her chopstick. “You did a good job. Mitch’s interview with you was great. Even the edited version on NBC had a powerful message.”
When Molly called Tess, she’d been watching Marcie Gibson being interviewed on CBS. According to the report, Marcie had been swamped with reporters and television crews all trying to get a sound bite from the pretty socialite. The senator’s ex-wife had known exactly how to use the media. She carefully avoided the questions she didn’t want to answer and focused on her ex-husband’s drug dealing habits. Pictures of the women he’d had affairs with had flicked across the screen.
Tess felt sick thinking her friend Evie had been part of the senator’s life. Evie believed the lies he’d told her because she didn’t have a choice. The senator had fed her addiction in the same way he’d fed everyone else’s. Carefully.
“I want to show you something.” Molly left her bowl on the table and unzipped her laptop from its case. “I had another look at the photos in the newspaper. Someone’s carefully edited them.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re my photos.”
Tess looked at Molly. “You mean Logan didn’t take them with his cell phone?”
Molly shook her head. “Whoever gave the images to the newspaper knew what they were doing. Just to check, I called the Chronicle and asked to see the original files.”
“And they let you?”
“I know someone who works there.” Molly opened two documents and put them side by side on her laptop screen. “Look at this. The one on the left is the image of Annie and Sally that appeared in the newspaper. The one on the right is the one sitting on my computer at home.”
Tess compared the photos. Someone had cropped the newspaper photo, changed the lighting and added some kind of filter over the image. Instead of being as clear as Molly’s copy, it was slightly grainy, as if a lower quality camera had taken the shot.
Molly concentrated on the screen. “I couldn’t figure out how someone had copied them. They’re still sitting on my computer, waiting for me to finish the catalog. Then I re-read the story that appeared in the Chronicle. What does the reporter, Jilly Cresswell, look like?”
Tess frowned. “Short with dark brown, shoulder length hair and blue eyes.”
“Has she got a dimple in her cheek when she smiles?”
Tess thought back to when she’d seen her. She’d been so shocked that Logan had brought her into the café, that it was hard to remember exactly what she looked like. “I think so.”
Molly pushed her laptop away and picked up her dinner. “The morning after Logan’s big story came out, I had a phone call from someone. She’d read the article about Connie’s wedding and wanted to know if we could help her friend. I didn’t have anything booked for that morning so I invited her around to my apartment. I didn’t think anyone would mind.”
“Was it Jilly?”
“I think so,” Molly said. “She was in her late twenties. Pretty in an understated way. She asked if she could see the bridesmaids’ dresses. I told her I didn’t have the dresses, but I did have the photos I took in your apartment. She looked through them and saw some she thought would look beautiful.”
“How did she copy the photos?”
“That’s what was worrying me. I’m really careful about not leaving images on my camera, so that wouldn’t have helped her. I was standing beside my computer the whole time we were talking. Except when I went to the kitchen to answer the phone.”
Tess put down her chopsticks. “She copied your files?”
“I can’t explain it any other way.”
“What are you going to do?”
Molly shrugged. “That’s why I’m here. What do you want me to do? You’re the one that had the most to lose.”
“Don’t worry about me. They were your photos. What do you want to do?”
Molly chewed her noodles and focused on her laptop. “At the very least I want to speak with her editor. What she did was illegal.” She glanced across at Tess. “Don’t worry about her. She was the one who did wrong.”
“It’s not Jilly I’m worried about. I didn’t treat Logan very well. I thought he’d lied to me about taking the photos.” Tess’ phone rang and she let her answering machine take the call.
“The phone’s rung at least a dozen times while I’ve been here. Are you ignoring someone?”
Tess sighed. “It’s not Logan, if that’s what you mean. Every reporter who saw my interview with Mitch Maderson is trying to get hold of me. Then there are the weirdos who want to marry me. I even had a message from someone who wanted me to star in a movie, and it wasn’t a Disney film. That guy freaked me out big time.”
“You shouldn’t be here alone. What if someone tries to break in?”
“I’ll be okay. I’ll keep my cell phone beside my bed.”
“It’s not safe,” Molly insisted. “You can come back to my apartment. Becky won’t mind.”
“I can’t stay with you. You don’t have any spare room.”
“You can have my bed and I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
Tess picked up her bowl of takeout and frowned. “I’ll be fine. Now tell me how the catalog of bridesmaids’ dresses is looking.”
“I’ve nearly finished. I just have to drop the last image in and then we’re done. Sally came around today and modeled the dresses we got the other day.” She looked up when someone knocked on the back door. “Were you expecting anyone?”
