Page 94 of Tell Me Again
“It’s been over five years since I retired,” she answered into the phone. “Maybe they won’t be news anymore.”
“You wouldn’t offer them if they weren’t still news. But they’re the wrong kind of publicity for you now, Sam. They’ll revive the story of your years as everyone’s favorite party girl.”
Just before she hit rock bottom and left the business, she’d spent the weekend before a photo shoot for a major fashion house partying with the celebrity actor booked to do the campaign with her. They’d drunk too much, hooked up, and then wrecked the hotel room, a total cliché and one that embarrassed her to this day. Somehow the photos for the shoot had come together, but the photographer had been part of their wild antics and had snapped candid photos that were just this side of sex-tape level explicit.
The entire escapade had been a blur in Sam’s mind until the photos surfaced months later. The actor, rapidly spiraling out of control, had gotten into a feud with the photographer after some less-than-flattering photos appeared in a magazine. The still-powerful A-lister had slammed the other man’s work and reputation. In turn, the photographer had threatened to sell the photos from Sam’s shoot with the actor to the tabloids.
She’d paid close to seven figures for the copyright of those photos to keep them from going public, and they’d remained with her ever since. Several times she’d come close to destroying them, but she hadn’t. The fact that they were in her house on a flash drive locked away in a safe at the back of her closet was like an itch just under her skin. A reminder that was always there as a warning. That’s how far she could fall if she let herself walk that path again.
The actor who had been with her had died of an overdose several years ago. She hated that releasing the photos might bring renewed pain to his family and friends, but he’d actually gone on tomakea sex tape with a B-list Hollywood starlet, so there was nothing in the images that would surprise anyone.
She’d have to distance herself from Bryce Hollow, but the camp could function without her. Any other collateral damage would be worth saving Grace from a limelight she wasn’t yet ready to step into.
“Maybe the picture of the girl won’t be as big of a deal as we think.” Peter’s voice was filled with false hope. “Make a statement claiming her as your niece and bring her to New York for a few days. We’ll make sure the paps get some photos of you together and we can reframe the story.”
“She’s in school,” Sam answered automatically. “She has to study for finals.”
“Sam, come on. You can’t—”
“The photos will be in your inbox within the next fifteen minutes. Make the deal, or I’ll do it myself.” She disconnected as Peter started another round of protests.
Tucking her phone in the robe’s pocket, she wrapped both arms around Frank’s thick neck and pressed her forehead to the soft fur between his ears. “You’ll still love me, right, boy?”
His tail rapped softly on the hardwood floor.
She took a couple of steadying breaths then extracted herself from under the dog’s bulk. Her throat dry and her fingers trembling, she walked upstairs and retrieved the flash drive. She pulled up the photos on her laptop before sending them to Peter.
There she was, glassy-eyed and naked in bed with one of the biggest movie stars of his generation, a man almost fifteen years older than her. She hadn’t cared about him and the feeling had been more than mutual. Her stomach churned from the memories of that time in her life. A wave of nausea hit as her fingers hovered over the Send button, and she stumbled to the bathroom, her body rebelling against what she was about to do.
After a few minutes on her knees in front of the toilet, the heaving stopped, and she ran a cool washcloth over her face before returning to the computer. She typed in a message, “No argument. Do it now,” and sent the e-mail.
In her mind she calculated how long she had until the photos hit the Internet. Major news outlets would pick them up because there wasn’t much going on in the world this week. Where was a juicy presidential scandal when a girl needed one?
She pulled out her phone and punched in the number for the head of the camp’s board. Those photos would change her future. She had to protect what she’d dedicated so much time to building before everything was torn apart beyond repair.
The way her heart had been.
