“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK you’re doing, calling me?”
John Malcolm’s voice in the living room booms loud and irritated enough to reach me in the bedroom.
“What’s so urgent you broke protocol? Why am I here?” he demands of Drex.
“I had an emergency I couldn’t discuss over the phone,” Drex says, his voice as nervous and tentative as I’ve ever heard it. “Something that could jeopardize the whole plan.”
“What?” Malcolm snaps
I step into the living room, Marlon and Gep right behind me.
“Not what. Who. Me.”
I lean against the wall and slide one hand into my pocket, leaving the injured hand hanging limply at my side. The pain is nearly unbearable. It is obviously beyond the power of Aleve, and as soon as I handle this monster, Dr. Mason is waiting to tell me exactly how bad the damage is.
Malcolm’s beady eyes stretch momentarily when they settle on me before swinging back to Drex.
“You idiot.” His frown just gets heavier and his complexion ruddier with his anger. “If you’ve fucked this up—”
“No, you fucked up, Malcolm.” I struggle to keep my voice even now that I’m faced with this manipulative bastard, responsible, at least indirectly for Kai’s exhaustion and hospitalization. For the last three months she’s been threatened and tortured and trying to fix this on her own.
“You fucked up when you interfered in my relationship with Kai,” I continue. “When you convinced her to leave me. When you tricked her into a shitty contract. When you pushed her past her limits. When you had the audacity to threaten my girl with a sex tape recorded without her consent.”
I draw a deep breath, reaching for the calming effects that never come.
“Oh, you’ve fucked up badly, Malcolm.”
The shock of seeing me fades the longer he stands there, leaving nothing but the monster I always knew lurked just below his too-polished, fleshy veneer.
“You should be very careful with me, Gray.” He laughs, sitting on one of the couches and pulling out a cigar to gnaw on. “I have Kai locked into a contract for the next two years. There’s only plusses here for me. If I release that tape, my client will be even more popular. How many celebrities have been propelled from obscurity to infamy with a good sex tape? The guys are already eating her up. Imagine how hungry they’ll be for her once they jerk off to that video a few times. I see nothing but possibility here.”
He looks up at me, his smile cruel and lascivious.
“And Kai’s sex tape is a good one. I’ve watched it over and over and over. Professional curiosity and due diligence, of course.” He levels his stare at me, smile growing wider with every venom-tipped word. “Nothing to do with the fact that my client has an excellent set of tits, if you like them small. But that ass of hers makes up for—”
Before the next words leave his mouth, I’ve jetted across the short distance separating us, everything civilized falling away from me at the prospect of crushing his windpipe. I slam into a wall of flesh and bone, Gep blocking my access to this belly-crawling reptile.
“Rhys.” Gep’s huge hands shove me back by my shoulders. “He’s pushing buttons. Don’t let him get to you.”
“Oh, is that your babysitter?” Malcolm asks. “Good thing he’s here to keep you from doing something more stupid than you’ve already done.”
I need to cut this short before I commit a real crime. Neither of these bastards is worth me spending even a day behind bars away from Kai. I take the seat across from him and lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees.
“I’m so many steps ahead of you, Malcom.” My eyes don’t stray from his. His smile slips almost imperceptibly, but I detect it because now I’m in tune to this bastard’s every nuance.
“You’re afraid to ask what I mean, but you should already know.” I lift both brows, my mouth a straight blade on my face, flat and sharp. “You have a debt problem.”
The confidence flickers on his face like a candle’s flame, recovering from a gush of wind.
“Matter of fact, you couldn’t even have financed Luke’s tour without some help, and even with it selling out, your head still isn’t above water.”
“You’re crazy.” His voice is weaker, though. Fainter.
“You’re very fiscally vulnerable right now. Digital has wrecked sales. And before Luke and Kai, you had a stable full of B-listers who never earned out. Everything you’ve built is held together by string and a group of investors.” I shrug. “And not exactly the most loyal investors.”
Malclom sits up, back straight, paunch poked forward.
“What have you done?”
“Just made some inquiries.” I borrow some of his previous smugness for my smile. “And maybe some offers.”
