Page 61 of Not the Bodyguard's Princess
“How?”
“It was filmed without Jordan’s knowledge or consent in her trailer, where she had an expectation of privacy. The social media networks aren’t going to like getting legal notices about it. Get her lawyer out of bed and get him on it. With your permission, we can run some Ogilvie software that will locate the videos and send alerts to the various companies. The big social media sites will block it out of fear of reprisal.”
“Get this fixed and then you are fired. I’m flying out today.” The phone call ended.
Adam held up his phone. “Already working on it. I suggest you go tell Miss Lee.”
Too late. Jordan stood in the middle of the hall, staring at her phone, tears falling onto the screen.
He reached out to her.
She stepped back.
“Jordan?”
“Grandma called. It is all over the news in London. She’s furious. She wants me to fire you.”
“Mr. Blake said the same thing. He’s flying out.”
Jordan looked up from her screen. “Is he well enough?”
Andrew shrugged.
Adam yelled from the living room. “Video conference in five.”
Jordan slumped against the wall. “I can’t do this.”
Andrew took her by the shoulders. “Yes, you can. You will get through it. I’ve watched you deal with some hard things these past two weeks. We can get through this.”
“I mean us. I can’t do us. Last night was... was... all there will ever be.”
Andrew couldn’t find his next breath. It was like the time his sister first had taken him down with her signature move, only he wasn’t blinking at the ceiling and seeing stars this time. “We better get on that call.”
Andrew followed Jordan to the living room, where she was perched on the arm of the couch next to Deidre. Andrew sat on the chair at the other side of the room. Adam’s laptop was connected to the large-screen TV. The Hastings logo was replaced by a split screen. Dad sat in his home office with Mom next to him. Alan sat in his office at Hastings, switching back and forth between a half dozen monitors.
Jethro started the meeting. “I’d say good morning, but I assume it’s too late for that, so let’s fix this. Your mom filled me in on what she knows, and I read the incident reports. Nothing we say will change the past. Alan, where are we?”
“The Ogilvie bot traced the point of origin as, not surprisingly, an all-night restaurant in Green Bay at 3:00 am. Two of the major social media networks have removed the video. The others have yet to respond. The video was sent directly to several tabloid outlets in Great Britain as well as the United States. I sent an alert to Abbie. What her husband and Harmon media decide to do with the news is their decision. This does raise a troubling question. Timing. The poisoning or attempted murder of Tonie was set to be at the top of several of the Hollywood gossip shows and blogs today. Not surprising, and the blogs only had basic information and not Tonie’s name, although they knew Princess was also under veterinary care. That wasn’t exactly a story we wanted to run, but who would have wanted it to run less than Jordan?”
Jordan leaned forward. “So did Storm release it? I can’t see him doing that where he can’t use it as leverage.”
Alan only half looked at his camera as he spoke. “According to his social media posts, Storm wasn’t in the restaurant last night. He may have directed its release, or someone who had access may have released it. If his goal was to get you to go out with him, it doesn’t make sense.”
“The person who did this wants me fired.” Andrew scooted forward in his seat. “Last night, Jordan and I started putting the incidents together. Everything has been to get rid of her bodyguards. The contract, Blake’s shooting... Jordan rarely drinks from disposable water bottles, so the drugs were meant for Tonie. This gets me fired. Both Blake and Mrs. Lee are clear on that.”
“Worse, it gets all of Hastings fired,” said Alan.
Dad folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t care if we lose this job. I don’t care if Blake doesn’t pay us. This is our mess to clean up, and Jordan is ours to protect. I’m not comfortable with what happens when we walk away. One bodyguard isn’t enough for the ongoing threats.”
“But you’ve been fired. Why would you keep working for me without pay?” asked Jordan.
Jethro leaned closer to the camera. “Because Andrew pulled himself off your detail this morning. If he is claiming you as his girlfriend, we are too.”
“But we aren’t. I told him it won’t work.” The strong-woman persona was back. Jordan didn’t even blink.
“Nevertheless, we will sort this out,” said Jethro.
“How can you help if you’ve been fired?” Jordan looked to each person in the room.
