Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
I snorted at the same time Annie did. “Let’s not insult true reporters with Flynn,” she said, a plume of vapor hanging around her. “He’s worse than an ambulance chaser. The lowest of the lows.”
I swallowed a mouthful of coffee, the taste bitter and cold.
“We’ll slap them with a cease and desist,” Malcolm said. “And slander. We’ll sue for emotional trauma, mental anguish, and whatever else we come up with.”
“Get on it,” Annie instructed.
“Done,” he replied and signed off.
Davis leaned his head back. “Can we add costing me millions personally when the film isn’t finished if this is true?” he muttered.
I exchanged a glance with Annie. “You’d fire her, Davis?”
“She’s breached about ten items in her contract. Plus, if she did put the burrs in the blankets with intent to harm? That’s a whole other legal issue right there. She could be charged with a serious offense if you decide to go after her. What choice do I have? I’ll have to recast and reshoot a huge portion of the film or walk away and shelve it.” For the first time ever, I saw Davis lose his cool. “Fuck!” He slammed his hand on the table. “This is what I get for ‘seeing’ something in a person on-screen. It’s my own fucking fault.”
Annie spoke up. “Fucking nonsense. It’s Oliver’s fault.”
I gaped at her. “What?”
“If you weren’t so hot, she wouldn’t have gone after you.”
I was at a loss for words. Then she winked at me and laughed raucously. Davis grinned, and I had to chuckle, knowing she was simply stopping the blame game.
“Seriously, boys, this is on her. She didn’t get what she wanted, so she’s acting out like a child, not caring who else is hurt in the process. She deserves to be fired, blackballed, and run out of town.” She inhaled long and deep, then blew out the vapor slowly. “But that fucks everyone. Myself included. And I hate being fucked. I much prefer being on the giving end.”
“Thanks for that mental image, Annie,” I muttered with a grimace.
She waved her hand, not bothered.
I looked at Davis. “You’d reshoot?”
He stood, grunting in displeasure as he paced. “I’ve soaked millions in. This is all me. If I recast and reshoot, maybe I can salvage something. I walk away, and not only do I lose everything, there’s a giant black mark against me.”
I frowned. “I’ll give up my salary.”
Annie’s head snapped in my direction, and Davis gaped at me. “What?”
“I’ll work for free.”
“We need to discuss this,” Annie hissed as Davis shook his head.
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t. I offered.”
He sat down, perplexed. “Oliver, this isn’t your fault. You didn’t do this.”
“I still feel partially responsible.” I drew in a deep breath. “In fact, if you decide to go ahead, I’ll finish the film with her.”
He and Annie stared at me.
“You would do that?”
“You took a chance on me and trusted me with this character. I’d trust you to look after me with her,” I said simply.
I looked at Annie, who was studying me closely. She looked—proud?
“There would have to be stipulations,” Annie said firmly.
Davis and I exchanged a glance. “What do you have in mind, Annie?” he asked.
“Beat her at her own game. We get her to admit she was in on it. You, Oliver, be the big man and finish the film. You do the red carpet with the whole cast when it’s released. You laugh it off.”
“And?” Davis prompted.
“She has to admit to it. Privately. Signed, sealed. We take that to the owners of the rag, and they’re toast. They’ll have no choice but to fire Flynn. Hang him out to dry when they realize it’s that or court and millions.” She inhaled again with an evil smile. “Lots and lots of millions.”
“He’ll be furious,” I said with a frown.
“He’ll be finished. This was desperation on his part. A chance to get his name back on the byline and get even with you, finally. If these lowlifes won’t touch him, no one will.”
“If Sheri agrees,” Davis mused. “If, in fact, it was her.”
“It was,” Annie stated firmly and slid her phone across the table.
Davis picked it up and looked at the screen with a low whistle. He handed it to me. It held a picture of Sheri and Flynn, heads together, taken recently. She was in one of her on-screen costumes that I recognized.
“Well, well,” I muttered.
For a moment, the room was silent then Davis turned to me. “Can you do it? Would you do it? Keep working with her? Walk the red carpet and act like none of this had anything to do with her?”
The thought of even seeing her made me cringe, but I didn’t want Davis to pay for her actions. Or for my own ego. I despised the article and the lies. Even more, I loathed that it breached Kassie’s private life. Made her vulnerable.