Breaking Point (Drew Ashley 1) (24 page)

"I was fine."

"I sent you an email yesterday afternoon about the next trip to Rwibya. Can you come up and see me after you read it?"

"Okay."

Harvey left, and I went to look for something that would serve as a vase for my two bouquets. Once my flowers were happily sitting in jugs of water, I scrolled through my emails until I found Harvey's. It was an email he'd received from the chief exec that he'd forwarded on to me. One of our journalists had been shot in Rwibya. They were keeping it out of the news, and had paid other news stations not to report it. I emailed Harvey back to tell him I was coming up.

"Just going to see Harvey," I announced. I grabbed my coffee and took a sip. "Mmm, nice brew, Rosie."

"Yes, I'm the best," she said absently, staring at a bunch of figures on her computer screen.

I took my coffee with me and went to Harvey's office. His face was serious when I entered. "I appreciate your concern, Harvey, but would you do this if it was anyone else?"

"I've already told Eva to see me if anyone tries to make her go to Rwibya." His tone smacked of, 'I'd do it for anyone, so don't flatter yourself.'

"Someone has to go, Harvey," I said, sitting in the chair on the other side of his desk.

"There are two men on your team," Harvey said firmly. "Let them go."

I set my coffee down on his desk and frowned. "So you're telling me not to go because I'm a woman?"

"Yes," Harvey said, his gaze unrelenting. "Stay safe, Drew. Let the guys handle it."

It was sexist to the guys as much as it was sexist toward me. "So, because they're men, their lives are not as precious as mine?"

"They can protect themselves better than you can."

I was incensed. "Harvey, I haven't heard such blatant sexism in a while. I'm going to Rwibya because, on the eighth of July, I will become an international journalist, and it's my decision to make."

"I'm your director," Harvey said, his tone quietly confident. "I can override any decisions you make. I can override Rosie's, too. You might not become a journalist if I so decide."

The man was power drunk. "You don't want to be slapped with a tribunal, Harvey."

"Drew, I'm going to be worried sick if you go to Rwibya."

I glared at him.

He didn't flinch. "But it's up to you. I just thought I'd let you know what's going on so that you can rethink. I guess God'll protect you."

"You believe in God now?"

Harvey ignored my question. "Delete the email I sent you and zip your lips about it. If Larry finds out I've told anyone, my head will roll."

I didn't like the authoritative, commanding tone Harvey used sometimes. I wasn't one of his children! "I gathered that. I've already deleted it."

"Good."

Harvey wasn't wearing a suit jacket today. Just a crisp white shirt and grey pants. He looked professional but relaxed.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing." I forced Kale into my mind, feeling slightly guilty. I wasn't checking Harvey out like that, I was just noting his clothes, that's all. Just noting them.

Harvey reached across the table and brushed his fingers over the bruise on my head. "Is there anyone here that you think would want to hurt you?"

I thought of Brea Weller. I hadn't really seen her much since I'd been working here. She was petty, but would she plant a bomb? "Not as far as I know."

"I'm sure the police will find out. They requested our CCTV footage but you parked in one of the two areas not covered by the cameras."

Wouldn't it just be my luck!

Harvey turned to his computer, so I took it my cue to leave. I went back down to my department and got to work, feeling slightly queasy.

I felt progressively unwell as the morning dragged on, but I did my best to ignore it. I had work to do.

At one o' clock, Kale called to tell me he was outside my workplace. I locked my computer and dashed out to see him. The smile on my lips died when I got outside. Harvey and Kale were by Kale's car, talking.

Harvey walked away before I got to them. "What was he saying?" I asked Kale.

Kale opened the car door for me and I slid inside. He got in his side and started up the car. "Are you going to Rwibya?"

"Is that what Harvey was saying?"

Kale nodded as he put the car into gear and moved off. "He said he's concerned about it and that I should try to persuade you not to go."

Harvey needed to butt out. He was annoying me now with this so-called 'concern'.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going?" Kale asked.

"I did. I told you when I was applying for the journalist job?"

"No. If you'd told me that I'd remember."

Great. Now Harvey had succeeded in riling Kale about it, too. Well Kale had no say in the matter, either.

Kale glanced at me. "You really want to go, don't you?"

"Yes."

"I don't get it! It's dangerous, so why?"

"Kale, I want to do my job. No one is going to tell me that because I'm a woman I should sit back and be protected."

"I'm just looking out for you," Kale said, a hint of resignation in his tone. "No need to get all feisty with me."

We went to a Subway and ordered sandwiches and drinks, and then sat in Kale's car to eat.

"Not hungry?" Kale asked, watching me pick at my sandwich.

"I don't feel too good today." In fact the smell of Kale's meatball sub was making me want to vomit. I wound the window down a little and some cool air seeped into the car.

"Well, you did only just survive a bomb yesterday. I'm surprised you're in work today."

"Well, it's Friday. I just need to get through this afternoon and I'll be fine."

"Do you want me to pick you up from work later?"

"I wouldn't mind." My mum and I had taken the Tube this morning, but she'd told me she was going out straight from work today. "Aren't you at work today?"

"I took the afternoon off so I can read through my thesis in preparation for Monday."

"If I can pass mine, you'll definitely pass yours."

Kale raised his eyebrows. "You think I'm more intelligent than you?"

I shrugged. The meatball smell was really wreaking havoc on my stomach. I tried to smile. "You strike me as very intelligent."

