4
G
ail jumped to her feet and put her desk
between them. She had no idea what else to do. She’d never seen Simon this
angry, not even when he’d punched out his costar for calling him “Tiger Woods”
after news of his divorce, and the reason behind it, broke.
“What the hell kind of game are you playing?” he yelled. “I
told you I’d reverse whatever Ian did to your business. We agreed last night.
Didn’t you believe me?”
The veins that stood out in his neck made Gail as uncomfortable
as his bloodshot eyes. If she had her guess, he hadn’t been to bed since she’d
seen him. Unshaven, with his thick black hair mussed and his clothes wrinkled,
he had lines of fatigue bracketing his eyes and mouth. But he still looked
gorgeous.
Gail considered that more than a little unfair. At six feet
tall, he wasn’t even short like so many other male actors.
“I’m not playing games,” she said. “I believed you, and I
can…explain. If you’ll just give me a chance.”
He pulled
Hollywood Secrets
Revealed
out of his back pocket and slapped it down. “This is
bullshit! All of it. And you know it.”
Her knuckles ached with tension as she clasped her hands in
front of her. “I do. And I’ll admit it. I promise. We just need to brainstorm
how…how to proceed from here, figure out the best way to neutralize the
damage.”
He tilted his head as if a new thought had occurred to him. “Is
that why you did it? To get me back in here? So we could work together
again?”
“What?”
Losing some of her fear,
she stood taller. “Absolutely not. I’m the one who kicked you out to begin
with.”
His lips, so sensuous-looking in the movies, thinned. “But now
you regret losing the income.”
“I regret that it cost me my other clients. I don’t regret that
it cost me
you.
You’re a mess and it’s time someone
had the guts to tell you.”
“
I’m
a mess?” he repeated. “At
least I’m not falsely accusing anyone of a felony!”
She cringed. “Right. That’s bad.”
“If you agree, then
why?
I’ve never
laid a hand on you—and I’ve had plenty of opportunities. How many times have we
been alone in the back of a limousine, coming or leaving an event, or meeting
after hours right here in this office?”
Not many. And certainly never for very long. Ian, his business
manager, was usually with them, or Serge, who worked for her and helped with the
bigger accounts. Sometimes one of Simon’s bodyguards came along. But she wasn’t
going to quibble over such a small detail. Especially when he added, “Not that I
wouldn’t like to wring your neck this very second.”
“You wouldn’t want to make matters any worse.” She edged away
when he took a few steps to the left, always keeping the same distance between
them. She doubted he’d really hurt her. He’d never been known to strike a woman.
But he’d been unraveling pretty fast since the breakdown of his marriage. She
wasn’t taking any chances.
“Matters
can’t
get any worse,” he
ranted. “I’ve been accused of a lot of things, but never
rape!
Don’t you realize what this is going to do to me? My ex-wife’s
lawyers have already called. They’re going to use this to delay my next custody
hearing. It could slow the process for months, make it impossible for me to get
my little boy back....” When his voice broke, his muscles bunched as if he’d
rather slug the wall than show her his softer side, the side that actually cared
about something. “If that happens, if I lose him, I’ll make you sorry you were
ever born.”
Gail couldn’t help cringing again. He meant it. “I apologize.
Sincerely. Please, calm down and—”
The door swung open and Ian Callister charged in. Face mottled
with emotion, blond hair standing on end as if he’d just rolled out of bed, he
was obviously in a hurry. But he didn’t seem to be looking for her. At least,
not yet. He had eyes only for his frazzled client. “Simon, let me handle this.
You don’t need to be here, okay? This is dangerous. You touch one hair on her
head and it’ll just exacerbate the problem. Why don’t you go home and try to get
some sleep? I’ll call as soon as I have this resolved. We’ll work it out. I
swear.”
“Like you worked out taking away her clients?” Simon asked.
“Why do you think she did this?”
“
I
wasn’t trying to get revenge,”
Gail said. But the men weren’t listening.
“She was too full of herself,” Ian replied. “I was just giving
little miss prim and proper a much-deserved wake-up call.”
