Forever, Jack (10 page)

She goes on. “Imagine? No agent
and
no publicist. What a world, how would you cope? Now, seriously, the shit is hitting the fan. How did I never know what a fuck-face Audrey is? Shit, that bitch is
eee-ville-town.
How did you manage to tap that so long? To think
I
even wanted to schtupp her once.
Oi vey!
So have you seen the picture?”

“What picture?”

“The one of you and that waitress chick all Romeo and Juliet-style on a balcony.”

My blood freezes in my veins. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Well, if you’d answered your fucking phone or listened to any of my seventeen thousand and two messages, you would know Audrey gave you until
today
to get in a room with her and Peak to, as
she
said, “save her reputation,” or she’d take yours down. When she found you before, she had a P.I. track you down at Devon’s. The P.I. hung out having a nice beach holiday and taking lots of gooey pictures. How the hell she got him to not sell the pictures himself is beyond me. That broad is one capable c—”

“All right, already.” My hand is trembling with barely controlled shock and rage. I feel like I … “Hang on.” I’ve managed to drive almost to Devon’s so I pull into a small parking area near a beach access path. I get the door open and gulp a breath of cool Carolina air.

On a balcony?

Son of a bitch.

I know exactly when that was, the morning after we … the day Audrey showed up. Keri Ann had been standing at the open French doors of the bedroom, looking out to the ocean. I remember coming out of the bathroom and seeing her there, re-clothed in the sexy little dress I’d pulled off her body the night before. The morning sun spilled around her, and the ocean breeze was sifting through her hair.

She’d spotted a sea turtle nest and was pointing it out and all I could think about was wrapping her back up in my arms and working out ways to persuade her to spend the whole day in bed with me. I loved the surprise and wonder in her eyes, mingled with her knowing smile that told me she knew what she could do to me, even while she looked unsure. And I loved her gasps and moans and how she suddenly became an expert at taking me from zero to sixty so I had to perform mental gymnastics just to keep from exploding into a hurricane of frantic want.

Instead, I’d wrapped my arms around her and tucked her small body against my bare chest, settling for asking her to come to California. Planting a seed for a future. I could get though the next phase of my life knowing Keri Ann would be at the end of it.

And some asshole had taken that private moment and turned it ugly. And Audrey had seen it, too.

“Anyway, Sunshine,” Sheila rasps from the phone I’ve pulled away from my ear. “You better get your ass over to my office so we can get a statement together before she presses the button on this. She’s going to say she lost the baby from grief over you having an affair, and
that’s
why she sought comfort from her director. She has a tag on your toe, buddy. The timing of it all is irrelevant, she’ll say those pictures were taken whenever it suits her story, although I’m assuming they were taken the last time you went off the grid and drove me mental.”

Sheila never pauses for breath.

I head down to the beach so
I
can think and breathe.

She goes on, “She also has footage of you assaulting some guy in a nightclub. Says she’s afraid of you. I’ve told Duane it’s bullshit, it’s not even you in the video, but as you know that’s also kind of irrelevant at this point. Where are you, anyway?”

I make it out onto the sand, it’s almost high tide. I close my eyes for a second. “It
is
me in that video. And I’m in South Carolina.”

“Fuck me sideways. Can you make my day any worse?”

I snort. “Probably, just give me time.”

“How about after I navigate this mess with the least amount of dings to your persona, we re-negotiate our contract?”

“Fine.”

“I’ll take that as written in blood. Now, how soon can you get back here?”

I think about everything Audrey is threatening. It’s bad. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. The public loves a good scandal. The more convoluted the better. And in the end she is threatening Keri Ann, too. Her privacy. Her reputation. Everything.

I conjure the image of what I’ve just seen at the gallery in my mind’s eye. This is the first of many great things to come for Keri Ann Butler. As long as I don’t ruin it. If I do, she’ll no longer be Keri Ann Butler, Artist … she’ll be my latest conquest and tabloid fodder. The saying
there’s no such thing as bad publicity
is a crock. For her, there would be. Forevermore, people would assume she became well-known due to her association with
me.
She’d be stuck in whatever seedy story Audrey spun for eternity. I can’t honestly think of anything worse. For anyone.

