Chapter 16
Rhian swiped the tip of her pen around the page. The image that began to appear beneath her fingers was lost in the concentration of creating it. A bold line here, a shadow there, and a beam of light reflecting in the foreground.
“Are we boring you, Rhi?” Rachel’s voice cut through the static-laden Skype connection as well as her daydream, shocking her back to the reality of the conference meeting she was supposed to be paying attention to. Angela, the director, and Simon, her assistant, sat on either side of Rachel, watching Rhian with smirks on their faces, and the six tiny windows of faces on the call from the far corners of the world were fixed on her too. Well, as fixed as they could be when they were looking at her tiny little square on a computer screen.
“Sorry, no. I was just making some notes. A couple of things I’ve remembered I need to organise before the alternates arrive.”
Rachel gave her a look that told Rhian she knew she was talking bullshit, but Rachel let it go. “And on that note, we’ve had a very unhappy phone call from Killian O’Leary.”
“And?” Rhian asked.
“He could make life uncomfortable and create some unpleasant media attention,” Angela suggested.
“He can try. He’s got no chance after what he did, though.”
“He’s claiming he was provoked,” Rachel said.
“Fuck off.”
Rachel’s eyebrow shot up. “Excuse me?”
Rhian glared and reached over. She opened a file and clicked the play button. The CCTV footage of Killian’s assault on her, and his clear intention to strike again before Luiji physically stopped him played on all their screens. When it finished, there was a series of uncomfortable grunts and shuffles from the callers. But as Rhian expected, Rachel reacted first.
“That little fucker!”
“That’s the whole scene. How did I provoke him?”
Rachel shook her head and put on a masterful show of remaining professional, even though she was pissed. Really pissed. Rhian cringed. She wasn’t looking forward to the bollocking she was going to get later.
“Not you,” Rachel replied. “He’s claiming Jayden provoked him by abandoning him and causing detrimental damage to his training and that she had been aggressive and bullying in her manner towards him prior to that.”
Rhian laughed angrily. “The only time he ever met her was that morning where he tried to show her up and she called him out on it. I can get you that footage too, if you like.”
“It might be worth it to have all our bases covered.”
“You are joking, right?”
Rachel cocked her head to the side and said slowly, “Would I joke about something that could result in legal action against my company?”
Shit. Rhian swallowed. “No. But it’s ridiculous. Jayden did nothing wrong. This is a case of sour grapes after he got himself kicked off the show for being a wanker. Pardon my language. But he was. You saw what happened with me. That isn’t just high spirits or a bit of showing off. He hit me. He physically assaulted me. Now, even if someone else had provoked him—which she didn’t—that would still not make this behaviour acceptable, or defensible. He’d still be going home even if she had wound him up to it.”
Rachel hiked her eyebrow up. “Precisely, kiddo. You’re right—you are absolutely spot on. Thanks to this footage you’ve turned up, we’ve got him precisely where we want him, and we have nothing to hide. So why not be completely up front about it and show that?” Rachel’s smile broadened.
Rhian wanted to think it was because she was proud of her, maybe even impressed with the way she’d handled the incident herself, as well as the shitstorm they were currently sitting through. But it was more than likely because Rachel knew she couldn’t lose this particular battle. Killian might as well say goodbye to his kneecaps.
“From our perspective, it looks well on the show and our company if he does try to make a meal of this and we have to leak this footage. Puts our clients right at the forefront of protecting women’s rights and taking a stand on violence against women.”
Rhian pressed her thumb and forefinger against her eyes to give herself a moment. Trust Rachel to already have a spin for this little incident. She shook her head. “Fine,” she said and dropped her hand back to the table. “I’ll dig out the footage of his earlier interaction with Jayden and send it all over to you too.”
“Great. I suspect as soon as Mr O’Leary and his counsel see that, they’ll slink back to their hole.”
“He has counsel already?” She glanced at her watch. “He won’t even be back in Ireland yet.”
“Whether he is or isn’t, we’ve had two calls from the man himself and one from a Dermot O’Leary, purporting to be his legal representative in a suit he plans to bring against us, Patagonia, and the Argentinian tourist board if his position on the show isn’t reinstated immediately.”
“On what grounds?”
“Bullying, sexual discrimination, and sexual harassment.”
Rhian stared at her. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“Who’s supposed to have harassed and discriminated against him?”
“Not curious about the bullying?”
Rhian waved a hand. “Clearly he’s aiming that at Jayden.”
“Yes. The rest is levelled at you. Says you’re pissed and ordered him off the show because you came on to him and he wouldn’t sleep with you.”
Rhian laughed. One loud, harsh bark of a laugh.
Rachel offered her a half-smile. “I know, I know. But it would still be awful if you had to defend it in a court.”
Angela frowned. “What are we missing?”
Rhian glanced away from the computer screen and met the gaze of her face-to-face colleague. “I’m a lesbian. I’ve been out for almost six years now. As you can see, Rachel knows all about it, so we can easily put this particular claim of his to sleep.”
“Yes, but it might strengthen his sexual discrimination claim.”
Rhian tipped her head to one side.
