No Stranger to Scandal. Rachel Bailey

sat on the desk in front of him.

      She picked up her pen, wrote the date at the top of a clean page, then pasted a smile on her face. “Ready.”

      He nodded, switched the recording equipment on and gave the date, time and her name. “Do you understand what illegal phone hacking entails?” he asked bluntly.

      Seemed they were jumping right in. She straightened her spine. That suited her just fine. “Yes, I do.”

      “So you’re confident you’d recognize phone hacking if you came across evidence that it had happened,” he asked without hesitation and looking directly at her as if daring her to lie. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was working from a list of questions on his laptop today. Perhaps this interview was more important than the first?

      She leaned forward in her chair, her hands laced together and resting on the desk. “I believe I would.”

      “We already have evidence that ANS has been involved in illegal phone hacking. The evidence against former reporters Brandon Ames and Troy Hall is indisputable—they were caught on camera hiring hackers to record the phone and computer activity of Ted Morrow’s and Eleanor Albert’s families and friends. The only questions that remain are who else was involved, and who knew about it.” There was something vaguely intimidating about the intelligence in his eyes, the determined jut of his chin, the perfect Windsor knot of his pale blue tie. This man would be a formidable adversary.

      She arched an eyebrow. “Assuming someone else was involved or knew about it.”

      Not acknowledging her comment, his eyes flicked back to the laptop. “Do you work much with Angelica Pierce?”

      Lucy kept her face neutral despite the distaste that rolled through her. There was a woman who was capable of something immoral, like phone hacking, if her treatment of her underlings was any gauge of her moral character. Angelica was mean, vain and selfish. But she wasn’t here to talk about whom she personally did and didn’t like, so she simply said, “I do a fair bit of background and preparation work for her.”

      “What about Mitch Davis?” Hayden flicked his pen over and under his fingers as he watched her. The man had an intensity in his gaze that was mesmerizing.

      “Mitch has his own show, and he’s a star at ANS. I rarely have a chance to speak to him directly.” Mitch had been the one to announce the news of the president’s illegitimate daughter at an inauguration gala, but Brandon and Troy had uncovered the information and given it to Mitch to reveal in a very public toast that put the new president on the spot. Those guys had given ambition a bad name with their slimy tactics, and they deserved the full force of the law—which they were now receiving. But as far as she was aware, they’d acted alone—other than blaming a casual researcher who’d already left ANS—and this witch hunt to try to implicate others in the pair’s crimes was dangerous for everybody.

      “Did you work with Brandon Ames or Troy Hall on their story about the president’s daughter?”

      She unscrewed the cap on her water bottle and took a sip, putting the cap back on before replying. He may have been asking the questions, but she was retaining a smidgeon of control over the process. “As I said when you asked the question two days ago, no, I didn’t.”

      Barely acknowledging her reply, he pushed forward. “What about Marnie Salloway?”

      “Marnie is an ANS producer and has the authority to assign me tasks,” she said, making a list in her notebook of the names he was asking about. She wanted the record for when she reported back to Graham, but also to gain a little power in this meeting.

      “Has she ever asked you to do anything illegal?”

      “No.”

      “Anything involving phone hacking?”

      “That would be illegal—” she smiled sweetly “—so my reply stands. No.”

      “Did you know that your stepfather and the president attended the same college at the same time?”

      “Yes,” she said. It was hardly a secret.

      “Are you aware of any bad blood between them?”

      Not apart from Graham thinking Ted Morrow had strutted around campus as if he owned it. “They didn’t move in the same circles.”

      For another twenty minutes he grilled her, trying to trip her up, asking questions in different ways, expertly circling back over the line of questioning again and again. She had to admire his technique, but since she had nothing to hide, it was easy not to stumble.

      When he paused to take a sip of water, she asked, “Hayden, do you honestly think someone else at ANS was involved in the hacking with Brandon and Troy, or are you fishing?”

      “Someone else was involved,” he said, his voice dropping a notch. His dark brown eyes burned with the intensity of his conviction.

      Her fingers tightened around her pen. “Why are you so sure?”

      “To start with, neither of them understood the process well enough to have masterminded it. They were pawns, used by someone bigger.”

      She frowned as she followed his investigative reasoning. “I’m not someone bigger.”

      “No,” he said slowly. His gaze locked on hers, taking on a speculative gleam and, as she understood his meaning, her stomach fell away.

      “You’re using me to get to Graham.” She swallowed past an uncomfortable constriction in her throat. “I’m not here for routine questioning like the others. You think Graham ordered those goofballs to do it and that I know something that will implicate him.”

      One broad shoulder lifted, then dropped, as if this was a casual conversation, yet the intensity in his eyes didn’t waver. “It’s one theory.”

      A shiver ran down her spine. She’d known there was suspicion, of course. They all had. But if it was certain that someone else was involved, then ANS was in more trouble than she’d thought. They still had a bad seed in the company, and if Congress couldn’t find who it was, they’d keep their focus on Graham. The exposé alone wouldn’t save her stepfather. She had to do more.

      She tapped a beat with the end of her pen on the desk as fragments of ideas flitted through her mind until one coherent plan formed.

      She rested her forearms on the desk and leaned forward. “Hayden, I have a proposal for you.”

      He stilled. “I’m listening.”

      “If there truly is someone else in ANS who was involved in the hacking, and they were pulling Brandon and Troy’s strings, then I want to know who they are, too. I can tell you now, it’s not Graham. I know that man, and I know what he’s capable of—he’s not your guy. But the only way to prove that is to find the real culprit.”

      Hayden leaned back and folded his arms over his wide chest. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

      “I’m going to help you with your investigation,” she said, mind made up. “I can be your person on the inside. But I won’t be involved in a witch hunt—this has to be evidence-based.” She wouldn’t be manipulated into finding circumstantial or misleading evidence against Graham.

      “So you’ll gather information for me?” He spoke slowly, as if testing the idea as he said it.

      “Within reason. We have agree to some parameters first.”

      He cocked his head, brown eyes curious. “Your stepfather will be okay with you doing this?”

      “I won’t tell him just yet. It’s possible he trusts someone he shouldn’t, so for the time being, no one at ANS will know I’m assisting you.” She felt a little queasy at the thought of keeping something of this magnitude from Graham, but in this case, the ends justified the means. The most important thing was that she was working in Graham’s best interests.

      Hayden rubbed