A Good Kind of Trouble (A Trouble in Twin Rivers Novel Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

edge of the Beacon ’s newsroom. She had a bruise the size of a dinner plate forming on her shoulder, a cut on her head, and a witness to the assault. She was not imagining the misfortune that had befallen her lately. This time Sam had to believe her.  
    Sam’s usual scowl was momentarily replaced with shocked concern as Lindsey entered his office. She must look worse than she thought. She had cleaned up and changed clothes, but the knot on her head couldn’t be hidden.  
    Lindsey introduced Ben to her editor. Sam barely glanced at him before turning on her again.  
    “Jesus, Lindsey, I don’t even know where to start,” he said, closing the door to his office. “What were you doing in court today? How did you end up in jail? And what the hell happened to you? You look like hell.”  
    Lindsey hesitated and considered how to approach his barrage of questions. Better to start with the easy question. “I got mugged. Sort of. A bike messenger chased me and tried to steal my bag, but I fell and hit my head. And my shoulder.”  
    Sam’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. She didn’t blame him for being skeptical. So far this year, she’d returned to work with stories of a stolen laptop, burglarized apartment, one mugging (attempted), one mugging (completed), numerous threatening phone messages, more than her share of slashed tires, and approximately a million hang-up calls on her personal phones. She was starting to think she was having the world’s worst run of bad luck. But she suspected her editor just thought she was crazy.
    Sam turned his attention to Ben, who had sat silently so far.  
    “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
    “Judge Kinsey asked me to represent Lindsey on the contempt…” he started.  
    “Cut to the chase—literally,” Sam said, waving an impatient hand. “The mugging.”
    “Just as Lindsey said, the messenger tried to steal her bag, pushed her to the ground. Then he chased us down an alley and into a parking garage.”  
    It was hard not to gloat a little, finally having someone back her up when she came to Sam with another tale of woe.  
    Sam nodded. “Lindsey, take the rest of the day off. Did you call the police?”
    She shook her head and immediately regretted it. It felt like her brain had come loose from its moorings and was rattling around in her skull.  
    “Well, do it. The police should know they’ve got someone mugging people downtown.”  
    Ben leaned forward in his chair. “This was not some random mugging. Random muggers give up after one pass. They don’t chase their victims down alleys and into parking garages. They don’t make phone calls saying they lost her trail. This guy was targeting Lindsey.”
    Sam gave Ben a long inscrutable stare, then focused his attention back on Lindsey.  
    “What were you doing in the courthouse in the first place?” he asked. “As I recall, I assigned you to cover City Hall, not county courts. City Hall, you might remember, is three blocks from the courthouse.”  
    “I was following up on something related to the arena story,” she said.  
    “You’re supposed to come to me with anything related to the arena. You are not covering that story any longer. That’s Jeff’s story.”
    Fury boiled inside her. She caught Ben’s confused expression and quickly looked away. She so didn’t want to have this discussion in front of him.  
    “Jeff is a sports writer who might as well be wearing a short skirt and waving pom-poms when it comes to the stadium,” Lindsey said. “He’s not covering the story, he’s just rewriting press releases from the city. He’s not even looking into the issues about the contractor’s legal troubles.”
    “The coverage is my call to make. And Jeff’s. It is not yours,” Sam warned, his voice rising. “You still owe me a thousand words on the sewer bond refinancing for the weekend.”  
    Her face warmed, but she didn’t say anything. When she’d started working at the