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service I willingly gave him. It’s all a puzzle to me.
    Right as I’m drifting to sleep, I hear the annoying undeniable ringtone of my cell phone telling me there’s a text message. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s nearly midnight and since I’ve lost my job my texts have gone from forty a day to zero. I get up and cross the room, every step reminding me of the rough rear-entry pounding my pussy just endured. When I look at the phone, the cover is supposed to show me the number it comes from.
    The number is 555-555-5555.
    It’s an old reporter trick, of course. Pretty much anyone in publishing, news, or secret keeping knows how to set their phone up to register the 555 number as a way of masking their identity. I was taught the trick in college as were most of my staff and friends. So, whoever sent me this message wants to be anonymous. Let’s see what they have to say.
    Flicking the screen with my thumb, I choose the little text icon and the spinning circle appears for just a second before the message shows up on my phone. A chill goes down my spine and I am suddenly wide awake. There are four words on my screen.
    “Do not trust him.”

Chapter 5
     
    I stare at the phone in disbelief. You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t trust him? I’ve not only given him my trust but also my hope and my body! My world spins as I realize how little I really know about Mark Stone. He and his brother Blake co-manage Sandstone industries but they are more like business partners than brothers. He handles active accounts. He believes in Lynx. He believes in me. He is the good guy and Blake is the snake.
    Wait. That last one is not knowledge. It’s assumption. I’m assuming he’s the good guy because he hasn’t done anything openly bad. But that doesn’t make him good. He is certainly profiting off my situation for his carnal pleasure. And yet, it’s my pleasure too. He didn’t have to try to help me. He could have thrown me out of his office that very first night. As far as the sex goes, a man like Mark could have any woman in town, it’s not like he needed to coerce me into having sex with him. In journalism school, we would call this all conjecture. No proof. No proof he’s good. No proof he’s bad.
    I don’t even know who the “him” in the text refers too. It could be Mark, or Blake, or Paul Freis, my lawyer, or Dr. Vatel, or any random man on the street. Hell, it could be Sanjay from yoga. It might not even be for me. Some cheated-on spouse trying to warn another who got the wrong number. I don’t know where it came from and I don’t know what it says. All I know is I promised to give my body and trust to a man I barely know in exchange for some kind of help I don’t understand with no guarantee of success. The only person I can really count on is myself.
    ~~~
    Three days fall off the calendar like overripe fruit thudding to the ground and still no word from Mark. First he tells me I only have thirty days to file this rejoinder then he blows three off like they are nothing. What does he expect me to do, just sit around on my hands waiting for the 29th day so he can call me and say “Sorry can’t help you”?
    I spent the first two days milling around, sharpening my resume, and visiting Dad. I called Janice for lunch but she’s so paranoid about Sandstone Ventures she wants to wait another week. Finally this morning, Paul sent the packet over with his analysis of the firing documents.
    Sitting at the kitchen table with his notes as a map, I finally find my way through most of the small print. Things were going pretty well until I see a notation Paul made about Termination Reason 1A. I had seen the part where they say my position is redundant because Ladies World has Valerie James as an editor and doesn’t need me. What I hadn’t seen, until Paul’s paralegal highlighted it, was the part directly afterward.
    Reason for Termination: Redundant position.
Rationale for Decision: The controlling property