Operation Heartbreaker Read Online Free Page B

now?
    “I’m sorry,” Renée interrupted her troubled thoughts. “I have a phone conference now. Ally, we’ll talk next week to see if and how we will continue. Your blog is certainly popular, I’m not doubting that. But you really are very young and your uncle  made it clear that he doesn’t permit your side job. Besides, I can’t remember ever having a high school student among my editors. That really seems a bit…” She was looking for the right word.
    “Modern?” Julie interrupted her hopefully. She had miraculously recovered from her nervous breakdown.
    “I was thinking of dubious.”
    “But it’s the entertainment section!” Ally chipped in.
    “Next week,” Renée replied, and this time there was steel in her voice.
    As if on cue, both girls stood up and left the office in single file.
    “What the hell…?”
    Julie punched Ally’s ribs and shook her head. “Not now,” she hissed. “Let’s get out of here–and make it quick.”
    “Why?”
    Her friend’s eyes glanced down the hallway, then she pulled two plane tickets from the sleeve of her denim jacket. When she noticed Ally’s horror, she grinned impishly, grabbed Ally’s hand and started to run.
    “Tell me you didn’t…” Ally hit the passenger seat door of Julie’s Beetle with her open hand.
    “Take a breath! It was easy as pie.”
    “Julie!”
    “Do you really think I would let that old bat ruin your  dream?” She opened the driver’s side door. “Besides, I want to go to Paris. I’m young, I have time, and my parents are out of town!” With that she started the engine. When Ally didn’t move she honked impatiently. “What’s up? Am I supposed to fly alone, or what?”

02
     
    On the way back they were silent. Ally was lost in her thoughts, which were spinning like a merry-go-round. The Paris trip was cancelled, so was her blog in the newspaper. And all that, because her uncle had blown her cover. She knew he wouldn’t approve of her little sideline. But the fact that he would go as far as ruining her chances at the newspaper without even talking to her first was outrageous. With a single phone call he had shot down her plans for the future as if it was his God-given right. How could he dare?
    By the time they turned onto her street, she had gone through the entire range between shock and anger on the fast track. Right now her emotional barometer was somewhere between indignation and resignation.
    She lived in the northeast of Redmond, a part of town near the Benson Way. Julie’s home, Perrigo Heights , a guarded community called Open Space Park , was a bit over one mile north of it. Both communities were surrounded by the Neighborhood Park , an extensive wooded area, where Ally went running in the mornings. If there was something abundant in Seattle, it was greenery, and, well, trees.
    But Ally didn’t have an eye for the beauty of nature right now. Her thoughts were as dark as the clouds gathering above them.
    “Are you okay?” Julie asked carefully as she turned off the engine.
    Shaking her head Ally looked outside the passenger seat window over at the entrance of the dreary gray box she called her home.
    “Do you want me to come inside?”
    Head shaking.
    “Should I be worried?”
    Ally turned to her and gave her a grim smile. “Not about me.”
    “We’re flying, right?”
    Ally sighed. “I’ll call you later, ‘kay?”
    “No problem.”
    As she got out of the car, a raindrop hit the bridge of her nose. “Hurry up or you’ll get drenched.”
    Julie grinned and pushed the button that closed the cover of her cabriolet.
    If only everything was that easy. Sighing she climbed the steps to the entrance door.
    The first thing she noticed was the fact that the alarm system had been deactivated. How negligent of her uncle. She couldn’t remember him ever forgetting to arm the system before leaving for work. But maybe he had stayed at home today to confront her about her job? Unlikely. Just to be safe, she