This morning I woke up to 28 unread text messages from my team.

Sitting up straight in bed I reached for my phone and stared down at the screen and read the previews for all of them. I saw Michelle had texted at around 4:30 this morning and decided to prioritize opening hers first since I trusted she would give me the info I needed the fastest. I opened the messages and felt my heart drop.

"Holy shit," I muttered.

Next to me Eddie grumbled something about it being "too early" and sprawled out on the bed the second I got up. I shook my head at him and quietly got dressed, typing as quickly as I could back to Michelle.

I gently shook Eddie's shoulder and he grumbled at me again. I pushed his curls out of his eyes and he squinted up at me.

"Hmm?"

"I have to get to work early. Someone broke in last night so I have to help Michelle figure it all out. Walk Josie when you get up, okay?"

He blinked for a few seconds and then squinted again.

"Wait who broke in?"

I smirked at his sleepy question and shrugged.

"Well if we knew who did it this wouldn't be an open investigation now would it?"

He grunted and I kissed his forehead before walking out to the kitchen to brew some coffee before I left. I fed Josie and noticed Eddie leaning against a wall in the hallway watching me sleepily. I wiggled my fingers at him and went to grab the carrot mix for Josie. Eddie stretched and I looked over to see his happy trail exposed from under his wifebeater.

"Well good morning, sleepyhead."

Eddie rubbed his eyes and yawned as he walked over to me.

"No cutesy nicknames this early in the morning or I'll scream," he grouched.

The Keurig buzzed and I pulled my now-full thermos out from under it. I took a long sip and felt the energy slowly coming back to me as the warm Cinnabon coffee filled my body. Eddie sniffed theatrically and squinted down at my thermos before snatching it and taking a swig despite my protests.

"Excuse you," I said.

He side-eyed me as he took another sip and handed it back to me.

"It's too early for manners."

I pointed at my watch and held it up to Eddie's face.

"It's 5 am you fucking baby."

He groaned again with irritation and ran his hands through his curly hair.

"Yeah and that's wayyyy too early. I wanna sleep more."

I shrugged and went to grab my keys.

"Then go back to sleep??? I'll see you when I see you, Edward. Until then," I tipped an imaginary hat at him and shut the door in his grumpy face.

As my heels clicked against the cement floor of the parking garage, I thought back to what Michelle had said.

"No one was in the building when it happened."

Because that couldn't have been right.

There were two people from the company downstairs that had let us know they'd be keeping the building open late AND our cleaning crew surely would have let us know if they saw anything suspicious when they left around 1am.

Mulling it all over in my head, I was only faintly aware of the footsteps creeping up behind me. Rolling my eyes as I walked, I slowed my pace and turned around to chastise Eddie for following me right after grouching about more sleep.

But it wasn't Eddie. It was a man, yes, but definitely not Eddie. I backed up in surprise and shrunk away from the man's outstretched hand.

"Hey hey hey don't run!"

I shook my head and backed away as quickly as I could, searching left and right for anyone else in the parking lot I could call out to.

"No I swear it's okay. Trust me you need what I've uncovered."

I kept backing away and gripped my keys tightly between my fingers.

"In a dark parking lot at 5am? I don't think so."

The man scoffed and advanced towards me, though he did lower his arm. That gave me very little comfort, however, and I kept craning my neck to see if I could find my car.

I didn't dare turn my back on this strange man and willed someone to walk out of the elevators and see us.

"Please get away from me. If you're really some journalist you should really learn how to accost people in less creepy ways."

His voice was more urgent now and definitely scarier too as his pace sped up to catch up with mine.

"Yeah probably but listen. I'm Stuart Cavish, look me up, I'm not a murderer I swear. Now you're from Dirtbag, aren't you? You guys have the lead on the label poaching. Well I found a trail leading to your lead that I think you'll wanna see. Trust me it'll crack this whole thing wide open if I'm right."

I held in the urge to laugh nervously and finally saw my car across the lot maybe a couple hundred feet away. Trying not to let on that I had an escape plan, I held my gaze on 'Stuart' and squinted at him.

"If it's a lead you obtained from a reputable source then you can call my office. We're a little busy right now but if your credentials check out I'll agree to see you. This method of meeting, however, is incredibly unsettling."

I pivoted as quickly as possible and dashed towards my car with my keys out at the ready.

Thank god I learned to run in heels.

