Page 53 of Dirty Big Sins

“Are you shitting me?”

“No, I am definitely not shitting you and thanks to this newsflash, the entire first floor of the resort has turned into one big massive shit show.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and Nina’s shrill tone. While I could understand her emotional response to this bombshell, that didn’t mean I wanted her reaction seared into my brain.

Besides, I had bigger concerns. Looking across the room at Zia, I could see that she was receiving similar news. Her face suddenly looked drawn and pale. The repercussions of this, while not quite evident yet, would soon take over both of our lives. Talk about the worst timing in the history of timing.

I sighed. Normally this was the kind of thing my manager would handle, but with Brian still on the MIA list, I was going to have to get in contact with the publicist who took care of these matters.

“Do we know who broke the news? How bad is it?”

“You tell me. There are more than a dozen rather explicit photos of the two of you flooding the internet as we speak. And as you can imagine, out of context, the scene you two were engaging in comes across unflattering to say the least.”

I could imagine Nina doing her best to curb her true feelings on the subject. The fact she wasn’t using every expletive in the book to tell me what she thought of the situation spoke volumes.

This was bad. Very bad.

“I’ve got to go.”

Zia had dropped her phone on the bed, scooped up her clothes and disappeared into the bathroom.

I could sense her about to make a run for it and we needed to talk about this before that happened.

“You can’t go,” Nina said. “We have to figure out what to do. This is going to be a nightmare for The Sinclair.”

I didn’t disagree, but the hotel was definitely not my top priority. However, I had to do something to placate Nina and fast.

“I’m going to text you the phone number to my publicist. Call her and tell her I said this is an emergency. She’s the best in the biz and the sooner we get her working on the situation, the better chance we have of controlling it.

Nina snorted in my ear. “Controlling it. Seriously? You must be insane. The press AND the public are going to eat Zia alive. She’s already been fired by her network and it’s only a matter of time before that trickles down into everything else.”

“Excuse me? What the hell do you mean she’s been fired?” White hot anger surged through my entire body as I tried to comprehend exactly what the hell had happened.

“Vincent, surely even you know what that means. The network called, but when they couldn’t reach her right away, they decided to pull the plug. They’re in full damage control mode and they are going to do whatever it takes to distance themselves and protect their reputation. They don’t give a crap about her.”

What the hell? All the work I’d done was unraveling at warp speed.

“How could it be that simple? I thought there would be contracts in place. Jesus Christ, it’s been like five minutes.”

“More like an hour, but that’s not the point. Zack said they cited the morality clause of her contract to justify the whole thing. I shouldn’t have to tell you this but this is bad. We need to—"

“I’ve got to go.”

“But we haven’t figured this out.”

I could hear Zia moving around in the bathroom and knew I didn’t have much time before she walked out the door. “Call the publicist. I’d have my manager do it, but he’s gone missing. And before you ask, that’s a discussion for another day. If you can handle this, I’ll talk to Zia before she walks into the den of vipers waiting downstairs, okay?”

“Okay, but you shouldn’t— ”

I didn’t wait for Nina to finish whatever she wanted to say. I clicked to end the call and tossed the phone onto the bed, ignoring the many voicemail notifications. Most were probably Nina, but there were a few others I could think of that would be contacting me. None of whom mattered at the moment.

I turned in time to catch Zia opening the bathroom door. I didn’t know if she thought she was getting out of here without talking to me about this first, but she wasn’t.

“Zia— ”

“Don’t start. I don’t want to discuss it. I’ve got to get down to the restaurant and work on damage control. This is a fucking nightmare.”

The tight lines around her mouth told me all I needed to know. She’d decided to shut me out the minute she got the news.

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