“Give me a second.” I waffle between heading back immediately and doing an amended version of what I came here for. Seeing her. But, I can’t go and face Keri Ann’s disappointment in me, and at the same time risk blowing up her entire life. I can’t be that selfish. It’s one thing if
I
’m going down in flames, but how can I take someone else with me? How can I take
her
with me? Who knows what story would be spun, what lies would be seeded? I wouldn’t put anything past Audrey. It still stuns me how little I know her.

I take a deep lungful of cool ocean air and open my eyes to the beach. It’s midafternoon and warm for December. I’d love to just run right now and clear my head. Feel the rough sand and surf on the soles of my feet. Then when I was done, I’d head to Keri Ann’s, like that first day when I jogged to her house and she opened the door all sleepy, irritated, and dressed in the tiniest but most innocent looking pajamas I’d ever seen. I’d lost my balance trying to get the door closed and fallen practically on top of her, getting a mainline hit of strawberry shampoo and warm bedroom skin.

I turn and look the other way—down the beach—and my chest thuds. Someone, a girl, is jogging. It’s her. I know it, although she’s way too far away to see clearly. I back up a few steps.

This is her world, her life, and I just keep crashing it.

I understand what I need to do. It might mean I lose her in the end, but it’s the only way to go forward. The only way I even have a shot at making this work. It also occurs to me I’m being a coward, but I swallow that thought quickly.

“Sheila, I’m headed back right now. Can you stall Audrey, or do you need me to call her?”

I turn around and head back along the beach path, and I don’t look back. I start the damn car, turn around, and head back the way I came.

Sheila barks out a hacking cough that has me wincing. “You should probably be the one to call Audrey. Just tell her to wait. Tell her you’ll hear what she has to say. Try not to say anything else
like where you are
.” She punctuates each word, in case I don’t get it. I do. “Audrey is seriously unhinged right now.”

“Fine,” I tell her. “It’ll be late when I get back … call you first thing.”

“I’ll be on the edge of my seat.”

“I’m sure.” In my mind’s eye I see Sheila rolling her eyes. “Thank you, Sheila. Thank you for helping with this.”

“Yeah, well. I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but I’m on your side. As long as you do me the courtesy of taking my calls, I’ll earn my wage and make you look as good as possible.”

“Will do.”

She grunts and hangs up.

Of course, I still plan to come back and see Keri Ann. At some point. Explain. Something. I just don’t know how long it will be. I pause at a stop sign and punch in Katie’s number. “Katie, it’s Jack. I just got to Hilton Head, but I need to head back to L.A. Can you make sure the jet doesn’t leave again. I’ll be back at the airfield in thirty minutes.”

I’d smile, but I feel too damn grim. I’m standing at the window on the twenty-second floor of an office building in Century City, looking out over the smoggy haze of downtown L.A.

Sitting around the table behind me is Sheila, Audrey, her agent and her publicist, Duane and two other guys from Peak Entertainment as well as a member of Peak’s legal counsel, a reasonable looking guy named Andrew. The cavalry. Their cavalry.

Audrey has finally shown up and the way she is acting should be laughable. But everyone is lapping it up. I left the table because I couldn’t sit still with all the bullshit flying around.

“These are some serious allegations, Mr. Eversea. Would you like to comment?” Reasonable Andrew asks.

What I’d like is to shower, shave, sleep for forty-eight hours, and wake up in a parallel universe. A universe where I was supposed to wake up and see Keri Ann Butler lying next to me and Spanish moss swaying outside the window.

