“I love you, Sam. I don’t know what I would have done if you pushed me away for good.”
I open my eyes and look into his soft green ones. “I love you, too, Tait. Thank you for coming after me. I should have told you what was going on. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“Good. Now, hurry up. We have to be down at the studio in an hour for a press conference. They want me to get a statement out there, and Rory is having Quinn put it together now.”
“They need me to come, too?”
He shakes his head. “No, but I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“How’s she doing, by the way? I haven’t really been in contact with anyone from the set. It was just easier that way.”
“Not good. I wish Caleb would get his head out of his arse and talk to her. They haven’t spoken since he sent her home. Both of them need some time to get things sorted out. But if he doesn’t talk with her soon, I’m sure Elena is going to kick his arse.”
We finish our shower, get dressed, and head out. There are a few paparazzi waiting outside his place. They happily snap a few pictures of us and yell out questions that we both ignore. The drive is short, and as we pull up outside the studio, my heart starts racing.
“Maybe I should just stay in the car. I’m not exactly welcome here right now.”
“Sam, you’re with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He extends his hand for me to take. I look at it and then up at him, believing everything he says. I know he would do anything to keep me safe.Is it possible to be this head over heels with someone so fast?I take his hand and step out of the car. He intertwines his fingers with mine as we walk through the front door.
Rose is standing there waiting for us, and I want to curl into a little ball and disappear when I see her. Her eyes open wide, her red lips parting a little before she closes her mouth and clears her throat. I pull back on Tait’s hand, trying to get away, but he holds on tighter. I feel like I’m under a microscope as her eyes bore into mine. Tait looks at me and runs his finger along my jaw, turning my head toward him.
“You’re fine. Don’t worry about her. I’ll keep you safe,” he whispers. I nod and he kisses my cheek.
“Mr. Flanigan, thank you for coming by. Please follow me this way, Mr. Bradshaw is waiting for you.”
She leads us down the hall into Mr. Bradshaw’s office. He walks out from behind his desk to greet us as she closes the door behind us.
“Mr. Flanigan, Ms. Riggs, so glad you both are able to join me today. Please, have a seat.” He motions toward the small table with a few chairs around it. We sit and he continues. “You obviously know why you are here. I just want to get the story. This supposedscandaldoesn’t bode well for the studio and the image we want to portray. Just tell me what happened. I want the truth. Is it legit?”
I keep my hands in my lap and find a small ball of lint on the table to stare at as Tait begins.
“Yes, the contract was stupidly drawn up, but if you look at the pictures, you’ll see that it’s unsigned. I became attracted to Sam and wanted a way to protect her if we did anything. She’s an extremely hard worker, and I don’t think it’s fair you let her go over this. She didn’t do anything wrong. This was all my doing.” I look up at him and offer a small smile of thanks. “So, you see, we really didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not signed, and there is no contract in place,” Tait finishes.
“Was there ever a signed contract? Was it filed? Is there any way it could become public and bite us in the ass?” Kevin asks.
“Yeah, it was signed at one point, but no, it was never filed. However, when Sam had to leave set unexpectedly before filming ended, she wrote me a letter in which she told me the contract was null and void. The man who released the pictures was blackmailing her with partial information.”
“Is this true, Sam? Was this contract being used against you as blackmail?”
I look up at Kevin and square my shoulders. “Yes. It was my ex-boyfriend that released the information.”
“Why?”
I take a deep breath and hold Tait’s hand in mine. “He did it because he didn’t want me to be with Tait. He thought Tait was going to use me and toss me aside like others he’s been with. He said he was doing this to protect me. Ben is really the one that’s bad for me though.”
“All right, well, I believe Rory told me a press release was in the works already to smooth this whole thing over. I think it’s best to keep a low profile for the next few days and then we’ll take it from there. The person who released this story, you said he was your ex?”
“Yes. Ben Riley. Trust me, I have no reason to be seeing him again.”
“Good. I’ll take care of it. I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this. I know Rose called you the other day to let you go. I hope there are no hard feelings. We had to do what was best at the time for the studio. After this story, the paparazzi will have a field day with you.”
That’s right, I still don’t have a job.I had been so caught in my in mini Tait vacation that I didn’t even think about that. I try my best not to sound too upset. “I understand the position this must have put you in. She made it clear that the studio has to be protected. No hard feelings.”
“Per the contract, I believe Tait was going to arrange for you to shadow some directors. Is that correct?” Kevin asks.
“Yes.”
“I would like to help you and set you up with an apprenticeship of sorts. You’ll get the opportunity to work with people in all aspects of the crew.” My eyes light up, and I smile from ear to ear.Did I just hear him correctly?“The one stipulation is there will be no more contracts with Tait.”
