Page 41 of To Bring You Back
“What am I supposed to do? She only called because you ordered her to. I’ve been pestering her since I got to town, and it’s gotten us nowhere. I have to wait, don’t I?”
John’s mouth quirked. “Not your strong suit.”
But as long as she was safe, he didn’t see another option. He screwed the cap back on his water and started for Tim’s office to find out how much of a scene Matt had made last night in town.
When he reached the doorway, Tim looked up, froze, then stood.
If Matt had done something bad enough to warrant this odd hesitation, Gannon should have heard about it by now. Unless, thinking they needed to prepare for the show, Tim had hidden the news.
“What happened?”
Tim pulled him far enough into the room to shut the door, then stood behind the desk, fingers touching the work surface as if it were a rising problem he could suppress. “Harper stayed at your place.”
“We already talked about this.”
“More pictures of her leaving surfaced, these from inside the lobby. The lady who took them didn’t realize what she had for a while because she was only trying to take shots of her kids, but when she had prints made, she saw it. Harper’s in the background, clear as day. She didn’t have bruises going in, but she does on the way out.”
At least this wasn’t another romance rumor that would work against him with Adeline. “She fell on the stairs.”
Tim exhaled through his nose, patience seeming thin. “Someone told the press they saw you with her. Your doorman confirmed just now that he saw Harper with a man, but he swears he didn’t talk to anyone about it.” He paused there, as if to let the story sink in.
Gannon lifted his hands and shook his head.
Tim crossed his arms. “The press is reporting the bruises are from a lovers’ quarrel gone wrong, that you and Harper have a secret relationship, but she won’t leave Colton. She went to your place that night. You beat her up.”
His body went rigid. Suddenly he missed the romance rumors. He hadn’t known how much more offensive claims against him would get. “It’s bogus. Start to finish.”
And Tim should know that.
“It’s spreading like wildfire. Trolls are blowing up your accounts, calling for this weekend’s show to be canceled.”
Gannon’s mouth went dry. Some accusations left more of a mark than others, and domestic violence had to be one of the bad ones.
But he was innocent. People had seen him here, in Wisconsin, a whole country between him and Harper.
What truly mattered was Harper’s real circumstances. “Is it true? Not the part about me, but did someone do this to her?” Gannon trusted his building’s doormen. If one of them said a man had come, it was true or an honest mistake.
Tim motioned at his laptop screen. “Do these look like they came from falling on the three stairs in your living room?”
Gannon stepped around the desk. The first set of photos of Harper from that morning, the ones that had been paired with claims of an affair, had been taken from the other side when she was out on the sidewalk. Her hand and hair had hidden her face. Apparently she hadn’t thought to shield herself inside the lobby.
Brilliant red and purple marred her skin.
If Gannon hadn’t seen the same marks, faded by a couple of days when she’d video called him, he’d say the image had been altered. “She could’ve hit one of the end tables or the corner of the couch on her way down.”
“Or she let a man in, and he did this,” Tim supplied. “People saw them together and assumed it was you. I can try to get my hands on the security footage. We can leak it to prove who was there that night instead of you.”
“Leak it?” How would that help Harper?
“First choice would be for Harper to make a statement, but she and her people aren’t returning my calls.” Tim leaned forward, his hands fisted on the desk. “We’ve got to save the booking.”
A bitter taste to match his frustration flooded Gannon’s mouth. If Harper was dealing with an abuser, she needed privacy and support, not a media blitz. “We’re not leaking anything.”
“She’s covering for someone at your expense. AtAwestruck’sexpense.” He stabbed a finger at the desktop, as if the income they could lose were a figure he could point to and change Gannon’s priorities.
“Then I’ll deal with her. You deal with the venue and get the footage. If someone hurt her, I want to know who, but we’re not making this into more of a circus than it already is.”
Tim’s face flushed an angry red. “Am I the only one here who cares about your career?”
