by Morgan
“We should use your den as a nursery someday,” David suggested playfully.
“Slow down, cowboy!” Shaunna chided, but inside, she was warmed by the fact that he was already thinking about starting a family with her.
“I just don’t want to have to choose between a full-sized Donkey Kong Jr. arcade game or a baby swing when the time comes,” David supplied with a grin.
Shaunna lightly smacked his leg, and he was happy to see her playing along. “If we’re getting an arcade game, it’s going to be Spy Hunter. Or Q*bert. Or Star Wars!”
“The sit-down one?” David asked.
“Hell yes!”
“Great. It can double as a bassinet.” David pulled Shaunna tighter against him as she laughed.
Problem solved.
Michelle and Sly were taking things slower, but they shared their first night together in her previously lonely bed, and she’d never felt so swept away by the experience of physical love.
Sly was gentle but passionate, and he whispered loving sentiments throughout the evening. Much of the time, he just held her. He gladly spent the night when she asked, and since they couldn’t bear to be apart, he took the next day off.
A day off was a rarity for Sly, and he devoted all his leisure to Michelle. They stayed in bed with their bodies intertwined like the ribbons on a nicely wrapped gift.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
THOMAS WAS WAITING in his favorite conference room with Michelle sitting to his left. He liked the subliminal message that she was in the driver’s seat and arranged it that way during each and every meeting. With any luck, this one would be the last.
During the past months, his superior knowledge of the law was a more-than-adequate match for Kyle’s interchangeable trio of men, who never strayed from their Windsor knots and designer shoes.
The couple had been married before their immense wealth was acquired, so no pre-nuptial agreement had been drafted. Although their liquid assets had been split evenly, Thomas wanted insurance for the long-suffering Michelle. She’d already gotten the house in Malibu, with Kyle’s interest being offset by the remaining money in an account worth almost four million dollars.
There were a multitude of smaller issues in the beginning, and Thomas paddled Kyle’s lawyers like canoes. On one visit, Kyle had gotten so upset that he’d hit the table with his fist. Thomas had looked on impassively as Kyle cried out in pain and cradled the reawakened injury against his chest. Michelle had been particularly tickled but, as always, mustered the strength not to laugh.
Today, they were finalizing the figures on a few shared investments and some foreign real estate holdings, along with a rarely used bank account. Both parties seemed interested in spending as little time in the same room as possible. In Thomas’s experience, that usually led to quick resolutions.
When Kyle’s lawyers preceded him into the room, Thomas could tell by their gait that they meant business.
Kyle spoke first. “Where is the rest of the money in the vacation account, Michelle?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Thomas objected in a booming voice. He then addressed his counterparts. “Please advise Mr. Petersen that addressing my client directly one more time will result in the immediate conclusion of this meeting.”
Kyle’s sleeve was touched by one of the three men, and he pulled it away angrily. “I heard! Ask her! Do your jobs!”
“Yes,” Thomas encouraged, sitting forward and lacing his fingers together. “Why doesn’t one of you, as they say, begin at the beginning?”
One of the men pulled on the lapel of his gray suit and spoke with a snooty cadence. “The West Cal Savings Union account was supposed to have a balance of one million dollars, but we have just discovered there is only two hundred thousand left.”
“A majority of the funds were withdrawn on October twenty-first of last year,” another man supplied.
“October twenty-first!” Kyle sneered, a sense of triumph surging through him. “The day after I served her with divorce papers!”
Thomas responded quickly. “Allow me to confer with my client briefly.”
After a moment of silence, Thomas raised his eyebrows, a clear indication that he meant for everyone else to leave the conference room.
Kyle’s attorneys slowly stood up, but the pained looks on their faces said it all. Having to leave the room at someone else’s bidding was beneath them. Kyle’s impatience was unmistakable as he followed after.
Thomas only spoke to Michelle for a few moments before summoning the visiting legal team to resume the meeting. He was more than satisfied with Michelle’s explanation of the transaction and now had some questions of his own.
He was also smiling like the cat that ate the canary, along with a parakeet and two goldfish.
“Gentlemen,” he said cheerily as the men came back into the room. “Please sit.” He waited for everyone to settle into their chairs. “I’m so grateful that you brought this issue to my attention; otherwise, it might have gone completely unnoticed. First of all, I’ll allow Michelle to explain what happened with the money in question.”
She leveled her gaze at Kyle as she answered. She made sure to speak slowly so he could absorb it all. “I gave the eight hundred thousand dollars to Gus Noble.”
Kyle looked confused at first, but then his hands clenched into fists. “Wait a minute!” He turned to his legal team. “She gave Gus Noble the money he gave me in Texas to replace my watch.”
“And what time is it, Mr. Petersen?” Thomas asked, already staring at Kyle’s naked wrist. “You were given almost a million dollars,” he continued with deliberate slowness. “Yet, it didn’t appear in any of your settlement paperwork. That, gentlemen, is a crime.”
All three lawyers’ eyes widened. “We didn’t know,” one of them squeaked.
“So,” Thomas addressed Kyle. “Gus Noble delivered the eight hundred thousand dollars to you? And that was when, exactly?”