I got my doors open and dove in, locking everything up behind me. I checked my rear view and could see Stuart quickly approaching my car. Terrified, I put my keys in the ignition and started it up. I tried to floor it and drive off but my car wasn't moving and I had zero idea why.

Frantically I tried calling Michelle to get someone on the phone with me but she didn't pick up. I called Eddie and no answer.

Damn that sleepy little bastard.

Stuart approached my window and knocked on it. I stared ahead and refused to acknowledge him, revving my engine as I tried to get my car to wake from its trance or whatever the fuck and get me out of here. Stuart pointed down at my tire and grimaced.

"I'm sorry but I had to. You guys need this lead and I had to make sure you'd see it."

I glared at him and looked down to see a bright yellow tire lock wrapped around my front left tire.

"Dude!," I yelled through the window, "What the fuck?"

Stuart cringed and waved a flash drive he'd pulled out of his pocket at me.

"Roll your window down and I'll take the lock off!"

"Yeah fuck no! You put a lock on my tire???"

"Please just take this! Crack the window and I'll slide it through, I don't care. Just look at when you get home after work. DON'T open it anywhere on your office devices though. You'll see why."

I didn't know what else to do so I cracked the window a sliver. He smiled excitedly and pushed the hard drive through.

"Alright! Now unlock my tire."

"Yeah so I kinda lied. I don't know how to get those things off," he grimaced.

I yelled a string of choice curses at him as he began backing away from my window.

Suddenly I heard a loud "HEY!" from my right and turned to see Eddie running up to my car.

"The fuck are you doing, buddy?"

The man began backing away towards the wall in front of my car. Eddie quickly glanced at me and then the tire lock. He looked up at the frightened man with fire in his eyes and cut off Stuart's only escape with his body.

"Did you do that?"

Stuart's eyes widened and he looked at me desperately.

"Don't look at her," Eddie banged a fist against the car next to mine, "I'm talking to you. Did you do that to her car, yes or no?"

I'd never seen Eddie this close to yelling since I'd known him (which wasn't long tbh) and it kinda made me nervous.

Eddie popped open my trunk with one hand and I stared at him curiously in the rear view mirror. I called to him through the open window,

"Eddie?"

He shook his head at me and focused all his attention on Stuart.

"Come on little man. Tell me what you did and maybe I won't have to use this."

I turned in my seat to watch Eddie advancing on Stuart and saw a crowbar in his hands.

How did a crowbar get in my trunk? Did Eddie put it there?

Stuart had his back against the wall now and Eddie was twirling the crow bar as he leaned against the concrete pillar a few feet away from him.

"Uh well yes. But I didn't mean her any harm I swear! I told her why I'm here, honest to god. Ask her!"

Eddie looked between me and Stuart and put a hand against the window. I held mine up to his and he smiled.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just...a little startled still. And stuck here apparently cuz he's telling me he doesn't know how to take the lock off."

Eddie rolled his eyes at Stuart and waved the crowbar at him.

"Seems like you need to figure out how to take that lock off before I let you go here today. She's got shit to take care of and I don't have the patience to sit here for the next few hours until AAA or whoever can get over here and take this thing off."

Stuart nodded with wide eyes and slowly held his hands up defensively.

"I will try and see what I can do. I really am sorry," he leaned in towards my window.

Even though he was an oddball I was less scared of him now that Eddie was here and was willing to accept that perhaps he was just a socially inept amateur journalist.

"Yeah so here's the thing I'm having trouble with here," Eddie's voice lowered as he stepped closer to Stuart.

"What kinda guy chases a woman down in a parking lot to her car and knows where her car is before he even meets her?"

Stuart gulped.

"Because I think," Eddie bent down with narrowed eyes, "that you're just a creeper that thought it was his lucky day before I showed up. Does that sound about right to you?"

Stuart looked up at me through the window and I shrugged.

Better let Eddie handle it.

I thought about it more and realized that Eddie was right. This guy would've had to be following me at some point before today if he knew what my car looked like. My info was out there as far as name and general location of my business but certainly not my fucking condo. I mean I know public records exist so theoretically anyone could find out where I lived if they had a few details and a personal phone number of mine but I don't just give that out to random people.

I rolled the window down and leaned out to interrogate Stuart on my own since Eddie wouldn't ask the right questions and I needed answers.

"Stuart how did you find us here?"

"Public records."

"No yeah I mean I gathered that much. But you'd need my phone number and only a few people have that information."

Stuart smirked but quickly hid it when Eddie held up the crowbar and glared at him.

