by Lila Moore
“Sue you? For not playing the part of his girlfriend? From what I’ve seen of your life, everything ends up in the press eventually. Do you really think they want to walk into a courtroom and sue you for failing to be the perfect fake girlfriend? They would essentially be outing themselves.”
Theo had a point. They couldn’t punish me without severe repercussions for Louis’s career. The world would learn the truth if they tried to sue me. Still, I had no desire to out Louis as gay. That was his personal choice. It wasn’t my place to out him.
“Even if I managed to get out of my contract with Louis, what am I left with?” I ventured a look up at Theo. He was staring straight ahead, deep in thought. “I’ll still be all alone.”
“No, you won’t. You have to make a life for yourself. Star in the movies you want to act in, dress how you want to dress. You’ve lost your identity. And for God’s sake, stay away from the paparazzi and the tabloids. They’re not doing you any good. You’re obsessed with manipulating the media narrative. It’s not good for you.”
“Yeah, I know…”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by Theo’s answer. I wanted to hear him say, ‘You’ll never be alone, because you’ll have me.’ Maybe it was too soon for him. The death of his fiancée had left a wound that cut deep. Maybe he just wasn’t ready to move on. Or maybe he just didn’t have deep feelings for me.
I nestled in closer. I wanted to steal his warmth, confidence and control. How could he act so calm after everything that had happened? I was a nervous wreck. The answer was obvious: Theo was a soldier. He’d been through worse and survived.
“I’m going to find the piece of shit that took you and end this.”
“Then what? You’ll leave and I’ll be back where I started: alone.”
“I can protect you from your stalker. What I can’t do is give you self-respect. And I definitely can’t fix your career. You have to figure those things out for yourself.”
“Since you came into my life…” I started, but couldn’t finish.
I couldn’t be honest about how I felt towards Theo. I knew he didn’t feel the same way about me. The truth was that since meeting Theo I felt alive. The last time I felt this way was when I first came out to Hollywood. I was full of ambition and dreams. When I looked at Theo I saw the future. When he looked at me, he saw the past.
I was nothing to him but a reminder of the dead fiancée he couldn’t save. I didn’t want to hurt him. I just wanted him to be happy. And if my presence was a reminder of the bad times, then maybe it was best we parted ways. I knew Theo wouldn’t leave me as long as my stalker was still out there, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t put distance between us. I pushed Theo away.
“I should get cleaned up,” I said. “Then get some rest.”
I rose and was surprised to see my legs weren’t shaking anymore. Theo gave me strength. Already the idea of life without him was starting to sink in. He wasn’t gone yet, but I could feel the loss. It made my chest ache.
I stepped back into the bathroom and closed the door. A long, hot shower would wash away my problems. Wouldn’t it?
15
The next morning I dragged myself out of bed feeling as if I’d been hit by a car. I walked into the living room in my robe. The previous night I fell asleep with my hair wet; now it was a mess of curls. I didn’t bother to comb it or put on makeup. I was beyond caring.
I was relieved to see the hotel room was empty except for Connor and Shonda. They sat at the dining room table, drinking coffee and whispering intimately to one another. Any other day I would have found this interesting. Lack of sleep, mental and physical exhaustion combined with a sore body and a throbbing headache, meant I didn’t really care. If Connor and Shonda were hooking up, then good for them.
“Hey,” Connor said, “how are you feeling?”
“I could use some coffee.”
“Right away.” He jumped up to pour me a cup. He moved a bit too quickly, as if he was nervous to be caught alone with Shonda.
As I sat down I raised an eyebrow at her and nodded towards Connor. She acted as if she didn’t notice the gesture which only served to confirm what I suspected: they were definitely hooking up.
Shonda’s phone rang. She looked at the Caller ID then hit Ignore. The call went to her voice mail.
“So, how are you really feeling today?” she asked.
“Well-” I was cut off by the annoying ring of her phone. She glanced at the number on the screen, then again hit Ignore. “Who’s calling you?”
“Nobody.”
“Just tell me. At this point, my life can’t get much worse. So just give me the bad news.”
“It’s Harry.”
“Who?”
“Harry Lovejoy, the editor of Gossip Guru. He’s called me at least ten times this morning. He wants to meet in person. I told him it was out of the question. I’m not going to sit down with him-not after he published those nude photos of you.”
“What does he want?”
“I don’t know. He claims to have info on the kidnapping.”
“Shonda, that’s huge. Send Theo or Connor to talk to him.”
“Girl, I know you’re not dumb enough to actually believe that man. It’s a trick. He doesn’t have anything. He just wants an exclusive. Pretending to have info on your kidnapper is just bait to get us in his office.”
“But GG has sources everywhere. Their private detectives are really good. They dig up dirt on everyone. He might be telling the truth. What’s the harm in sending Theo or Connor to talk to him?”
Shonda shook her head. “He’ll only meet with me and you. And I’m telling you this guy cannot be trusted.”
Connor set a cup of coffee down in front of me.
“Maybe we should meet with them,” I said.