“You’re a man-hating dyke after all, right?” Rachel said with a derisive laugh that Rhian suspected was to soften the insult that Killian would hurl at her.
“Perfect. Just perfect.”
“That’s life, kiddo.” Rachel sympathised.
Rhian paused and tried to visualise the best way forward. She had contingencies for when her contingencies went wrong. But she didn’t have a plan for this. She didn’t know what the best decision was or how the fallout would affect the project or their clients. She was sure of one thing, though.
“I’m not letting him back on set. Whatever else he claims happened, I have cast-iron evidence of his assault and the way he had to be restrained from continuing his attack on me. That gets anyone a plane ride home.”
Rachel nodded. “Your project, your call. Get me that other video file, and we’ll take it from there.”
She didn’t know if it was the right call, in terms of PR. And she equally couldn’t tell if Rachel truly agreed with her decision. Maybe Rachel was supporting her decision publicly to not undermine a project leader in front of those working under her, and Rhian would hear more about it in that private bollocking she was expecting later. The uncertainty of it all made the self-doubts creep in. Maybe I should just swallow my pride and agree to have him back. Is that what Rachel wants me to do? But then the cocky little shit would be unbearable and make it a living nightmare for everyone else. Not to mention me. Unless he got voted off quickly. Given how this has played out, the little bastard would get out of that too.
The conversation shifted to the logistics of getting the camera crew and equipment out to the glacier. They decided upon horse transportation and then sledding the gear across the ice. It would be a laborious, energy-sapping, time-consuming process. But it was seemingly the only realistic option with such heavy gear.
Her mind wandered easily from the discussion of logistics and planning. She and Angela had already been over this numerous times. She went back to her simple line drawing, adding a small patch of shadow under one sweeping line.
Rachel’s voice drew her back to the real world again.
“I think that’s everything for now, people,” Rachel said. “Rhian, would you mind staying on the call a few minutes with me?”
Rhian swallowed but nodded and said her goodbyes to the rest of the callers. Right. One bollocking coming up. As if they sensed what was about to happen, Angela and Simon wandered away to give her some space.
“Thanks,” Rachel started. “Since I know you’ve got your trip to organise for tomorrow and the two alternates to pick up, I won’t keep you long.”
“Okay.”
Rachel’s gaze was glued to her cheek, and the anger she’d held in check was evident in the tightness of her jaw and the flush on her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, Rachel. I know I fucked up—”
“Are you okay?” Rachel’s voice was quiet and husky, and her eyes shone with tears in the light of her computer screen.
Tears? Christ, this must be worse than I thought. “Yes. It was nothing—”
“Nothing? Nothing?” Rachel’s eyes were wide, her mouth hung open slightly. “That was not nothing. I can see the bruising from here, and I’m in fucking England! Christ.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how things escalated so quickly. I just never saw it coming.”
“How could you?” She exhaled loudly, clearly reining in her temper. “Why didn’t you call the police and let them deal with him?”
“I didn’t want the negative publicity.” She laughed derisively. “Guess that’s just another way I fucked this one up.”
“Stop.”
Rhian looked up at the screen.
“You didn’t fuck this up. I wouldn’t have gone to the police either, if it were me. For the same reason. There was no reason to expect that this little dickhead would try to blackmail his way back in after what he did. So as the business owner, I understand your instinct and thank you for it. You did exactly the right thing.”
Rhian stared at her. “I did?”
Rachel nodded. “Yes. Couldn’t have done it better myself, kiddo.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. As your—as your mother, I want to rip his fucking bollocks off.”
Rhian chuckled. That ferocity in Rachel’s voice was for her. It was defending her. And when was the last time Rachel had so definitively praised her like this? Rachel must be feeling pretty sorry for me for taking a smack in the face for her to be so supportive.
Rachel visibly calmed herself and slid her professional persona back into place.
“Stop looking at me like that. I need to go and be a bitch again.”
“Sorry.”
“Bloody kid.” She smoothed her hand over her hair. “Right, you get back to work. Send me those video files as soon as you can, and I’ll take care of it all on this end.”
“Okay.” Rhian clicked the mouse to end the session. Well, that went better than I expected.
Simon and Angela walked over to the table as she closed the lid of her laptop.
“You okay?” Angela held out a wet cloth.
Rhian nodded and took it. It felt so good against her sore cheek.
“Bastard,” Simon said. “I can’t believe what a wanker he turned out to be.”
Rhian shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it now.” She tried to ignore the pang of guilt at the trouble she was causing everyone. After all, she’d picked him to be a contestant. They had wanted some conflict in the show, after all. Ratings and all that. She hadn’t expected it to backfire on her quite like this, though.
“We’ll leave you to it, hon. Just wanted to make sure you were okay after that shower of shit.” Angela leant over and tapped Rhian’s pad. “Nice sketch, by the way.” She twisted her head as she looked at it. “You’ve captured the look in her eyes just right.”
Rhian frowned and leant back in her chair, looking consciously for the first time at the image she’d drawn. “Fuck,” she whispered under her breath as Simon and Angela crossed the room and the door swung shut behind them. “That’s not good.”
Jayden’s face stared back at her from the page.