Free The Collective by Jack Rogan Page A

done.
    “You’re making pancakes?” Cait asked.
    “Anything special you want in yours?” Jane replied. “Bananas? Chocolate chips? I don’t have any blueberries, but I’m going to the supermarket later.”
    “Actually, I have to deal with some consequences from last night. My boss wants to see me in her office this morning.”
    “They can’t fire you for stopping a man from trying to kill his wife,” Jane replied, harshly enough that the baby gave her a curious look. Jane smiled to reassure the child, and when she spoke again, it was in the special, loving cadence most people reserved only for infants, but the words were not meant for the baby. “You tell that Lynette woman that the
rest
of the press will eat her alive if she tries to fire you.”
    Cait smiled. That was a McCandless trait. There might not be many of them left, but damn if they didn’t circle the wagons when trouble came calling.
    “I doubt she’ll fire me,” Cait admitted, “but I broke the rules. She’s got to at least give me a good talking-to.”
    Privately, she worried that Lynette might have something more punitive in mind, but she didn’t want to say that to Jane—at least not until she knew exactly what she was up against. Driving the news van might not be the best job in the world—scheduled shifts often went into overtime and many days and weekends she had to be on call, ready to go in if they needed her—but the pay and benefits were decent, andwatching the reporters and camera operators in the field was interesting. Jordan had promised to train her to use the camera and the remote equipment in the van, so at some point she hoped to move from behind the wheel to behind the camera.
    “I’ve got to tell you,” Cait said, “I wish I’d been in a position to buy Sweet Somethings when you sold the place. Making fudge and selling chocolates—being your own boss—is a much better way to live than this.”
    “Just imagine how much you’ll save on Leyla’s dentist,”Jane said.
    Cait laughed. “Hey, I didn’t get
that
many cavities.”
    “Only because your dad was such a tyrant about you brushing your teeth,” Jane reminded her.
    “True,” Cait admitted. Her father had loved Jane’s peanut butter and chocolate fudge just as much as Cait herself had.
    “I take it you need me to watch the munchkin while you go face the music?”
    Cait nodded, shifting Leyla to her other hip. “I’m sorry. You’ve had her so much, and all night—”
    “She’s no trouble, Caitlin,” Jane said, smiling at the baby even as she put a pan on the burner.
    “I’m not working today,” Cait added. “I should be back by ten-thirty, at the latest, and then we’ll be out of your hair until Tuesday.”
    “No problem,” Jane assured her. “Do me a favor, though? Before you leave, see if you can get a peek at whoever’s sitting in that BMW, or whatever it is, down in front of the DiMarinos’ house.”
    “Sorry, what?” Cait mumbled. She’d been playing with Leyla, blowing air into the baby’s face to make her giggle.
    “They’re away,” Jane said. “The DiMarinos, I mean. In the middle of the night there was this car parked in front of their house.” She went on to describe what she had seen out the window the night before. “It’s probably nothing, but I kept thinking, what if it’s someone planning to break in?”
    “Are they still out there this morning?” Cait asked.
    “They were when I woke up,” Jane replied.
    As Jane started doling pancake batter onto the pan, Cait slipped the baby into her high chair and locked her in place.
    “Where are you going?” Jane asked.
    “To stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
    “What about breakfast?”
    “Save me some.” Then she crouched down so that she was eye to eye with Leyla. “Take care of Auntie Jane for a few minutes, baby girl.”
    Her daughter gave her a toothless smile. Cait stood and headed out of the kitchen.
    “Aren’t they going to be angry if you