Page 42 of Dirty Little Sins

I turned back to Julie. "Can you stall long enough for me to fix my face and hair?"

"No need. Zack said we were going to start off with a full hair and make-up crew this morning as well as wardrobe. They want to get most of the footage for the promotional shots first so they have something right away to tease the network with."

I nodded as she headed for the door to let everyone in. I still couldn't believe the network was stalling. They'd approved the budget for the filming, but we seemed farther than ever from an actual deal on our second season.

"So things are going okay with Vincent now?" Nina had slipped into the doorway as I returned the pantsuit I'd been about to don back into its precise place in the closet.

I winced at her question. For a moment I'd forgotten just how much I'd overshared with my boss's wife. "I'm not sure okay is the right word, but we're making the proximity work."

"Is that what you call sleeping together? Making it work?" She laughed and some of the knots loosened in my stomach. Maybe my guard didn't have to stand so tall after all. Nina had done nothing but be kind to me since I arrived.

"Who's sleeping together? Is this about the boxer? This is going to be a great addition to the show, you know." Zack appeared in the doorway behind Nina and the urge to throw up climbed up my throat.

"No!" Both Nina and I cried in unison.

"That conversation had nothing at all to do with Mr. Cabrini," I lied. "Nina and I were discussing her husband." I deliberately avoided looking at her eyes as I threw her and her relationship under the bus.

After a few tense beats, Nina nodded her head. "Yeah, boring marriage stuff. Nothing interesting atall." She gave me a hard, knowing look that I knew meant I'd pay for that later.

Zack sniffed. "I doubt very seriously that your husband has a boring bone in his body. I've met him, remember? That man is intense. Although I am disappointed in Romeo. He doesn't appear to be living up to his reputation if he's not sleeping with you, Zia.Yet."

I inwardly groaned at the sound of Vincent's Casanova-like middle name. It was time to change the subject. "Can we get down to business? I've got a long list of to-dos for the day and the sooner I get started the better."

"You may not be sleeping with the boxer yet, but maybe you should. You certainly seem to have woken on the wrong side of the bed again."

I was about to throttle this man. This weird conversation had taken a supremely uncomfortable turn. He might be a brilliant reality television director, but he didn't understand boundaries at all.

"Do you have some information for me this morning?" Nina interrupted. She'd obviously read the situation and gotten the message that I was losing patience with his line of discussion. Smart woman. The amount I owed her was starting to stack up.

"I do and Julie probably has it all laid out for us in the dining room by now. While most of the show happens organically and then in the editing room, there are some basics we need to get down. We'll need access to certain parts of the hotel and casino today that we won't use on a day to day basis."

I tuned out Zack as he discussed shooting locations and let my mind wander back to Vincent. There was still so much I didn't know about him and as much as I hated to admit it, I was eager to learn. I picked up my iPad and typed his full name into the google search bar.

Before we met again, I wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into. I cringed at the initial images that came up. Apparently Vincent's last fight had been particularly bloody and it seemed to be the trending topic on the internet this week. As I scrolled through more images, the violence of his job became more and more apparent.

What was it about someone like him that made him this prone to violence?

"Earth to Zia." Zack stood in front of me snapping his fingers.

"What?" I asked, dragging my gaze from the disturbing images of Vincent and his poor opponents.

"Nina and I are going to walk our shooting locations in the hotel so you have about an hour or so with the vanity crew. Make sure they do something about those dark circles under your eyes and for God's sake make sure you start getting some sleep. Make up and editing can only fix so much. The world is all in 4K ultra high definition now. Every imperfection shows."

Before I could fling a pithy comeback, he and Nina were already walking out the door. And I was never more relieved to be rid of him than then. Sometimes I questioned my sanity when it came to this show. I loved cooking and the idea that more people would get to enjoy my love for food from watching our show was seriously the best.

But the personal life intrusion and the rigid Hollywood standards put on women by men like Zack had already begun to put a damper on what should have been an exciting day.

Well, that and the turmoil over Vincent I couldn't shake. I glanced back down at the internet search results and started to read. Before I saw him again I was going to make sure there were no surprises. I had a feeling there was a lot more to him than what he presented.

And I'd officially hit my limit of people in my life who couldn't be trusted.

Chapter Eighteen

VINCENT

I was going to kill him. If there was even a hint of truth to the lawman's insinuations, my manager was dead meat. Fired wouldn't cut it.

I slammed into my suite at The Sinclair. "Brian! Where the fuck are you?"

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