Page 85 of Kissing Games
Her phone rang. It was her agent.
‘Hey, Cheryl, how’s it going?’
‘What the hell is going on over there? Did you know? And if you did, why didn’t you tell me?’
Valentina’s heart sank.What now?‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s happened?’
‘You filming at the cabin today?’
‘No, I don’t have any scenes there. Brad and Kirsten are there today I think. Why?’
Cheryl started laughing. ‘Oh, honey, you’ve just missed the show of the century. The Earl of Kinloch just went cray cray. He tried to kill Brad, threw him in the loch, then walked off with his arm around Kirsten.’
‘Is this a joke?’
Charlie opened the door and entered with Bandit. He looked at her quizzically. ‘Everything okay?’
She pulled a face and shrugged, putting her phone on speaker.
‘No, honey, for real,’ Cheryl continued. ‘It’s all over the internet and the entertainment channels. I just called around and the rumour on set is that the earl’s lost the plot because Brad’s been banging his mom.’ Charlie and Valentina looked at each other. ‘Can you get the deets for me, honey? I live for shit like this.’
‘Okay, I’ll call you back.’ Valentina ended the call and looked at Charlie. ‘Apparently Rory just went loco, threw Brad in the lake and went off with Kirsten.’
Charlie laughed. ‘The Brad bit I can believe, but Kirsten? He can’t stand her.’
‘And Brad and Rory’s mom?’
He hesitated. ‘They’ve been spending time together. But it’s still a bit of a stretch. Fire up your tablet and let’s see what’s going on.’
Less than a minute later, they were watching footage of Rory running down the hill by the cabin towards the loch, screaming that he was going to kill Brad. Brad was standing on a wooden pier, having just kissed someone with curly red hair. They knew it was Zoe, but Brad had insisted that Kirsten’s character look like her, so anyone who’d seen the press shots of Kirsten dressed as her character would have assumed Rory was with her, not Zoe.
Charlie blew out his cheeks. ‘Bloody hell, he’s done it now.’
‘Rory or Brad?’
‘Good question. I think I’d better find Barbara before Rory does.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘Back in a bit.’
28
Ten minutes after Charlie left, Valentina’s phone rang again with another call from her agent.
‘Hey, Cheryl. The Earl of Kinloch is actually with his girlfriend. Brad wanted Kirsten’s character to look like her.’
‘Ah, okay, honey.’ There was a pause. ‘Valentina, have you sent any private photos to anyone recently?’
‘Private photos?’ Valentina was at a loss. ‘Like what?’
‘Selfies mainly.’
‘Only to my sister. Why?’ Adrenaline rushed through her.
‘Is there any chance she would have sent them to anyone else?’
‘No. Absolutely not. Never. Why?’
Cheryl sighed. ‘I’ve just been called by one of the seedier paps. We’ve got about half an hour before fifty photos of you get dropped online.’
Her throat constricted. ‘What photos?’
