Merideth slipped out from beneath Ian’s arm and pulled on a pair of shorts and one of his shirts. She slipped out of the bedroom and walked down the hallway into the living room where she left her bag when she got home from work.
She turned on a lamp and almost screamed when she found Stone sitting on the couch. Right next to her bag that held the piece of paper Stone gave her earlier in the day. She promised Stone she wouldn’t call the phone number without him being present.
“Shh.” Stone looked around her shoulder as though he expected Ian to be right behind her.
“How long have you been sitting here in the dark?” Merideth walked around the furniture and sat down on the other side of her bag.
“Don’t worry, I went back outside and enjoyed a cigar and a scotch.” Stone didn’t need to confirm that he knew what happened after Ian closed the door to his office. “Is he in a better mood?”
Merideth ignored his question and reached for her bag. But before she could dig out the piece of paper from the side pocket, Stone grabbed her wrist and held her hand in place.
“Come on, Stone. You’re sitting right here. I’m not doing this alone. Just like I promised.” She looked up at her and tried to pull her hand away from him.
“I don’t get it. He wasn’t supposed to grow attached to you. Hell, he’s never grown attached to any of the women he’s spent time with, but we picked you because…”
Merideth felt her stomach drop as Wallace’s warning came rushing back to her. Ian’s grandfather had told her to find out why they picked her out of all the other women available, but she had pushed the words away. She looked up at Stone and read his expression with little effort. He knew he said too much.
“Why did you pick me, Stone?”
“The why doesn’t matter now.”
“Yes it does, Stone.”
“No it doesn’t. I didn’t get it, his protectiveness over you, until I watched him with you during dinner.” He let go of her wrist and leaned back on the couch, clasping his hands behind his neck. “Jason tried to warn me when he showed up here tonight, but I ignored him.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Stone.” Hurt and anger warred with one another deep inside of her.
“At first I thought he assigned me to you to protect him.”
Stone’s words confused her. She didn’t understand why Ian needed protection from her. “I wouldn’t hurt him. I’m not like that.”
“I know. I was the one who researched you.”
“You researched me?” Her voice raised in indignation. “What the hell are you doing researching me?”
“Shh.” Stone rolled his eyes at her. “Ian will come out here and I can promise you that neither of us will enjoy it.”
“Fine.” Stone wasn’t wrong and Merideth lowered the volume of her voice. “Why did you research me?”
“Because, we needed to get Ian’s grandfather off Ian’s back and we needed the perfect woman for it.”
The pieces fell into place. She still couldn’t see the entire picture, but it wasn’t hard to reason it out. “I wasn’t called in to interview for the entertainment job, was I?”
Stone shook his head, “no.”
“I got the interview so Jason could run into me and bring me up to meet Ian?”
Stone nodded his head slowly. “It wasn’t like we could just call you up and make the offer. We needed a reason to get you into the building.”
Merideth wasn’t ready to deal with the information. She knew she would have to eventually, just as Wallace warned her she would, but she didn’t want to just yet. “Why would Ian need to be protected from me, Stone?”
“Because we didn’t know the number, but we recognized the voice on your voicemail.”
Merideth slid back along the couch, moving as far away from Stone as she could. “What do you mean?”
“She’s works for an escort service.”
“Ian’s used her before?” Merideth heard the hurt in her voice, and held up her hand, stopping Stone from speaking. She didn’t want to know. “Don’t tell me.”
“It’s not like that. She’s the booker. She’s the one you call.”
The admission made her feel only a little better. “Okay? I still don’t understand how I could hurt Ian.”
“That’s my point, Merideth. Before dinner, I would have said he was just making sure nothing leaked out about our utilization of an escort service.”
“And after dinner?” Merideth grew tired of Stone dancing around the subject.
“Merideth, this isn’t about Ian protecting Ian, this is about Ian protecting you. I joked about him being upset if I had to kill you, but if I let anything happen to you, he would kill me.” Stone leaned forward over his legs and looked down at his feet. “Merideth, we’ve never seen him as protective of any woman.”
“So what does this mean?” There was too much information for her to digest. Too many conflicting ideas.
“It means we need to take a different approach to your story.”
“Stone. I am minutes from walking out of Ian’s apartment. The terms of the agreement be damned.”
Stone groaned and covered his face with his hands. “As far as Ian’s concerned, you’re only looking at the social pages. Don’t let him know you’re reaching out for the girl.”
“You don’t know her name?”
“No, Merideth, it’s not like any of us are on a first name basis with her.”
“But you recognized her voice.”
“Ian did. Or at least he thought he did. That’s when he came and got me and I listened to it and confirmed his suspicions.” Stone looked over at her. “I thought he didn’t want you to know about her because he was worried you’d use it against him.”
Merideth looked down at her hands. She didn’t want to consider what Stone must have thought about her to think she’d do something like that. Unfortunately, she agreed to be Ian’s fake girlfriend for seven days, so of course he’d think the worst of her.
Stone reached over her back and squeezed her shoulder. “Merideth, he didn’t want you to find out about her because he didn’t want you to know about his association with escorts. He’s protecting you.”
“You’re sure about that?” She pulled away from his touch.
“Positive. When Jason asked you about the story, you didn’t see Ian’s reaction.” Stone’s hand found her shoulder again. “He was scared you would tell Jason what you were researching. He didn’t relax until you avoided giving him a direct answer.”
She rubbed her hand over her face and took a deep breath. This was just too much for her to handle in the middle of the night. Instead of letting her mind focus on the personal, she shifted into a professional mode. “All right, so we don’t let Ian know I’m going after my source.”
Stone nodded in agreement and reached into her bag. He pulled out the slip of paper and handed it to her. He picked the phone up off the coffee table and held it in his hand.
“Let’s go out on the terrace.” Tugging her up to her feet they walked out into the cool night air.
Merideth sat down on a chair and pressed the numbers into the phone. She pressed the speaker button and set the phone on the table. She thought she would go through to voicemail when a woman’s voice answered.
“Hello?”
“You called me earlier today about a friend of yours.” Merideth and Stone stared at the phone, waiting for a response.
“I can’t talk right now.”
“I know.” Merideth looked over at Stone who nodded encouragingly. “I’m going to be getting a cup of coffee tomorrow before I go into work. There’s a place right across the street and I should be there around eight.”
Merideth held her breath.
“Okay.” The call ended.
Merideth looked up at Stone. “What does that mean?”
“It means you do your thing tomorrow morning and tell Ian that he doesn’t dictate what you do. Then you and I sit in the coffee shop and hope she shows up.”
“Will she recognize you?”
Stone shrugged. “I doubt it. It’s not like we’re regular customers.”
Merideth slid the phone and the piece of paper across the table to Stone. “What do I do now?”
“Sweetheart, you’re the reporter. I’m just your hired muscle.” Stone grinned at her. “Go back to bed before Ian wakes up and wonders where you wandered off to and investigates.”
Merideth nodded her head slowly. She knew she needed to consider everything Stone admitted to her, but she would have put it aside for the time being. “I guess I finally have a Deep Throat.”
Stone picked up the phone and paper and they walked back into the apartment. “Does that make you Woodward or Bernstein?”
She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “That depends on who you want to be.”
Stone chuckled and pushed her down the hallway toward Ian’s bedroom.
