Chapter 35
Michael
I walked out of the precinct with an unblemished record, thanks to my legal team and Laine explaining what had happened to the LAPD. I walked past the paparazzi as they shouted. I fingered the phone I hadn’t seen in hours.
“Hey, Michael! Have you seen Laine’s pictures?”
I froze. Ken yanked my arm, and my lawyer nudged me so subtly no one would have even noticed in the photos. A black car waited with an open door. Gali nodded at me when I got in.
“She’s about to be more famous than you,” Ken started before he’d even sat all the way. “They’re finding the pictures faster than we can send out DMCA notices.”
“How do they know it’s her?”
He poked at his phone then pocketed it again. “She told them.”
“No. No, she didn’t.” I was filling space. Obviously she had.
He took the phone from me. “It’s all over YouTube.”
He handed back my phone, with Laine on it under a white triangle. She stood against the backdrop of the concrete police station steps, her hands pressed together in front of her. I pressed the triangle.
—Hi, Miss Cartwright
She shields her eyes with her forearm.
She corrects their lighting.
Laughter.
—What’s happening with Michael? Did he buy kiddie porn?
—Technically?
She stalls, but it’s obvious she’s looking forward to telling them something. The cameras are eating her alive. She looks stunning, larger than life. Like a rare, escaped bird perched proudly over the city. Star quality. She had it.
—He was protecting the person in the pictures, guys. You know him. You’ve worked with him. He’s not a pedophile.
She loves her big reveal. It’s all over her face. She loves telling them I’m innocent. The camera sees all of it.
—You the moral support?
—Yeah, Laine? Why are you here?
—Because I’m the girl in the pictures.
And just like that, it ended on her complete lack of fear in the truth, and the triangle reappeared over her.
“She didn’t know they were out,” Ken said. “That Jake is a real piece of work. Stupid and smart at the same time. The prosecutor is making jail time his life’s mission.”
“How did you let that happen?”
“Let it happen? She’s a free agent, Mike. You knew this.”
I leaned back in the seat. “I’m starting to want to do things her way. I’m getting bogged down in the rules.”
“You’re already in breach of contract with Big Girls. A party’s not a party for you. It’s an obligation. And the big stuff? Conduct unbecoming. You’re turning into a liability on Bullets in the middle of a schedule killer.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re a public relations nightmare right now. That’s not what the studios bank on.”
I had no answer, because he was right. I was the good guy. I didn’t get taken in for buying kiddie porn, and I didn’t fail to do one interview, one junket stop, or one party. That was a big part of the reason I was paid so well and hired so easily. No one had to worry about me. No one had to spend money covering my tracks. No one had to spin my Saturday nights into Sunday’s public apology.
All of that was about to change.
Would I become like my father? A dead weight for a decade or more because I couldn’t find work? He had all the money he needed, but he wasn’t working, and I was about to have the same problem.
I dialed her number. I needed to hear her voice. I needed to tell her to wait for me, to not do anything or speak to anyone until I came to her. She didn’t answer the phone, and I found I was glad. I had to think, and I couldn’t. I hung up. I didn’t want to leave a message in front of Ken and my lawyer, who only pretended he wasn’t paying attention.
“I need her pictures to go away,” I told Ken.
“Keep associating with her, and they’ll keep looking for her pictures. They’ll never die.”
“You’re not getting it. That’s not an option.”
“Mike, you hired me for a reason. This kind of thing? It’s chaos, and chaos happens to everyone at some point,” he said. “I manage chaos. I calm it down, or I turn it to my client’s advantage. That’s my job. That’s why you need me. And believe me, I don’t need your money. Fire me the way you fired Gene, and as a businessman, I won’t care. I have plenty to do. But you’ve been with me since you were eighteen, and I care about what happens to you. The stakes are high now, and if you go off the deep end now, if you spiral into a pit, and I can’t stop you, I’ll feel…” He motioned with his hand, spinning it at the wrist.
“Guilty?” I offered.
“Close enough.”
“And in your professional opinion, I should no longer see Laine?”
“If you want to protect the both of you.”
“And if I continue to see her anyway?” I asked.
“There might be more chaos than I can manage and more than either of you can handle. That’s my professional opinion. You can have any girl you want. Just pick another one. A pretty one who won’t sabotage your career.”
I respected Ken. He knew his job, and he wasn’t the biggest jerk I’d met over the course of my career, but what he was suggesting simply wouldn’t work for me. I couldn’t imagine thanking Laine for a nice time and walking away. I couldn’t imagine never seeing her again, never being surprised by her, never witnessing her delight and her darkness, her impulsiveness and her cynical wisdom.
My phone buzzed. I was sick of it. I was about to shut it off, but it was my mother, who was probably worried sick that she’d raised a pedophile. “Mom? Hey, I—”
“Gareth is at Sequoia Hospital. His liver. He didn’t even take a damned drink, but it’s failing.”
I forgot about everything but getting to the hospital on time.