Full of herself? Was that how she came off? Gail opened her
mouth to offer some sort of defense; she wasn’t the one who’d acted badly when
she’d represented him. But Simon was already responding.
“What the hell am I even doing here?” He threw up his hands.
“What’s done is done. There’s nothing we can do to take it back. As far as I’m
concerned, you can both go to hell. Good luck saving your business,” he said to
her. “Because I won’t lift a finger to help you, and you’d better be prepared to
defend yourself against a slander suit. And you.” He pointed at Ian. “You’re
fired.”
With that, he left, but not before slamming every door he
encountered.
In the wake of his noisy departure, Gail could see her
employees creeping toward her interior window. They gazed in at her with wide
eyes and mouths hanging open.
She ignored them. Ian was still in her office, breathing
heavily and eyeing her as if
he’d
like to wring her
neck on Simon’s behalf.
“Thanks for that,” he snapped.
She swallowed hard. “You deserved it. If you really went after
my business the way he said, you don’t deserve to work for him. Or anyone else
in Hollywood.”
“Like
you
deserve to work here
after the little stunt you pulled? Accusing an innocent man of rape?”
“I didn’t leak that bogus story!”
“Then where’d it come from?”
She felt too much loyalty to Josh to reveal his complicity.
Since he worked for her, she was responsible for what he’d done, anyway. Caught
between her disapproval of his actions and her understanding of the frustration
that had fueled them, she shook her head to avoid answering. “Regardless, it’s
become public. Now we have to decide what to do about it.”
He paced to her credenza and back. “What, exactly, do you
suggest?”
The sarcasm that dripped from those words implied that there
was no way out. But there had to be.
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “First of all, we have
to calm down so we can think.” Her employees, all except Ashley, who was busy
with the phones, were still gaping at them, trying to figure out what was going
on. Irritated by the lack of privacy, she waved them away.
“Easier said than done when we’re all facing the end of our
careers,” Ian grumbled, frowning as their audience reluctantly dispersed.
“This article is just the latest in a series of bad
developments,” she said. “The real problem started long before now. Simon’s been
rolling downhill for months, drinking too much, fighting, acting belligerent,
walking out on jobs and getting sued for breach of contract. He was already in
trouble.”
“That’s no excuse for what you’ve done. Chelsea Seagate and I
have been trying to get things turned around, but you’ve just made his situation
exponentially worse.”
She wondered what Chelsea was going to say about this, how
she’d try to contain the damage, and was actually grateful that she might have
some help. “I agree. I’m saying this isn’t a
new
problem. It’s more of the old problem. Simon needs a fresh image. We’ve got to
pull him out of circulation until he can decompress and get hold of
himself.”
Ian shoved a hand through his thick, unruly hair. “How do we
pull him out of circulation? He has a new movie coming out. He’s contractually
obligated to promote it. That puts him on every major talk show in America.”
He’d probably show up drunk at those appearances because he
couldn’t bear to do them sober anymore. She’d never seen anyone so burned out.
“What if he had a good reason to change things up? What if we gave the movie’s
producer such a great PR angle he’d be thrilled
without
the usual dog-and-pony show?”
“I’m not following you,” he said, but he seemed somewhat
mollified and encouraged by her tone.
“It’s been six months since Simon’s divorce.”
“And he’s still not over it.”
She threw him a dirty look. “We’re talking about
solutions.
He’s available again. That’s the bright
spot.”
He stood by the window and peered out through the blinds. “What
are you saying?”
“That what we should do is—” her mind scrambled to focus the
idea that was coming to her “—find a nice girl for him to marry.”
The blinds snapped as he let go of them and swung around to
face her. “
Marry?
After what Bella the Bitch has
done, I don’t think he’ll ever marry again.”
“But consider what a new relationship would do to distract
from, and counteract, all the bad press.
If
we could
find the right person.”
He prowled around, examining the awards she’d won, tossing her
paperweight from hand to hand. “And who would the right person be?”
