The Publicist Book One and Two (30 page)

Chapter Twenty

Kate was making dinner in Mac’s kitchen. It was odd to be here and be cooking in his apartment, but in the past several weeks since they’d been back from Whistler and the whole “Delia thing” happened, she’d been spending more and more time at his place. She almost felt like she lived there. She only seemed to return to her apartment when she needed some fresh outfits.

“So the Woo Woo call went well?” Mac smiled, pouring her a glass of wine.

Kate stirred the pasta. “
Master
Woo, as he likes to be called, is a freak. Why do we publish these books, Mac?”

He shrugged. “He has followers, I guess. Do you think it’ll do anything?”

Kate shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I have to be careful where I book him. The guy is a total lunatic and his ‘people’ are so odd. None of them introduced themselves on the call; they were all these anonymous voices on the phone.”

Mac chuckled. “He’s an odd duck, that’s for sure. But his last two books did really well, so there’s hope for this one.”

Kate sipped her wine. “Yeah, but that was a few years ago. Since then, he’s had a ton of bad online press. Websites popped up just to blast this guy.”

Mac hesitated. “Kate, look, I ran the Madeline Masters book by Eddie. He doesn’t want it.”

Kate stopped stirring the pot of pasta and set the spoon down. Suddenly she felt totally deflated. She turned to Mac. “Why?”

“I don’t know. You were right—it’s a good book. He says we have enough of these titles. I really pushed it, Katie, I hope you know that.”

“Mac, I don’t get this. We publish books by convicts and these airy fairy new age freaks, and he won’t touch a book that actually has a chance to maybe do some good.”

“All of our books do some good, even as bad as some of them are.”
“The Shenkman twins title does good, Mac? How so?”

Mac shrugged. “You got me there. That one is just trash.”

“I want to help Madeline get published.”

“Katie, you have enough to do.” Mac walked over to her, putting a hand around her waist. “I’m really sorry. Look, if it helps, I’ll make some calls and see if I can find her a good home.”

“Thanks, Mac.” Kate turned to him and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

Chapter Twenty-One

“I just don’t know what to do, Allan,” Kate said to no one. She was sitting at Allan Lavigne’s kitchen table in his abandoned apartment. Nick hadn’t put much muscle into renting or selling it, which was fine with Kate. She’d pop in every so often, just to be near Allan. She missed him more than she could put into words. He had been her best friend and trusted confidant. Now he was gone, and all she had left were empty conversations in his apartment. She was certain if anyone ever walked in on her, they’d have her committed.

“I have such a bad feeling about
The Continued Promise
. Now that it’s been moved up, I feel like it’s going to ruin this title. If you were here, you’d probably tell me to march right into Edward’s office and demand an explanation.” She paused for a moment, looking around the empty space.

“But you’re not here, and now I have to figure this out myself. I’m not very good at this,” she added softly. The apartment had a slight chill, typical for most New York apartments, though all of the units were heated through the same system. Kate stuffed her hands deeper into her jacket pockets. Suddenly she knew what she needed to do. Kate got up, headed out the door, and went straight to the office.

…

“Edward, I need to speak with you.” Kate didn’t even bother knocking or letting Sara announce her. She breezed right in. Mac was in his office, too. He turned and smiled, well aware of the determination in her voice. Kate closed the door behind her. He got up to leave.

“Mac, please stay. This involves you, too.”

Edward looked over the rim of his glasses at her, which he gently removed and set on his desk. He didn’t like unexpected interruptions—even Kate, as pleasing on the eyes as she was.

“We’re in a meeting,” he said impatiently.

“I know, but I need to speak with you both. I realize that the change in pub date for
The Continued Promise
is now set in stone, but I think I deserve to know why the date was moved.”

Edward cleared his throat. “It was an internal decision. We felt it was better for the book.”

Mac frowned; he knew Kate wouldn’t accept that.

“Summer is not a better time for this book, Edward. With all due respect, I think there’s a different answer.”

“What are you implying, Kate?” Edward wasn’t happy. Mac saw this going south very quickly.

“I’m not implying anything, I’m saying that I think there’s more going on here, and as the publicist on this book, I think I deserve to know.”

“You’re right; there’s more going on here. Our author, Michael Singer, was getting anxious to release the title, so I decided to push it up.”

Jesus
, Kate thought,
what a horrible liar he is
. “Since when do authors dictate their release dates?”

“Singer is very important to MD, Kate.” Edward leaned back in his chair and smiled. It was not a good smile, it was his ‘I’m about ready to fuck with you’ smile, and Kate knew it all too well.

“Kate, my dear.” God she hated it when he called her ‘dear.’ “If you think it’s too much for you to handle, we can give it to another one of the team members.”

Yeah, maybe kiss-ass Pete would like this one
.

Mac was still silent, knowing full well that getting in the middle of her battle was not a good idea for either of them.

