Page 72 of Hot Mess

“We have hot coffee in the kitchen. I’ve been on the phone all morning with your agent and their PR team for damage control. Come on down when you’re ready.”

I grunted. I didn’t think I would ever be ready for this.

I was supposed to be headed back to the shoot this morning. A day and a half ago I had just found out that Kayla had been getting blackmailed. The note with the pictures mentioned that she owed them more money or the pictures would be released. She knew how to contact them.

But she never got the latest messages. How long had this been going on?

I took a quick shower and got dressed before heading downstairs to Isaac’s office. He was on the phone, so I took a seat. It was a serious call; I could tell because he didn’t have it casually on speaker phone.

“Oh, hey, Nick is here. Can I put you on speaker?”

“Lori, I have Nick here. He’s been made aware of the situation,” Isaac in way of introductions.

“Hi, what’s your role in all of this?” I asked.

“Hi Nick. Sorry to meet you under these circumstances. I’m part of the PR team that Barbara May put on this. We would like it if you would make a statement. Our initial thoughts were a simple online statement would suffice, but when Isaac informed us that you had an investigator on retainer and there was a legal issue regarding a blackmail threat, well, we’ve had to change gears.”

“You don’t want me to make a statement?”

“We want you to hold a press conference. The team is crafting an opening statement, but we feel that an open and honest Q and A will stop the rumor mill in its tracks. We are in the process of getting the image pulled. But the internet is forever, and screenshots and downloads are beyond our reach.”

“Okay.” I ran my hand through my hair. “Fine, let's do it. When?”

“We can have something set up by this afternoon. Can we get the young lady from the photos to sit in?”

I stared at Isaac as he took notes. He leaned forward, as if the few extra inches would make her able to hear him better. “Unfortunately, we can’t do that.”

Lori made loud breathing noises through the phone. “Okay, I’ll see what we can do. Can we get a—”

“She is unavailable,” I interrupted.

“Okay, okay. I will get everything pulled together on my end. Isaac, I will have the details forwarded to you as soon as we have a location.”

“Thanks, Lori.” Isaac ended the call. He crossed his arms as he looked at me.

“I’ve already been in contact with that PI you hired. I hope he’s good. And I hope we can roast whoever did this to Kayla.”

I nodded. I did too. “Do you think this is why she wouldn’t call me back at first? I mean…” I closed my eyes and tilted my head back with a groan. This was all so fucked up and I didn’t have answers and —

“Fuck.”

“What?”

“Kayla! Oh God, she’s alone wherever she is and the pictures are out.”

“She probably went home.”

I stared at Isaac. “What?”

“She probably went home. Where else is she going to go? She was always talking about her mother.”

“Yeah.” He was right. “Her cousins are out here, but she didn’t seem to like them much. I want the plane ready to go as soon as this press conference is over. I need to call Steve and let him know I won’t be returning to the set today. That’s going to go over really well with Jeff.” This whole situation was just compounding into more and more problems with each passing minute.

“On it.” The speaker was ringing.

“Steve,” I said the second I heard it connect. “It’s Nick.”

“You are a person of interest around here this morning.”

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