“Someone sweet enough to soften his rough edges. Someone whose
character is sterling, above question, so there won’t be any shocking
revelations down the road.”
He sighed. “Too dangerous. Anyone could end up being
unpredictable.”
“Not necessarily. This will be a business deal. The woman will
sign a prenup as well as a contract outlining exactly what she can and can’t do.
If she fulfills her obligations, she’ll be generously compensated. But she’ll
get paid only if she abides by the terms. We’ll make sure she says nothing that
isn’t nice about him and acts with proper adoration in public. He’ll have total
control.”
Ian still seemed skeptical. “There’s no such thing as total
control. How do you know that whoever we get won’t turn out to be a psycho? Or
cause bigger problems? It’s not like you’re going to find someone who doesn’t
know who he is. Any woman would smell money.”
“You have so much confidence in the female gender,” she said
with a grimace.
He shrugged at her sarcasm. “I’m just sayin’. What if she gets
tired of putting in the time and sells her story to the tabloids to make a quick
buck instead? Reveals that she’s a plant? Tries to blackmail him or take him to
the cleaners?”
“That would be breach of contract.”
“So?” he said, exasperated. “People break contracts all the
time. And once the truth is out there—”
“The wife would have to be someone we trust,” she conceded,
“someone who has no appetite for fame and no interest in pursuing the Hollywood
crowd.”
“Someone who appears dutiful and devoted,” he added.
He was starting to see the potential, which ignited a flame of
excitement in Gail. What she was picturing could work, even for someone as far
gone as Simon. “The public will eat it up. Who doesn’t enjoy a good love
story—especially one in which beauty tames the beast?”
He hesitated as if tempted, but ultimately shook his head. “No.
What’re we thinking? That’s crazy. Even if we could find the ideal lady, Simon
would never agree to this. He’s had enough of women—er, marriage. That ex-wife
of his ran his heart through a meat grinder.”
Gail propped her hands on her hips. “And he didn’t do the same
to her?”
“Maybe he did. But he never used their son as a weapon against
her, like she’s doing to him. He hasn’t been able to see Ty for weeks. And
there’s a lot more you don’t know, because Simon refuses to make her look bad.
He’s taking full responsibility for the breakup of the marriage, even though
she’s no gem.”
“I’m glad to hear you think
her
actions are reprehensible, since destroying someone’s business doesn’t seem to
bother your conscience. At least you have your limits.”
He made a face at her. “You asked for what I did. You left
Simon in the lurch, then compounded the problem by opening your big mouth.”
“He showed up at his ex-wife’s drunk and tried to bust into her
house!”
“Because he wanted to see his son!”
“And accomplished just the opposite. Now she has a restraining
order against him.”
“What she’s doing hurts Ty as much as Simon. Ty has to be
wondering where the hell his daddy is, and that tears Simon up. Anyway, Simon’s
ex isn’t the one who’s paying my bill, so I’ll let someone else worry about
what’s best for her.”
“Right now
no one
is paying your
bill,” Gail reminded him. “If you want Simon back, you’re going to have to make
him an offer, show him a way out of the mess he’s in.”
“And you think a fake marriage is the ticket?” Suspicion
entered his eyes. “Or are you setting me up for failure?”
Gail spread her hands wide. At this point, she wanted them all
to regain their footing, even Ian, so they could move on. “I’m not setting you
up. To prove it, I’ll handle all the PR for this myself, free of charge.”
“Which includes…”
“I’ll get the information into the hands of key people,
position it as one of the best-kept secrets in town that Simon has a new love
interest. Everyone will be salivating to learn who the lucky girl is. Meanwhile,
you can find the best candidate. Once that happens, I’ll sell the exclusive to
People,
and he can use those funds to pay her if
he wants.” Satisfied that she’d come up with the perfect fix, she raised her
hands palms up. “Or Chelsea could take my idea and run with it.”
“No way,” he said, shaking his head. “Why would Pierce Mattie
be willing to get involved in this, to put their reputation on the line?”
“The money? Or the challenge—”