by Robyn Carr
Oh, no...
Ashley wrung her hands. “You’re so white. You’re not going to faint, are you?”
“Maybe.” Was it just last night she’d gone home and congratulated herself on having a second chance?
“Should I get you something? A glass of water or—Oh, you’ve dropped your coffee. Look at the mess.”
A stain couldn’t compare to everything else that was going on. Gail pointed to the door. “The other line’s ringing. Someone has to answer.”
“Right. Of course. No one will get through. You can count on me,” she said, and snatched up Gail’s cup before scurrying out.
Bracing herself for what she might find, Gail checked the call log on her cell phone. Sure enough, she had thirty missed calls. All of which had been left in the past two hours.
Almost every one of them came from Simon or Ian.
What was she going to do?
She had no chance to decide. A second later, the outside door banged open and everyone started screaming while trying to stop the man who’d stalked inside. It was Simon. And he had his eye on her office as he shoved one person after another out of his way.
Four
Gail 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 ou
r 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—”
“No way. They’d never go along with it.” He cracked his knuckles.
“Then I’ll do it, like I said.”
“That’s better. But how am I supposed to find an innocent woman in the circles Simon’s been hanging out with lately? He’s so afraid he’ll actually be tempted to trust someone he’s sworn off all women except the most jaded and easy. You’re the only one he knows who—” His head jerked up. “That’s it!”
Gail wasn’t sure why, but she took a step back. “What’s it?”
“You’ll be his wife. That way even Chelsea won’t have to know. It’ll stay between us. The three of us.”
“You’re not serious....”
“Of course I am. It’s got to be someone he knows or people will see this as the ruse it is. Besides, you owe us, and you need the money a lot more than Chelsea Seagate. She has all your old clients, remember?” he added with a
devilish grin.
“How could I forget? But I’m not cut out for the part of Simon’s wife!”
“Sure you are. You’re perfect. No one will pay attention to the rape claim because they’ll know that if you’re marrying him, it couldn’t possibly be true. Everything will be tied up with a neat bow.”
Was she really the one who’d come up with this idea? She was beginning to feel faint again. “But Simon and I aren’t the least bit compatible. Seeing us together, the way we interact, will be a dead giveaway.”
“He’s an actor, and a damn good one. He can pretend to love even you. And you’re a PR agent, which requires no small amount of stretching the truth.”
She considered what his suggestion would entail and gulped. “Wait a minute...”
“For what?”
For the room to stop spinning. “What about my business? I’m needed here.”
“You said you don’t have any business left.”
“I don’t, but I was...hoping that—”
“We’ll send your staff on vacation until we have everything set up and ready for you to return.”
“That won’t work. My employees can’t survive without a paycheck, even for two weeks.”
“Then they can stay and work. Simon will cover your payroll.”
He was overcoming every argument. “And the rent until we can make a comeback?”
“Simon will cover that, too.”
Her knees buckled, and she sank into a chair. She had to admit she’d had her fantasies about Simon. What woman in America hadn’t imagined his mouth on hers? She’d imagined a little more than that. But those were silly daydreams about characters who didn’t exist, not the flesh and blood and very fallible man who played those larger-than-life parts. At least, that was what she’d always told herself....
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Ian came closer. “Why not? Who better than a PR pro to stay at Simon’s side night and day? If that won’t keep him out of trouble, what will? Besides, you’ll know exactly what to say when someone shoves a microphone in your face.”