Tess walked across to the door. “Not tonight, unless one of the men who wanted to marry me won’t take no for an answer.”
“That’s not funny,” Molly growled. “You have to be careful.”
The person on the other side of her door knocked again. “Tess? It’s Logan. Open the door.”
She flicked the lock and pulled the door open. “You don’t have to be so impatient. We heard you the first time.”
Logan raised his eyebrows. “We?”
“Molly and I. We’re having dinner.”
“Oh.” He looked happy about something. “Mind if I join you?”
He didn’t wait to be invited in. Within minutes, he was standing behind the kitchen counter with an empty bowl in his hands.
Tess decided she’d been grumpy enough for one day. Besides, she owed him an apology. A big apology. “We’re already onto our second bowl of Chinese takeout. Help yourself.”
The phone rang and Tess ignored it.
Logan glanced at her as he slid green pepper beef into his bowl. “You want to tell me why you’re ignoring your phone? I tried calling at least four times tonight.”
“She’s getting propositioned by freaks,” Molly said. “I want her to come home with me, but she won’t budge.”
Tess turned to Molly. “Your apartment is cute, but small. It’s barely big enough for you and your sister. I won’t sleep in your bed and your sofa is a two-seater.”
“It might be small, but it’s comfortable.”
Tess pointed to her knees. “Most of my legs would dangle over the edge of the sofa.”
Logan’s eyes traveled down the length of the legs in question. A prickly white hot heat shot along Tess’ nerve endings. It left her feeling super aware of the way his cotton shirt hugged hi
s chest, the way he froze as her eyes traveled over what she could see of his body.
“You can stay with me.”
Tess blinked. She must have imagined what he’d said. He couldn’t have asked her to stay, not when her body was imagining what she could do with more white hot heat.
Logan reached for a fork and started eating.
His eyes never left Tess’ face. She didn’t know where to look, what to do with the surge of adrenaline screaming through her body.
“That’s a fine idea.” Molly finished her takeout and put her laptop away. “I’ll help you pack a bag, Tess.”
The phone rang again and Tess groaned when Molly and Logan looked at her. “I’m okay. No one’s going to do anything strange.”
“You’re right, because they’re not going to get the chance. You either pack a bag with Molly or I take you back to my home without one. My pajamas should fit you.”
Tess felt mildly insulted that he thought his pajamas would fit her petite six-foot frame. “You’re enormous. I’d swim in your PJs.”
Logan smiled. “All the more reason for you to pack your own bag. Just imagine how embarrassed you’d feel if I proved you wrong.”
Tess glanced at Molly. She was busy tidying up their dinner dishes. At least Logan’s mom was still in Bozeman. She hadn’t seen Kathy since their visit to Yellowstone. She could ask her about Logan when he was growing up. Her stories would keep Logan away from their conversation and away from her.
“Okay. I’ll go with you. But I’m taking my own car. I need to be back at the café by five thirty tomorrow morning.”
Logan shook his head. “There’s still at least six reporters sitting outside. You’re coming in my truck in case we need to play cat and mouse to get them off our tail.”
Tess dimmed the lights and flicked one of the curtains aside that overlooked Main Street.
Logan stood beside her. “There’s a black SUV about twenty feet north of your café on the opposite side of the street. A red Ford is parked behind it, and a white SUV is parked outside Emily’s boutique.”
Tess saw two of the vehicles, but the third was hidden by the front porch. “If I go with you, can you drop me back here in the morning?”
Logan nodded. “I’ll even cook French toast for breakfast.”
Tess pulled a face. “You don’t have to do that. I’m having trouble getting into my jeans now. French toast would kill me.”
“You look good to me.”
Tess felt a blush work its way across her face.
Molly picked up her laptop. “That was easier than I thought it would be. You must have the luck of the Irish, Logan.”
“There was nothing lucky about it,” Tess said as she headed toward her bedroom. “By tomorrow morning, he’ll be regretting his offer.”
“Don’t tell me you sleepwalk. Do I need to hide all of the kitchen knives?”
Tess looked over her shoulder and grinned. “I don’t sleepwalk, I sleep-talk. All of the time. Why do you think I’m still single?”
“Because you have a thing against men who are shorter than you?”
Tess sent him a withering glare.
“As long as you don’t scream in your sleep we’ll get along fine.”
Tess smiled at her unsuspecting roommate. He didn’t know what he’d let himself in for.