“Jamie,” she replied gently, “you’ve been through a lot. You have no idea how big this story is. Everyone is reporting on it. CNN had live, commercial-free coverage on your kidnapping for hours. Every news network and major publication in the world is desperate to get an exclusive interview with you right now. My phone has been ringing off the hook nonstop. If Harry managed to get legit info on your kidnapper, he would have published it already. It’s a huge scoop for them.”
Shonda had a point. They wouldn’t wait for our permission to publish their story. Tabloids do what they want, consequences be damned. Still, something about it didn’t sit right with me.
“But we never do interviews with Gossip Guru. They know that. What if he has something?”
“Jamie…”
“Maybe she’s right,” Connor said. “We’re running out of leads. This investigation has hit a dead end. It’s worth checking out.”
“What do you mean it’s hit a dead end?” I asked. “What about the house? Didn’t you learn anything from it?”
“We checked out the owner. It was rented through an LLC. The LLC was owned by a shell company out of South America.”
“South America? What the hell?”
“It’s not uncommon for rich people to hide their money in shell companies in South America or Switzerland. Anyway, the point is that following the money led us on a wild goose chase. We took finger prints from the house and ran them through the police database. We came up with nothing. This guy probably doesn’t have a record.”
“So, that’s it? What about the neighbors?”
“It’s a bad neighborhood. The people there don’t talk to the police or anyone who looks like law enforcement. They don’t want to find themselves in the middle of other people’s problems. Though we did find one guy who would talk. It was an older man who lived across the street. He said the guy moved into the house a couple weeks ago. The description he gave wasn’t useful. The old man’s vision was bad and he didn’t get a good look.”
“So, we’re no closer to finding the guy then before? Great.”
I ran my hands through my hair and winced in pain. The bump on my head had turned into a painful k
not.
“We were able to trace some of the… instruments in the house,” Connor said. By instruments I assumed he meant the basement full of sex toys.
“And?”
“They were purchased from a local adult video store. We tried to get the owner to pull up surveillance footage, but he’s not cooperating. He says he won’t turn anything over without a warrant.”
“So, turn it over to the cops. Let them get a warrant.”
Connor and Shonda exchanged a look.
“We can’t do that,” Shonda said.
“Why not?”
“Technically, what Connor and Theo did was illegal.”
“What?”
“We removed evidence from the scene of a crime,” Connor said. “The evidence isn’t admissible in court. When we removed it from the scene, we broke the chain of custody.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The evidence is now suspect because we handled it. It can’t be used as evidence of anything in a criminal trial. It’s essentially useless to the cops. Even if we turned it over to the police, a judge wouldn’t grant them a warrant.”
I groaned. “This just keeps getting better and better.”
“I’m sorry,” Connor said.
“No. Don’t be. The cops have never been much help to me. They never took my stalker seriously. At least you and Theo are working to end this. You two seem to have better connections than the cops do.”
“If it comes down to it, we may send one of our guys to the sex toy shop at night to borrow the tapes.”
“You mean steal them?”
“Shh,” Shonda said as if someone was listening in on us. She turned to Connor. “Any actions you and Theo decide to take that may exist outside the law will not be discussed with Jamie. Understood?”
“Why are you cutting me out? You think I’m going to rat you out to the cops? You don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that,” Shonda said. “It’s about plausible deniability. If they get busted, I don’t want you anywhere near it. I’m not going to watch you get hauled off to jail because of something Theo and Connor did. Let them handle the dirty work. You keep your nose clean.”
“You’re just scared it will ruin my career. That’s all you care about.”
The atmosphere in the room changed. Suddenly, things felt much colder.
“No,” Shonda said carefully. “It’s my job to take care of you. I don’t want you to end up in prison or worse. It has nothing to do with Hollywood.”
“I don’t believe you.” I turned to Connor. “I want to know everything. What are you and Theo planning? In fact, where is he?”
“Theo was following up on a hunch.”
I waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t. “And…? What’s his hunch?”
“He didn’t tell me.”
“Fantastic,” I said sarcastically. I trusted Theo, but I was tired of being kept in the dark. We all needed to communicate better. “I can’t sit here any longer and do nothing. We’re going to meet with Harry.”
“But-”
“I don’t want to hear it. This may turn out to be a waste of our time, but so what? I can’t sit in this hotel room for the rest of my life waiting for something to happen. Shonda, call Harry. Tell him I’m willing to talk.”
16
Connor refused to let me leave the hotel. “It’s a madhouse out there,” he said. “I’d feel safer letting you wander the streets of Benghazi alone, then let you go outside this hotel.”
I’d caught only a brief glimpse of the scene outside when we left Theo’s house. Fans, journalists and paparazzi swarmed the streets like ants.
“They’ll tear you apart the second you step onto the street,” he said.
The look on my face must have conveyed how annoyed I felt because Shonda immediately said: “I’ll call Harry and have him come to us.”
Less than thirty minutes later, he was in the hotel. He must have been eagerly awaiting our call. Shonda refused to let him step foot in my room though. She was convinced he’d pull some dirty trick, like hiding a camera or a tape recorder somewhere. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. There had been multiple scandals over the last couple years involving the tabloids illegally wiretapping celebrities or hacking into their phones and computers.
