Rumor Has It: A Bad Boy Romantic Comedy (13 page)

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.”

“On that we agree,” I muttered. Shonda shot me a sharp look. I cleared my throat.

“We’ve been following Louis for a long time,” Harry continued. Now it was his female companions turn to give him a sharp look. I assumed they didn’t want us to know this. If we knew we were being closely watched, or that GG was paying off people near us to spy, we’d be more careful. It would be harder for GG to get dirt on us.

“We were hoping to get pictures of Louis with one of his boyfriends,” Harry said. “I’m sure you’re aware he has several.” I kept my expression neutral. “If we got a picture of him kissing one of them, it’s irrefutable proof. You can’t sue us if we catch him red-handed.”

I shook my head. “You’re such a fucking bottom feeder,” I said.

“Jamie,” Shonda snapped.

I didn’t care. I plowed on. “You so entitled. Louis’s private life is no one’s business. Whatever he’s doing- or not doing- is none of your concern. Did it ever occur to you that you can seriously hurt people with this trash? Mind your own business and let him live his life in peace.”

“So, you’re confirming he does have boyfriends?” Harry said.

“Fuck you. I’m not confirming anything.”

My good cop routine was out the window. I couldn’t deal with lowlifes like Harry anymore.

“If you’ve got something to offer us, I suggest you put it on the table now,” Shonda said. “Because so far, all I’ve heard is standard tabloid bullshit. I mean, did you really call us into some top secret meeting just to tell us that Louis’s PR team tried to manipulate a story to their advantage. Every celebrity does that.”

Shonda was downplaying what we’d learned today. The fact that Louis’s team planted a story so quickly was suspicious.

“Like I said,” the woman continued, “we suspected the whole story was fake- that your PR teams had fabricated it for press.”

“I have to say we were quite impressed,” Harry said. “I’ve seen celebs desperate for good PR before, but never anything like this. I mean, faking a kidnapping? That’s above and beyond.”

I rose to my feet. “This meeting is over.”

“Wait!” Harry said. “There’s more.”

He pulled out his phone and showed it to me. There was a picture of Louis in a hot tub with two shirtless guys. I recognized one of them as Louis’s bodyguard. Louis was laughing and touching his chest while leaning in to whisper intimately in his ear.

“So?” I asked.

“So… this picture was taken while you were in the middle of being kidnapped. It proves Louis wasn’t there. We assumed the whole story was bullshit, then you went missing two days ago.” To my surprise, Harry’s voice became soft. “I know you weren’t faking. There’s a mad man out there.”

I don’t know why, but Harry’s words made me choke up. He was the enemy, but when even your enemies are willing to concede your life is in danger, it does something to you. There was reason for him to care about me and yet… I pushed the thought away. He was probably just trying to manipulate me so I’d give him an exclusive.

I cleared my throat. “It was real.”

My voice was scratchy. The room suddenly looked much smaller to me. I rubbed my wrists. The ghost of the ropes that bound my arms and legs together would haunt me for a long time.

“Who did this to you?” Harry asked gently.

“I wish I knew,” I said quietly.

“And if we knew, we wouldn’t come to you first. We’d go to the police. The matter is being handled and her kidnapper will be caught soon,” Shonda added.

“Good,” Harry said. “We think we can help.”

“It’s being handled.” Shonda was losing her temper.

“Is it?” The woman readjusted her glasses. “Our law enforcement sources tell us there is little to no evidence to go on. They have no suspects and no leads.”

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“What we’re saying is that if you give us an exclusive-”

“No,” Shonda cut her off.

“…then we’ll help you catch this asshole.”

“We’re leaving.” Shonda grabbed my arm in an attempt to force me out of the room, but I dug in my heels.

“What do you have to offer that the police don’t?” I asked.

“You have to agree to give us inside access,” Harry said.

“Not going to happen.” Shonda’s nails dug into my arm. I tried to shake her grip free, but she was stronger than she looked.

“Maybe,” I said. Shonda’s eyes lit up with fury. She did not being defied in matters like this. “Tell me what you have first.”

“No way,” the woman said. “When you find out what we know, you’ll bolt and leave us with nothing.”

“You do realize this man wants to keep me as his…” I couldn’t say the words
sex slave
. It was too much. “He wants to kill me, and you want to play games with my life.”

“We can’t just-” the woman started only to be cutoff by Harry. He held up his hand silencing her. “Okay. We’ll tell you. We have serious reason to believe that your kidnapper is working with Larry’s team.”

“What?” Shonda and I said at the same time. “Impossible.”

“I’m afraid it’s true. We’ve been tipped off multiple times by Louis’s publicist. We believe she’s orchestrating this, or at least facilitating your kidnapper.”

“What do you mean facilitating him?” I asked.

“We think she came into contact with him at some point. She’s tipping him off to your whereabouts. She knows that this story is a potential goldmine of good press for her client she’ll stop at nothing to succeed.”

I thought back to the night of my kidnapping. It was Louis’s publicist who suggested I use the back exit of the theater. My kidnapper was waiting for me to come through those doors. The only way he could have known was if he’d been tipped off. Louis’s publicist had practically forced me out. She knew everything. Harry was right.

“Did Louis know?” I asked.

Harry frowned. “We’re not sure. He’s treated like a child for the most part. His publicist controls everything. Louis seems more interested in drinking and sex than the ins and outs of the business. My guess is that he does what he’s told, nothing more.”

“We need to go,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Wait.” The woman ran in front of the door, blocking our exit. “We worked hard on this. Your safety is of course top priority for us, but I think we deserve a reward for our efforts.”