Going Coastal ✦ Chapter Eight
Maura learns the truth about why the people of Grey Bluff hate reporters.
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Author’s Note: There were some notes I left myself outside of this chapter, and it’s fun to read those little things put into brackets 8 years ago. Thanks, as always, for reading xo
Maura slurped a noodle off her spoon, specks of broth splashing her face. She was forcing herself to eat, though at this point her stomach was churning so much she thought she might throw it all back up. Her eyes remained unfocused on the fish swimming in their tank.
The Chief had instructed the two of them to hunker down, assuming they’d be safest at Jack’s, away from any person who dared threaten her life via a typewritten note taped to the police station door. He figured the suspect assumed Maura had ridden back to the station in his truck, and they wouldn’t know she was with Jack. Of course, it was better to remain cautious, and the firearm sitting on the coffee table between them did nothing to relieve her anxious stomach.
Jack was hunched beside her, using the couch as a backrest as he, too, slurped chicken noodle from an old mismatched bowl. They had only exchanged a few words since she entered his home, but she felt somewhat comfortable beside him. Safe, if only for the moment. It was almost amusing how much her mind had changed in the matter of 24 hours.
She leaned back against the couch, absently tonguing the sore in her mouth, unable to eat any more. She remembered the whispers behind her at the town meeting, all icy jabs at her profession and the very reason she was there, risking her life for her jerk of a boss and her stupid, toxic job. She thought of the night before, when she had excused herself to Jack’s bathroom just to hear his friends berate him for letting “her kind” into the comforts of his house. And now, here she was, hiding out from a death threat that she was positive was put on her because she was a reporter. Jack himself had called her a villain the morning before. This town hatred for reporters was eating her up inside.
“Jack,” she broke the silence with a raspy voice.
Jack turned to her, mouth full and eyebrows raised.
“Why are reporters being blacklisted in this town?” She asked bluntly.
