“Is the contract public?”I ask.
“No.”He shakes his head.“It’s nothing.”
“It’s clearly not nothing,” I say.“We said we’d be honest with each other.”
“Someone posted something online about you,” he says, clicking his phone off.“Remember, Iris said to ignore this and that you shouldn’t look at them.Sayo was upset about it and wanted me to know.I’ll make a statement that you’re my girlfriend and hurtful things said about you hurt me as much as they do you.And I’ll alert the police.”
The police!?
Let it drop.Iris did say to ignore these things.But his face… It must have been terrible.Why do we need to alert the police?
“Now I’ll probably imagine something that is much worse than it is,” I say.
He shakes his head.“You have to ignore the haters.Just remember, what matters is what’s between us.”
He cradles my face in his hands and kisses me gently.The way he looks at me, I can almost believe that’s all that matters.
“Still, if you have to alert the police, I should see the comment,” I say.“It’s also a matter of safety at this point, if the intruder was a crazy fan.”
“You’re right.”Nick wraps his arms around me and shows me the comment.
She needs to disappear.
Cold ice fills my chest, and I shiver.Is this the same person who invaded my apartment?
Nick hugs me tightly.“I’ll talk to Luca about a bodyguard.”
I let out a choked sound.It was supposed to be a laugh.“I’m not walking around New York City with a bodyguard.I’m not letting them get to me.But I will let the paper’s security know.Maybe the police will be able to track down this comment.This might be a clue to who broke into my apartment.”
“You don’t have to put on a brave front for me,” Nick says, pulling back from the hug to look me in the eye.
“I’m not.”
Nick raises an eyebrow.Mmm.He looks so cute when he does that.
“Maybe a little.But I’m also mad.Ms.or Mr.Anonymous wants to threaten me from the safety of their keyboard.”I also use my keyboard as my way to fight injustice.But I put my byline on my articles.I put my name and my reputation on the line, and I keep to the facts in my writing.“And this really might be a clue that reveals the perpetrator.At least, I hope so.”
She should disappear.
I’mnotgoing to.I will take extra safety precautions, but I’m not hiding.I tried that for a while in middle school, trying to make myself smaller so that the bullies wouldn’t pick on me, so that I wouldn’t attract their attention.It doesn’t work.It only made me an easier target.I will figure out who is responsible for the bribery and these sham repairs.And Iwillbe a part of Nick’s life for as long as I can.
Chapter twenty-six
Nick
Italktothelabel about the threat to Maddie, but they imply that this comes with the territory.Plus, the way our producer Ashley’s eyes narrow, it seems she’s registering this as some way to persuade me to give up Maddie.The police are far more interested, thankfully, and promise to track it down.The various videos the police have been able to retrieve from around our neighborhood of the night of the break-in into Maddie’s apartment never show the guy’s face.But after some research, the police don’t think this is the same culprit.The label reports and blocks the commenter, but that seems to be all we can do for now.
What if the culprit is one of my crazy fans?I want Maddie, and I want a career making music—but not if Maddie can’t walk the streets of New York as a civilian.
I put down my guitar.Writing more lyrics doesn’t seem to be the way to figure this out.
José has also been more distracted this week.Elena had some spotting, so now he’s worried and says that if he’s not watching her, she’s doing too much.We’re both basically trying to protect our women—without much success.
The label and the police suggested that Maddie and I not have any public dates for the time being.That’s fine for now.We’re swamped rehearsing for our upcoming performances.Maddie is busy trailing the deputy commissioners and writing her playground article.But I don’t want our relationship tohaveto be in the shadows.
I open my laptop to study the Infrastructure Department budget from last year to see if it reveals any clues.The corrupt commissioner should have the highest numbers for repair expenditures, because all the projects in his domain are adding an extra cushion to pay the bribe that is shared between him and Beatrice.But we can already assume that he’s not limiting himself to his assigned buildings to spread the suspicion, unless it is Galliano.
The amounts seem to be evenly distributed across the deputy commissioners’ assigned housing developments.I give the perp credit for hiding it well.