“Well, obviously, none of it’s true.” Sheila jumps in. “Ms. Lane is a little confused by the sequence of events. Those pictures were taken after Ms. Lane’s affair. But, as we all know, that’s probably neither here nor there as far as the public is concerned. As for the assault, Mr. Eversea did, in fact, hit someone in Savannah, Georgia. But he is not, nor would he ever be, a physical threat to Ms. Lane.”

It’s a good thing the California coast is beautiful because there is nothing redeeming about the ugliness of the city I’m existing in right now. I turn around and put my back to the window.

“Mr. Eversea, your statement says you punched someone two months ago, and yet you have a bandaged hand. We will need a release from that individual in Savannah stating he waives the right to press future charges. But Ms. Lane’s statement says that during a disagreement eight days ago, you expressed rage and punched a wall so hard that you, obviously, required medical attention.” He looks meaningfully at my hand. “This doesn’t sound like Ms. Lane can be assured you pose no physical threat to her, and frankly, this is worrisome for your future dealings with Peak Entertainment in general.”

My shoulders are so tense, I’m in danger of going into a spasm. “Well, Andrew …” I face the window again and address the group behind me whose reflection is super-imposed on the grey city haze. “In the ten minutes preceding the point where I punched
my
wall in
my
house, I’d been informed that Ms. Lane, with guidance from my
ex
-agent, had fabricated a pregnancy. I’d just spent two months believing I was going to be a father.”

“I appreciate the surprise of that, Mr. Eversea, if it was indeed the case, but Ms. Lane claims it was not a fabrication and that she
lost
the baby.”

“I know what she’s claiming. We all do. You all have both our statements written out in front of you. And you’re clearly of the impression that she’s telling the truth and I’m lying. And frankly? I don’t give a shit. What I would like to know is what you’d like me to do to get past this point. How do we get to a point where I don’t have to interact with Ms. Lane in any further capacity, personally or professionally? Ever.” I hear a shocked gasp from Audrey’s direction but refuse to look at her.

“Well, obviously, we have a duty to protect the brand we have created with the
Warriors of Erath
franchise. As per your contract and our normal procedure, the relationships created as part of the brand should continue at least six months beyond the last project. As it stands, the brand took a rather large hit with the actions of Ms. Lane. In order to overcome that, we either need you all to continue being seen together—”

“No.” It’s out my mouth before I notice.

“Unacceptable,” Sheila says at the same time.

“Let me finish,” Reasonable Andrew says calmly. “The alternative is, since that seems likely to cause more harm than good at this point,” he looks pointedly at Audrey and then at me. God, I feel like I’m eleven. “We let the relationship end
naturally
, but to protect the public perception of both parties, neither can be seen to have a relationship for a period of time.”

For a moment, I regret not having my agent, a legal representative, in the room with me. But Sheila has danced enough of these proms to steer me right. I see her thinking hard.

“No. That still leaves everyone remembering what
I
did. That’s not fair!” Audrey pouts.

“Well, the fact remains, Ms. Lane, you did violate the contract first.” Reasonable Andrew is not such a bad guy after all. He obviously doesn’t believe Audrey’s claim that my relationship with “the girl in the picture” drove Audrey to do the same.

I fold my arms and look over at Audrey in detail for the first time since she walked in. I honestly feel like the last three years have been a dream. A different Audrey. This Audrey’s a stranger.

Dropping her eyes from me, nervously, she confers quietly with her agent and her publicist by means of some scribbled notes back and forth. Then she vehemently shakes her head. “I’m scared of him!” she bursts out, and her agent almost rolls his eyes before he catches himself.

Now I really do feel like smiling. I don’t, of course. There’s nothing funny about what’s going on here.

“Okay,” says Andrew. “I understand if you have a legitimate safety concern, we can address that issue in a moment. But first, the contract between you two is easily amended. As of today your relationship, as encouraged and endorsed by Peak Entertainment, is done. We had an earlier meeting to address some of our available options. Moving forward, as long as you both are under the time line from the original contract, we
can
amend the relationship portion, and Peak will adopt the position that we
have
no position on whether you are romantically involved or not.”