My smile evaporates.
“You will hand over to me any and every copy of that tape and you will release Kai from her contract, free and clear.”
“Why should I?” he grits out. “I could launch her even bigger if that tape goes live.”
“Except you’ll have no money to launch.” My face goes as stiff as caulk. “We’ve spoken to every one of your investors over the last few days, and each of them is prepared to withdraw their support from you.”
“Why?” A low growl quivers his fleshy jowls. “Why would they do that?”
“Maybe they got a better offer?” I shrug. “Apparently, they’d rather have a cut in my label than do business with you. For some reason they seem to think I’m a better bet.”
“You wouldn’t do that.” Malcolm frowns, confusion clouding his face. “You’ve always wanted all the creative control. All the control really. That’s the whole point of you starting your own label. You wouldn’t relinquish it before the label even gets off the ground.”
“For her I would,” I say softly. “Try me.”
“How do I know you’re not lying to me?”
“I expected you to want proof.” I give my phone to Marlon because I can’t negotiate with one hand. “Go to my email.”
Marlon looks from my phone to my face and then to Malcolm before tapping the screen.
“Open the one from Bristol.” I keep my face as expressionless as I can, but the pain in my hand only intensifies every moment this guy needs convincing. “Give it to him.”
Malcolm studies the phone, eyes widening then lifting to narrow on my face. I know what he sees. Bristol has attached signed letters of intent from every one of Malcolm’s investors.
“If you release that tape, it would be embarrassing for Kai.” I keep my words low and smooth. “But you’re right, she’d get past it. She’s talented and beautiful and in some twisted way, it could make her more popular. You, on the other hand, will have nothing.”
My face cements into implacable lines.
“You, on the other hand, won’t be able to take advantage of any positive effects because I’ll take everything from you.” I nod toward the phone in his hand. “I’m just one email away from doing it already.”
“But if I give you all copies of the tape and release Kai from her contract, this goes away?”
“And Luke.” I level a hard stare at him. “I want Luke away from you, too.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’d leave me with nothing.”
“Not nothing.” I wave toward my phone still in his hand. “You’d have all your investors, and you’d have your freedom. We wouldn’t prosecute you for blackmail.”
“You can’t prove a thing.” His voice is more certain than his eyes.
“I’m sure Drex wouldn’t mind testifying for me since some of Gep’s hacker friends have already tapped into his cloud and found several sex tapes, none of which, I’m guessing, had consent.” I turn to Drex. “Am I right about that?”
Drex swallows and drops his eyes to the floor.
“I won’t let you get away with this.” Malcolm struggles to get the words out past his rage.
“Let me?” My breath comes quick and shallow, anger rupturing the calm I’m barely holding on to. “At what point in this conversation did you become confused? I hold all the cards. Every scenario is one I’ve designed. Every outcome gets me something I want, even if that’s just you broke and behind bars. Kai will weather any storm that comes with exposure. I’ll make sure of that, but you won’t.”
Malcolm’s marble eyes shift like a rat’s from Drex to Gep to me and back again. A cornered rodent, looking for a way out. But there isn’t a way out. I’ve blocked all his escape routes. Even though my hand is throbbing, discolored, and limp, I can’t focus on the pain because I see how close he is to caving.
“And if I give you all copies of the tape—”
“And release Kai and Luke from their contracts,” I insert.
“And release Kai and Luke from their contracts,” he concedes, lips tightening and eyes slitting like a snake’s. “Then you withdraw your offer from my investors? And I just go on about my business?”
I won’t mention just now that I have wheels in motion to undercut the contracts he has with the remaining artists on his roster. I won’t mention it because he won’t know I was behind it.
“Yeah. On about your business.”
What’s left of it.
Neither of these low life parasites will have much left by the time we’re done, but at least they won’t be in jail, which by all rights they should be. If it weren’t for the public spectacle that would become for Kai, I would press for that. We don’t always get everything we want precisely the way we want it, but I can live with this. Knowing Gep and Bristol, they’re already setting up contingencies to protect our interests. This is as fixed as it will get for now. Now to fix my hand.
And then finally to fix things with Kai.