Kale laughed. "Well, I have to work hard for it. You seem like one of those people who studies for two days and passes, and who does her coursework in three days and gets a distinction."

He was right. I was one of those people. It didn't make me particularly intelligent, though, because once the exam was over or the assignment was submitted, I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what I'd learned or what I'd written.

"Imagine how clever our kids would be," Kale said. "You know, if you and I were to get married someday."

I gave him a sideways glance. "Yeah, they'd be pretty clever kids."

Kale grinned. "So you want to have my babies?" he asked in an overly sensual tone.

"Gross, Kale." The thought of having babies freaked me out.

"Admit it, Drew. I know you're a strong woman and all that, but I can tame you."

"What? Am I a wild animal?"

"Yeah. But I'm gonna charm this snake."

I rolled the window farther down and took a gulp of fresh air. "I'm not sure I appreciate being likened to a snake."

"Well a she-lion then. I'm gonna make this she-lion into a domestic cat."

"I think you mean lioness. And I'd much rather be a lioness than a domestic cat, thank you."

Kale popped the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth then slugged back his drink. "Let's get you back to work."

He dropped me off and I went straight to the toilets in the reception area to throw up. Brea entered the toilets as I was rinsing my mouth. "Hi," I sputtered, straightening up.

She gave me a weird look and just entered one of the stalls. I finished rinsing my mouth out and went back to my department.

I felt ill all afternoon. By the time Kale returned to pick me up, I was sure I was dying. I didn't say anything as we crawled toward my house in rush-hour traffic. Kale asked if I was okay a few times. I told him I was just tired.

When we got to my house, I found that I was unsteady on my feet. I gripped the strap of my bag as I walked to my door, Kale a few feet behind me. Maybe it was just a delayed reaction to yesterday's bomb incident. The doctor had told me to come back if I didn't feel right. I'd see how I felt after I had a nap.

I unlocked my door. "Kale, you don't have to babysit me, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I am," I said, pushing into the house. "You have to prepare for tomorrow's missionary football."

"I can call the guys and tell them I can't make it."

"No, I'll be okay. Call me later when you get home."

Kale stepped back reluctantly. "I will." I watched him walk back to his car. "Go inside," he called before getting in.

I shut the front door and dragged myself up the stairs to my room. I pushed through the door and I froze. Terror gripped me, as I surveyed the chaos. My clothes had been yanked from my wardrobe. Underwear was strewn all over the place. My table lay upside down with two of the legs broken. My clock had been smashed, although it was still hanging on the wall. Bottles of perfume lay broken on my fluffy white carpet. My duvet and pillows had been knifed and the soft stuffing was bursting out of them.

I spun away from the scene in horror, stifling a scream. I ran down the stairs, afraid that whoever had done it was still in the house.

I burst out of the front door. Kale had gone. I searched the street frantically for a car in a driveway. There was a car outside the house two doors away. I ran over, tears streaming down my face. I fumbled in my bag for my phone as I knocked on the door. I was already talking to the police when a shaky, old man opened the door.

"I live at number twenty-two," I told him. "My house has been broken into. I was wondering if I could stay here until the police get here."

"Of course, love," he said, stepping aside. "Where's your mum?"

"She's not home."

I entered the house on shaky legs, finished my phone call with the police, and then called Jazz. She got to my neighbour's place within fifteen minutes. "I can't believe it," she said, pulling me into a hug. I clung to her arm, weeping.

"I'm going over to have a look," she said.

"Don't. What if the person that did it is still there?"

"I doubt it," she said, peeling me off her. "I just want to see."

She tossed me her car keys and told me to wait in her car while she went to check my room out. I thanked my neighbour and went to sit in Jazz's car. I watched her enter my house, wondering why she couldn't just leave it be. Why did she have to go in? After five minutes, I called her.

"Hello?" Jazz answered.

"What are you still doing in there?"

"Taking pictures."

"That's the police's job. Don't touch anything. They'll want to look for fingerprints."

"Did you see the time on your clock?" Jazz asked.

"My clock?"

"Yeah, it's broken, but it says three-fifteen. I'm guessing that must have been the time that this was done."

My stomach flipped over. "No I didn't notice that."

"None of the other rooms have been touched," Jazz informed me.

"Can you just come out? I need to get away from here."

"Okay, coming."

A few moments later, she appeared in the doorway. She inspected the front door, before slamming it shut.

"It doesn't look like there was a forced entry," she said getting into the car. "I wonder how they got in."

"I left my window open this morning," I remembered. I looked up at the house. Sure enough, it was still open.

Jazz took me to her house, and I gladly collapsed onto her couch. I told her about the car bomb.

She looked horrified. "That's scary."

"I know," I said, dialling my mum. It went to voicemail, so I just sent her a text explaining what had happened and telling her to come to Jazz's house instead of going home. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too drunk to understand it. I texted Kale too, telling him to ring me when he got a chance.

He called me an hour later while Jazz was in the kitchen rustling up a Friday night chilli. "Hey, open up. It's me."

"Are you outside my house?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"I'm not at home. I'm at Jazz's house."

"Oh. You said I should call. Is everything okay? You didn't look too good earlier."

"Um, I'm fine."

Kale drew in a breath. "Are we okay? Am I coming on too strong? Just tell me if I am."

I frowned. "Coming on too strong?" What was he talking about?

"Drew, I'm sorry, I just wanted to show you how I feel about you. Did I go over the top?"