Page 4 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
‘Jenny, are you OK?’ he barked.
Jenny. She ground her teeth. She hated when he condescended to her like that. ‘I’m fine. I locked myself in the bathroom, but Samuel is still out there fighting with them. You’ve got to get here fast, Brody. They’re reporters.’
‘They broke into your hotel room for a story?’
Her stomach turned. ‘They had a camera.’ Her voice faltered into a whisper. ‘They caught us together in bed.’
She didn’t get an answer. He didn’t even let out a curse, yet the chill that came across the line was so frigid, she nearly dropped the phone.
‘Brody?’
‘Who was it? Which channel?’
‘Channel? What does that matter?’
‘It matters. Who are they?’
‘You think I took time to ask? I don’t know — Wait. They said it, but I didn’t recognise it. MTI? TMI?’
‘Don’t say a word to anyone until I get there. Do not come out of that bathroom. Don’t let them catch you on camera any more than they have.’
‘I’m not stupid but, Brody, you’ve got to get here fast. They…they know what I do for a living.’
The chill in the fixer’s voice nearly left frost. ‘Don’t let anyone touch you. I’m coming.’
The line went dead without so much as a goodbye, but for some reason Genieve’s breaths came a bit easier. Her stomach was still knotted, and she knew this was going to be a really bad night. Brody was stoic and cold as Siberia, but he was solid. She just had to hold on until he could get here.
Yet, before she could even make a call to Luxxor, someone was knocking on the bathroom door.
‘Ma’am, this is hotel security. All you all right? Can you come out of the bathroom?’
After what she’d just promised the ice man? ‘No.’
‘We need to talk to you so we can figure this whole thing out.’
‘So talk.’ She held fast, refusing to budge.
Things only went from bad to worse when Metro PD arrived on the scene. That was when she started considering the smoke detector on the ceiling as a viable distraction. If she set it off, could she slip out of the hotel with the rest of the crowd without anyone noticing?
Her toes curled into the bath rug. Despite what the reporters kept saying, she wasn’t a whore. She was an escort, albeit one with an exclusive client…who paid her for sex…She doubted the police would care to split hairs, but she’d never been picked up before. She’d never even come close. She couldn’t be arrested for prostitution. She couldn’t bring down Luxxor. She was with a US senator!
‘Ma’am, you need to come out of the bathroom.’
There was the sound of a key in the lock. She stepped back and bumped up against the shower as a policeman stepped inside. He was a young cop, handsome and wary. His jaw dropped a notch when he saw her. She rubbed her bare feet together. Sometimes the attention she got for her looks was fun, but other times it was a problem.
‘Ma’am, are you OK? Are you hurt?’
‘I’m scared.’ It was the truth. She was scared to death that the truth would come out.
His demeanour changed on a dime. ‘Everything’s OK. You’re safe now.’
He held out his hand. ‘Could you join us?’
She pulled the belt of her robe tighter around her waist. ‘Are they gone? Did you take their camera?’
‘They’re in the other room. I promise you, you won’t have to deal with them.’
Genieve thought fast. It wouldn’t be good to get on the police’s wrong side. Brody had told her not to leave the bathroom, but she was left to her own devices now. She needed to play this right. Tilting her head, she gave the young officer a helpless, fearful look. ‘Thank you for coming to our rescue.’