“Mac has weighed in on this and agrees. Don’t you, Mac?” Edward turned to him. Mac remained silent. Both he and Ed knew he had never agreed to move the title. Edward had made that decision all on his own.

“I can handle this. I just wanted to know.”

“And now you do. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a meeting to finish.” Edward put his glasses back on. “Please close the door behind you.”

Kate slipped out the door without saying another word. She knew Edward was lying, but she didn’t know why. One thing she did know: Edward wasn’t about to screw up this book. they needed
The Continued Promise
to do well, or it would affect everyone from the mail room staff all the way to the King himself. Kate had to trust that, despite her misgivings with Edward, the reason for the date move was unimportant. Kate prayed she was right.

Chapter Twenty-Two

To her surprise, the Master Woo title (or “Woo Woo book,” as Mac referred to it) actually hit the list. It was number two on the
New York Times
, number five on
Publishers Weekly
, and number three on
USA Today
. No one was more shocked than Kate. Ten minutes until the sales meeting. She’d have good news with the sales of this title and the buzz that a bestseller brought with it. Kate pulled up Master Woo’s file, making sure she had all of her notes for the meeting. Pete, who was still trying to weasel his way into the promotion of this book, had been oddly quiet since the book had hit the list. Though Kate was surprised, she figured at some point he’d be the one taking all the credit for it. Kate also pulled the file for
The Continued Promise
. She was eager to hear the bookstore update. Whether a bookstore decided to stock a book or not could make or break a title. Though with the original fall date they’d gotten huge buy-in from most of the major locations, the date switch was tricky.

Mac poked his head into her office. “Ready, Katie?” he smiled. “You’re gonna wow ’em today with your bestseller. Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat!”

Kate nodded and headed toward the door. “It’s such a freaky thing, this guy. I just don’t get how this happened.”

“Don’t question the book gods, Kate. Books never cease to shock the shit out of me. I’ve seen more titles that seem DOA go gangbusters. It makes no sense.”

They walked into the conference room for the weekly sales meeting. Only half the chairs were filled. Other staffers followed Mac and Kate in. Pete was there, of course, sipping on his Coke and looking especially devious.

Once everyone was seated, Edward called the meeting to order. “Let’s begin,” he said, turning the meeting over to Charlie Manning, who headed up their sales staff and oversaw the bookstore push for each and every title MD published. Then, in order, each of the teams reported on their books. Finally, it was Kate’s turn.

“So, our big title of the week is the Master Woo book, which is on all of the bestseller lists as we speak.”

Pete cleared his throat rather loudly. Kate felt annoyed; a thread of it wove through her stomach.

“Sorry,” she continued, “Pete was of course helpful with this book, too.” She could hear Mac muffling a laugh beside her.

“Kate,” Pete stood up. He looked sullen, though Kate could tell he was feigning it. Something about his look set off alarm bells in Kate’s head. “I’m sorry to say,” he continued, “that we, or I actually, discovered that Master Woo was buying up copies of his own book.”

There was a soft shuffle in the room as Pete took center stage. “I got confirmation of this a little while ago; they just found his storage facility with thousands of his own books. He rigged the lists and now everyone will know.”

Kate swallowed hard. The little bastard knew and didn’t tell her! She wanted to throttle his freckled neck until his eyes popped out, right there in front of everyone.

Kate did her best to compose herself. She started to speak, but Charlie interrupted her.

“Pete, where are you getting this information?” he asked.

“The storage facility called for Kate, but she wasn’t at her desk.” The little prick emphasized
not at her desk.
“So, they transferred it to me. Turns out no one has paid the storage fees, so they were wondering what we wanted to do with the books.”

Fuck,
Kate thought. He could have come to her; he should have come to her. Pete was driving the bus and it just ran her over. She was certain he would back up and try hitting her again, just for good measure.

Kate composed herself. “Pete, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have come to me with this information. Why hold it for the sales meeting unless your intent was to embarrass me?”

“Not everything is about you, Kate,” Pete responded.

“Enough!” Edward stood up. “Kate, this is a disaster. If anyone in the trades finds out about this, well, I don’t need to tell you that we don’t need the press.”

“Eh, Sir. Excuse me, but they already know,” Pete said, his voice now slightly shaky. Everyone feared Edward, even bottom dwellers like Pete.

“How is that possible, Pete?” Edward asked, more pissed off than Kate had ever seen him.

“Well, you know, you can’t do something like this and not have someone find out, right? I mean, we’re talking fifty thousand books. It’s kind of a big thing.”

“What does this mean?” Kate asked, trying to level her voice. She did not succeed.

“It means, Kate, that the storage facility realized they were onto a good story and decided to see if the
New York Times
was interested in covering it.”

How did they know the Times?
She wanted to ask, but didn’t. The answer was obvious. Pete wanted to undermine her, and he didn’t really care how he did it.

Edward turned to Kate. “Fix this,” he said. He rose and walked toward the door. Before he left, he turned, “And tell that little book-buying prick he can damned well pay back his advance too.”