"Okay! You're right about that. But any information can be bought for the right price and I obtained your personal number through...a member of your team."

I opened my mouth but no words came out.

One of our guys sold company information to a random guy with a little cash to throw? This could be a huge fucking problem.

"Did this mystery person offer you a name?"

"Uhhh I think he said it was Benson? Something like that."

Eddie's eyes widened and he glanced at me with concern.

"Hold on," Eddie interrupted, "Benson who?"

Stuart's eyes darted around and he avoided making eye contact with either of us.

"Stuart are you lying about who gave this to you? Because we both hate liars and my patience with you is running out," I muttered.

Stuart stood up and held up his hands defensively.

"He bought my confidentiality. Surely you two understand I can't undermine that transaction. For the sake of my journalistic integrity I can't just go around revealing my connections."

Eddie stepped closer and pushed Stuart up against the wall behind him roughly, the crowbar raised.

"You call what you did to her car a sign of integrity? Or sneaking around like a dirty rat buying private information off of people illegally selling it? Cuz to me that sounds like a felony. But if you look around you'll notice that there aren't any cops around to arrest you because I haven't called them yet. Even if I called right this second they wouldn't get here fast enough to stop me from getting a few good bone fractures in, would they? And can they blame me for defending myself against a creeper who attacked me and my girlfriend in a parking lot?"

Eddie tapped the crowbar against Stuart's temple and pointed it at my car.

"You're gonna tell us who sold you the information first and last name, what they looked like, where they got the information, and then you're gonna fix that tire. Do we understand each other?"

Stuart shrank away from the crowbar and nodded.

"Alright alright! His name definitely had 'Ben' in it, that much I'm positive about.

He called himself Benson once but after that he changed it to Ben. Didn't give a last name but he said he helped find the leak for Dirtbag so I figured I could ask him for anything that could help me find you specifically," he turned to me.

"Where did you find him? I mean why was my employee allegedly just running around telling people he found a leak?"

"Not sure actually. He found me and said that he trusted amateur magazines more than official ones with obtaining the juicier information because 'we fly under the radar' as he put it. He wanted me to look into the Dirtbag lead on my own and see if he had missed any names or anything suspicious I guess-"

"Look considering there's a crowbar pointed at your head I'm inclined to believe you're telling the truth. What doesn't add up is that I don't have an employee named Ben and I know for a fact that my team has signed an NDA of their own free will regarding this whole story. None of them would do this to sabotage us because Dirtbag is half our crew's only source of income. They wouldn't take down a company that keeps their lights on."

Stuart looked at me and nodded.

"I know and I think you're right. He said he was one of your guys but I looked into that lead like he asked me to (which I put on that flash drive) and there was no record of a Ben working anywhere in your network. There is a similar name attached to this story but it's not your connection."

Stuart looked at Eddie with sincere eyes.

"If I'm not mistaken about who you are then...I think he's connected to you."

"Me? You're accusing me of-"

"No no no not like you're responsible for him. I mean the name Ben-SON belongs to a very influential man from Power Chord Records if I'm not mistaken. Your label?"

Eddie tilted his head and squinted at Stuart.

"You're trying to tell me my manager had something to do with this little scheme? Cuz that is fucking laughable. That guy operates even straighter than the arrow up his ass all the time. No way he's involved in whatever bullshit activity you're a part of here."

I looked down and pondered everything I was hearing. I wasn't sure if Eddie remembered but Michelle had said in the office that Benson Morales was losing tons of stars to PSYCHO KLLR's label. I don't think Benny would ever play a role in taking down my company because honestly it wouldn't make sense for him considering his position. What might make sense is him paying for any leads we have as to whose been responsible for getting their foot in the door to poach from him. Possibly someone who would have gained access to the contracts of his artists in order to pay them higher amounts per year to make the label switch.

"You're talking about Benson Morales."

Stuart looked at Eddie sadly and nodded. Eddie looked at me with wide eyes.

"Y/n there's no way. He wouldn't sabotage anyone; he's literally the most anal person I've ever met about credibility and 'doing things the right way' to keep our image safe. You think he's just gonna risk it all for one little lead?"

I shrugged and waved Eddie away from Stuart. Reluctantly he let go of Stuart's chest and I unlocked the car.

"We're gonna talk about this in a civilized way now. Get your ass in this car, both of you,"

The two men looked at each other and climbed into the back seat. Once the doors shut I locked it and turned to face them both.