Page 26 of Call Sign: King
“So? That’s between her and her old man.”
“Does Ryder know you take marriage vows so cavalierly? I’m surprised he lets you within fifty yards of me,” she teased.
“You don’t count. I’m not an idiot. The King would cut my balls off if I so much as look at you the wrong way.”
Everyone in the back of the limo laughed, bringing Khloe’s spirits up. She hated that Ryder had flown back to D.C. earlier that morning. She’d loved having him in Toronto for three days, but then the damn paparazzi had figured out what hotel she’d moved to and ruined it.
The sound of a phone ringing cut through the laughter. Ricky dug a cell out of his bag and glanced down.
“It’s Chase for you,” he said, holding her phone out to her.
She glanced out the window, trying to gauge how much time they had before arriving back at the Park Hyatt. Deciding she had enough time to chat, she took the call.
“Hi there. I’ve been wondering what’s been going on with you this week,” she said to her old friend.
“Hasn’t Ryder been keeping you up to speed?” he asked.
Khloe tried not to feel annoyed. “It must be bad. He only tells me when things are going well, otherwise he hides shit from me. He thinks he’s protecting me.”
“Then maybe I shouldn’t have called,” Chase admitted, telling Khloe she’d hit the nail on the head.
“Just spit it out. What’s going on that Ryder doesn’t want me to know about?”
Chase paused long enough to give Khloe time to look into Trevor’s eyes. His annoyance that Chase was going directly to her only amped up her aggravation at being left out of the loop.
“Our security team tracked down our leak.”
“Okay… that’s good, right?” she said, trying not to feel guilty that it was her fame that was causing a lot of inconvenience for some of her closest friends.
“Depends on how you look at it.”
Glancing around the back of the limo, it dawned on her that everyone, not just Trevor, knew something she didn’t know, which pissed her off even more.
“Is it someone I know?” she asked, pretty confident it wasn’t since she knew so few Black Light members outside her close-knit group of friends, the owners.
“Let’s change the subject,” Chase said. “When are you coming back to California? We want to have you for dinner.”
A feeling of dread invaded. “Bullshit. You thought Ryder had told me and called because you assumed I’d be upset, which tells me not only is it someone I know, but someone I trusted.”
Chase didn’t need to respond. Even Ricky’s face reflected pity and she hated it.
“Someone tell me!” she yelled, willing to take the truth from Chase or anyone riding in the limo with her.
It was Trevor who finally broke the news.
“It was Sandra, your old hair stylist.”
Khloe’s mind raced. She hadn’t worked with Sandra in over two years, but the women had been close at one time.
Closer than she was with most of the on-set studio staff.
Close enough for her to have a lot of intimate information about Khloe… and worse, Ryder.
For the first time since Kathleen O’Malley had broken the story wide open, Khloe felt the grip of paralyzing fear. Sandra had details that only her inner circle had.
“But she signed an NDA to work for the studio. She can’t talk about my private life,” Khloe argued, thinking through the implications of the news.
“Jaxson had his private detective pick her up and bring her to Runway where our lawyers and head of security were waiting with the proof she was the leak. Not only did she sign an NDA with the studio, but you vouched for her at Black Light. She signed an NDA here as well. We’ll drag her through court, but it won’t do much good. She’s already done interviews with Kathleen O’Malley and Good Morning America.”