Gossip Guru was one of the trashiest, least ethical tabloids out there-which was really saying something. Most of the people who work for tabloids have no morals, but the staff of GG really lowered the bar. They would do anything for a story, regardless of the morality of the situation.
As we headed down the elevator to the private room where Harry waited, I tried to prepare myself. I had to be on guard. Harry Lovejoy was not a man to be trusted.
“Don’t confirm or deny anything,” Shonda said. “In fact, let me do all the talking. I don’t want quotes from you showing up on his website.”
“I got it,” I said, feeling extremely annoyed with her tone of voice. She spoke to me like I was a child. There was a time when I could barely function without Shonda, but times were changing. After meeting Theo and my kidnapping, I was no longer a little girl. I was going to handle this myself.
Connor led us to Harry Lovejoy’s hotel room. Before he could knock, the door opened. We walked inside. Harry and a woman with thick wireframe glasses were standing in the middle of the room. Connor immediately patted them both down. After he was finished, Harry was all smiles.
“Jamie!” he said, like we were old friends. “How are you? Did that man hurt you? You’ve been in my prayers.”
The thought of a guy like Harry praying made me laugh. The man was greed and selfishness personified. He had a deep fake tan and a tight face from loads of Botox injections. He wore gold rings and necklaces along with an expensive designer button-up shirt. He always kept the top buttons undone so you could see his hairless chest. I’m not sure why he thought it was a good idea to show off like this, since he was horribly out of shape.
His eyes drifted over my face, hair and body. It was then I remembered that I wasn’t wearing makeup, my hair was uncombed and I’d thrown on a pair of yoga pants with a tank top. No one had ever seen me look this disheveled before. I was always immaculately put together on the red carpet and out in public. The old me would have died from embarrassment if the paparazzi took a photo of me looking like this. The new me didn’t care.
“Thank you for your prayers,” I said with the phoniest smile I could muster.
He attempted to take my hand and shake it. Shonda stepped between us. “Let’s cut the niceties and get down to business. What do you know?”
“Well, first let me say how relieved I am to see you’re safe,” Harry said, flashing his pearly white veneers.
“We get it,” Shonda said. “Cut to the chase or we’re walking.”
Harry fumed. I could see how quickly this whole situation could dissolve.
“Harry-may I call you Harry?” I said sweetly. If Shonda was going to play the bad cop, then I would play the good cop.
“Please do, dear,” he replied.
“We don’t have much time,” I lied. “Maybe we should…”
“… get started? Of course.”
“Thank you.”
Harry turned to the woman in glasses. “Show her,” he said.
The woman pulled out her tablet, turned it on and handed it to me. There was an article with the Gossip Guru heading. Below it a headline screamed: ‘Hoax!’ My eye widened as I read the article. It claimed I was faking everything-my stalker, my near-kidnapping after the limo incident, all of it. My mouth fell open.
“This isn’t true,” I said. My voice was barely a whisper. I wasn’t acting now. I felt genuinely wounded.
“We know,” the woman said.
Shonda took the tablet from me and read the article. Her face was tight. “You haven’t published this piece yet. Why not?”
I was relieved to know the article hadn’t gone live yet, but I wondered why.
“This was set
to be published two nights ago,” Harry said. “Then news of your kidnapping broke.”
“We decided to hold the piece while we dug into the story,” the woman said.
“That’s when things took a strange turn,” Harry added.
“Strange, how?” Shonda asked.
“After the first kidnapping attempt, we received an exclusive inside story of what went down. I’m sure you’re familiar with the now famous story of Louis putting his life in danger to bravely save you and fight off your kidnapper?” The woman spoke coldly. It was clear she wasn’t impressed by this tale. It made me like her a little bit.
“That didn’t come from us,” Shonda said.
“No. It came from Louis’s people. In fact, the story got to us in lightning speed.” The woman exchanged a look with Harry.
“What are you getting at?” Shonda asked.
“Didn’t you wonder how we got the story so quickly? It wasn’t just us either. Several major newspapers ran the story the morning after your attempted kidnapping. I don’t know how well you know the newspaper business, but it takes time, not only to write the story but to have all copies of the paper printed and distributed.”
There was something about his words that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Go on…” I said.
“We know you’re bearding Louis,” Harry said.
“Bearding?” Shonda asked with distaste.
“Louis’s gay and Jamie is pretending to be his girlfriend for PR purposes,” the woman said drily. “It’s a story we’ve been dying to publish for years, but…” Harry gave her a sharp look. “There have been serious legal hurtles involved.”
“We know you would both deny it and probably sue us into oblivion. So, we’ve had to bury the story.”
“Jamie has no comment in regards to that,” Shonda said. “And I fail to see what these allegations about Louis’s sexuality have to do with anything.”
“When we first received this story about Louis’s bravery the night of Jamie’s near kidnapping, it stunk of bullshit. It just didn’t seem plausible. The way it was written made Louis sound like a character in a bad action movie.”