Kyle was reluctant to answer, but his attorneys were looking at him just as expectantly as Thomas was. “Yes, but she gave it to him from our account.”
“The fact that Michelle gave Gus Noble access to the money doesn’t matter here. You could have done the same, and she couldn’t have done anything about it. However, if you are in possession of those funds, you owe half to Michelle.”
“But it was our money he gave me!” Kyle whined.
“Thank you for proving my point,” Thomas said, his voice stony.
Kyle turned to his befuddled team of lawyers. “This isn’t fair!”
Thomas spoke humorlessly as he addressed Kyle’s attorneys. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t report your firm’s gross continuation of loose law practice to the California Bar Association.”
“You can’t say we hid it if it came from his own account,” one of the braver lawyers tried.
“I can if he didn’t know that’s where it came from!” Thomas roared. “And he just admitted as much!” Thomas eyed each one of them and paused at the attorney with the most expensive tie.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Thomas said in a dark voice. “Make us an offer we can’t refuse on the remaining interests, and don’t forget to include the four hundred thousand dollars on top of it.”
“We need a minute,” the lead attorney murmured.
Thomas nodded his approval and, after a few moments, raised his eyebrows again. Kyle and his legal team all rose begrudgingly to their feet and adjourned back to the hallway.
After a couple of minutes, only one of them returned to the room, and the lone attorney remained standing as he spoke. “Two million. One point six to buy out the remainder of the chattel and the other four hundred thousand to compensate for the honest mistake that we were unaware of.”
“Five million,” Thomas countered.
The man’s mouth popped open before he disappeared back out into the hall. A few seconds later, the seated duo heard Kyle throw a muffled tantrum.
When the lawyer came back, he extended his hand.
“You have a deal at four.” His eyes were frazzled, but hopeful.
Thomas rose from his seat to shake the man’s hand.
“Thank you,” he said pleasantly. “Oh, and there is one other thing, if you could just ask Mr. Petersen to come back in, please.”
The lawyer gawked at him, but exited and returned with the rest of his colleagues.
“As you will recall, Mr. Petersen,” Thomas started talking the moment Kyle entered the room. “You gave up your interest in the house in Malibu beginning November of last year. If I recall, this was so you wouldn’t have to contribute to taxes and utilities and so forth. Is this correct?”
Kyle looked at his lawyers, who only nodded their heads. “I guess.”
“And this would be even before you had returned from your film shoot in Texas, correct?”
“Yes.”
“In addition, the restraining order filed against you last November further establishes that you are no longer in residence?” Thomas didn’t want to miss an opportunity to bring that up.
“Yes. What’s this all about?” Kyle demanded.
“Good, then you’ll agree that any video surveillance you may be in possession of from that house would not only be in poor taste, but also not legally yours to own.”
“Absolutely not!” Kyle barked, standing up. He even dared to speak to Michelle again. “You’re not getting that tape.”
Thomas addressed Kyle’s attorneys. “Surely you gentlemen can see the wisdom in prevailing on your client to reconsider.”
“Not happening!” Kyle shouted.
“I’ll give you a million dollars,” Michelle said.
“Michelle…” Thomas began.
“No deal!” Kyle laughed. “You’re not buying her way out this time! She’s going to know exactly how it feels to have the whole world laughing at her.”
“Actually, you’ll probably make Miss Noble a billionaire,” Thomas said offhandedly. “Not to mention the fact that your studio would drop you like a hot potato.”
Kyle scoffed. It was a childish noise that carried the weight of an ember. “Yeah, right. Even if you could prove it was me who leaked it, why would they care?”
Thomas reached into his desk and pulled out a hefty stapled document. “This is the contract Michelle signed for Sling Shot. You will recognize it, no doubt, because you signed one yourself.” He flipped through several pages. “Ah, here it is: the morality clause. Do you remember reading this portion?”
Thomas didn’t wait for an answer, nor did he read from the stuffy text. He looked directly at Kyle’s attorneys as he slid the papers across the desk. “If Mr. Petersen does anything to defame this production or any fellow cast members, he is subject to a host of nasty legal and financial repercussions. He would be sued for every penny he has been paid so far, and he would forfeit all of his back-end percentage.”
Kyle’s confusion turned into a sarcastic sneer. “So what? Shaunna wasn’t even in the movie!”
“David was,” Michelle pointed out.
Thomas took over again. “Mr. Quinn enjoys the protection of the studio on this matter, and I will gladly supply any assistance I can. That includes eyewitness testimony from the technician who removed the cameras from the house.”
Kyle could still picture the face of the man discovering the cameras. He didn’t want that face jeopardizing the substantial income he stood to make after the film’s release, but he also knew something the rest of them didn’t. Heather should be releasing the video in question as Thomas sat there making his threats. He really didn’t have a choice but to back his own play, so he slowly stood up. “You’re bluffing, and I’m leaving.”
Thomas stood as well. His actions, not Kyle’s, triggered those of his counterparts, who also rose to their feet. “If you force me, Kyle, I will have a warrant drawn up for the material and prosecute you with a result that could end in serious jail time.”
Kyle looked at his companions, who had long ago learned to avoid his gaze. He briefly wondered if he could call Heather in time to stop her and actually felt his heart begin racing in his chest. With no other choice at hand and fueled with the desire to win just one confrontation with Thomas, he flashed his most brilliant Hollywood smile. “Fuck you.”
Kyle walked briskly to the door and didn’t look back. He did, however, hear Michelle’s last words to him as she called after him.
“You should have taken the money.”
When Kyle returned to his rented home, he immediately went looking for Heather. He’d just risked his career to burn Shaunna and wanted to make sure the effort was worth it.
Sunlight fell across the desk in the room she hibernated in most of the time, but she was nowhere to be found. Even her computer was gone. In its place was a piece of paper folded into a small square.
Kyle opened the note and read it all the way through before crinkling it up into a ball and throwing it to the floor.
Mr. Petersen,
Please consider this letter my immediate resignation from your vile employ.
Why you continually treat me, and most other people, like dirt is beyond my understanding. It makes you more than unlikable; it makes you despicable. You expect loyalty and respect while offering none in return, and this makes you untrustworthy. You genuinely think you’re better than everyone else, and this makes you just plain stupid.
With any luck, you lost more than just my services today, and I caution you to think very carefully before you ever contact me again. If you choose to play another round, you should know that I’ve kept copies of all the e-mails you’ve sent to me in the last twelve months, and some of the stuff you wrote was crazy. (Like, batshit crazy, Kyle.) If any of it gets out, you’ll be bowling with Mel Gibson.
I didn’t take any of your possessions, so don’t you dare suggest otherwise. However, I did hide your TV remote, just to piss you off.
No longer your fool,
Heather Lentz
P.S. Good luck finding your fucking remote.
Kyle ran upstairs to his office with Michelle’s last words ringing in his ears. To his surprise, his computer was sitting on his desk right where he left it. Hope rose up in him like a song, but dropped away savagely when he went to access his security account. His user name appeared to no longer exist.
He smirked as he checked his e-mail, where he had sent himself a copy of the footage as a failsafe. Unfortunately, that too had been tampered with and he could no longer access his inbox. Someone had gotten to his computer while he was at Thomas’s office, someone who obviously knew what they were doing. Kyle wanted to scream in frustration, but instead, a growing sense of relief crept in. He leaned back in his chair and wondered if he should pick a redhead as his next publicist.
Heather was on her way to meet Shaunna at her place. She had been promised a job and was in desperate need of someone who could overlook that fact that she wasn’t going to get a very good reference from her last employer.
She was driven in a little yellow Alfa Romeo, whose chivalrous occupant walked her to the door and even stayed for a glass of strawberry lemonade.
Chapter Forty
KYLE DIDN’T ATTEND THE PREMIERE.
The previous two months had been almost unbearable for him. In the wake of Heather’s departure, he’d been unable to hold on to any publicist for more than a few days. More than one replacement quit after an outburst. Others were fired when they refused his demands. Without someone in place to manage his public image, Kyle’s erratic nature could no longer be kept a secret. When his divorce from Michelle was finalized, she won the public’s favor like she won the Malibu home.
Kyle was increasingly ridiculed, and of course, he imploded. He made a series of phone calls to local radio stations that only served to make him look like a self-important prick with no shame and a propensity to say “you know” a lot. The DJs mocked him, and one morning host even played fart noises under Kyle’s ranting and then asked him repeatedly to excuse himself.
All the cal
ls ended pretty much the same way—a series of bleeps with Kyle taking breaths in between, followed by a dial tone and radio jocks laughing themselves into coughing fits.
The press crucified Kyle, and the late night talk show hosts were unrelenting. He lost not only his endorsement deals, but the leading role in his beloved film franchise. The studio informed him that they were going with a younger actor to attract college-aged girls, but no one was fooled. Not even Kyle.
No one was surprised that he declined to attend the premiere, and no one blamed him, either. It was kind of nice not having him around.
Michelle almost felt sorry for her ex-husband as she strolled up the red carpet with Sly on her arm.
Shaunna and David attended the premiere together, and the happiness that radiated from them was palpable. The mere fact that they were free to do something as simple as holding hands in public made them feel like they were flying.
Countless interviews had been held for weeks as the film neared its wide release, and both actors were prepared to expect questions about their altered relationship. It was mutually agreed upon that they would only acknowledge their continued close friendship and Michelle’s role in bringing David and Shaunna together.
Nathan was planted near the theatre’s main doors and welcomed attendees with handshakes and hugs. When Michelle and Sly reached him, Nathan told a nearby usher to take the couple to an assigned seat next to his.
He gave the same instructions to David and Shaunna and paused to hug the thin, dark-haired girl a second time. He told her how much he’d been rooting for her, then asked them to grab some Milk Duds for him on their way in.
The movie opened with a man installing gorilla glass roof tiles over a moon crater and followed his gaze to a trumpet-shaped spaceship that was landing on a platform nearby.
Kyle’s character, Grant, exited the ship, and as he exchanged words with a ground crewman on the big screen, Nathan leaned over to Michelle to reveal a long-held secret. “Honey, you’re in for one hell of a ride.”
