Chapter Eight
“Sophie!” Fernando hollered.
“Y-e-s?” came her reply moments later when she stepped into his office.
“I need you to reach out to a Sarah Stoll. You’re a female, so it should be less threatening coming from you. Tell her that you work for me and I’m interested in meeting with her to discuss a collaboration. Keep it nice and casual. If she asks how we found her, be vague but say through a family friend. I need this done ASAP, so prioritize this over everything else.”
“Andy, does this have something to do with Marie Lautner? You mentioned back in January that you wanted to do a collaboration with her. Did you find out who she really was?” Sophie asked, feeling uncomfortable with the vibes he was putting out.
“Yes. Don’t ask any more questions, and keep this between us. Arrange whatever meeting she wants. Just get this done. You can go now,” Fernando stated, returning to his work .
Stunned at his calm dismissal, Sophie turned on her heel and went to find contact information for a Sarah Stoll. The name was unique enough that she imagined it wouldn’t be hard to find. She was wrong. She couldn’t find her on the internet anywhere .
Weighing her options, she picked up the phone and dialed the private investigator on retainer with the company. “Caleb, hi, this is Sophie. I know you’re busy, but Mr. Santos asked me to reach out to Sarah Stoll, but I can’t find her contact information anywhere. Do you think you could use your contacts and hunt down her information for me? Yes, the sooner, the better. Thank you. I appreciate the help.”
She didn’t know why, but this whole thing made her very uncomfortable. Part of her hoped Caleb didn’t find the contact information either.
Three weeks later, she received an email from Caleb that stated Sarah Stoll lived with her husband, Eric, in Hickory Falls, Massachusetts. An address and cell phone number were included along with a short note that read,
Sophie,
This information was difficult to obtain. Someone went to great lengths to keep her hidden. My computer has since been hacked. It has been to the cleaner, and this correspondence should be clear of tags. Use this information with caution.
C.
Sophie stared at the computer screen for several minutes before picking up the phone and placing the call.
“Hello,” a confident female voice answered after two rings.
“Hello, Sarah. My name is Sophie. I work with Mr. Santos at FK Media Group. You may know him as Fernando Knight, the author who keeps grabbing at your coattails on the best-seller lists. ”
“Ah, yes. Mr. Knight. What can I do for you, Sophie?” Sarah asked from her end of the phone, capturing the attention of her husband, who was sitting beside her.
“Mr. Santos would like to meet with you to discuss a possible collaboration. Time and place are entirely up to you.”
“A collaboration? On a book?” Sarah asked, a little dumbstruck by this turn of events. Fernando Knight was one of the most famous mystery writers on the market, and he wanted to collaborate with her. Yeah, he had been off his game the last year, and she had risen to the top, but who knew how long that would last.
“I honestly am not privy to all the details. My job as his assistant was to reach out and set up a meeting,” Sophie answered honestly.
“Well, I’m going to have to think about this and talk to my husband. Sophie, do you mind sharing with me how you got my personal number? These conversations are usually handled by my publicist and legal team,” Sarah asked suspiciously.
“Mr. Santos said to tell you from a family friend. I assure you this is all above board. My phone number should have popped up on your caller ID, but I’m more than willing to give you my contact information. If you call this number, it will send you directly to me, not the company operator. I am the immediate assistant for Mr. Santos.”
“Okay. Thank you for the offer. Have a wonderful day,” Sarah said before disconnecting the call, without indicating whether she was interested in the meeting or not.
Feeling very uncomfortable with the events of the past few moments, Sophie decided to address the situation with Fernando immediately.
Knocking on the solid wood door separating their office, Sophie waited until she heard, “Come in,” before entering Fernando’s office .
“Got a minute?” she asked, standing before his massive wooden desk covered in papers.
“What do you need, Sophie?” he asked, not looking up from what he was typing.
“Did something happen over the holidays?” she asked, genuinely concerned.
That got his attention. His fingers paused over the keys, and his dark brown eyes met her stormy gray ones.
“No. Why do you ask?” His brows knitted together in confusion.
“Ever since I returned from vacation, you have seemed different.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know. Distant. Agitated. Short with me and others. Obsessed with your book rankings and Marie Lautner. She has bested you in the book rankings for over a year now, but this year, you are a little over the top with it. I thought you had put it aside, but now I learn you have been pulling strings to find out who she is. What is going on, Andy? Talk to me.” Sophie plopped down in the seat across from his, resting her arms on the surface of his desk, and leaned in expectantly.
Fernando sat back in his chair and ran a hand over the afternoon stubble on his chin. He didn’t want to talk about this, but if there was anyone he could discuss it with, it was Sophie. She wasn’t just his assistant; she was a friend. He trusted her.
“Okay, you’re right. I may be a little on edge. I have been trying to push it from my mind and focus on other things, but I think that is making the anxiety over the situation worse. You know how my brothers make a pact every year on New Year’s Eve?” he asked.
Sophie nodded, wondering if the yearly pact had something to do with his recent behavior.
“Well, Julio challenged us to face our biggest fear and go on an adventure. ”
“Oh. The only fear I know you have is of flying. Is that what has been bothering you so much these past few months? The thought that you were going to have to fly?” She didn’t understand how that was amounting to his irritability over the past three months, but she would hear him out.
“Yes and no. I don’t have time to figure out how to face my fear. I don’t have time to go on an adventure. There is more to it, but that is all I’m willing to share right now. There are movies that are in production. One of them is going way over budget. We have several series launching in the next few months, and the stats on advertising for those are not as good as I had hoped. And then there is Marie Lautner. I had hired several P.I.s to figure out who she was, and they all came back with no information, so I set the ball rolling on a possible acquisition of her publishing house. That might actually go through, but her contract happens to have a clause in it that, under the circumstances of a sale, she has the right to walk away with all the rights to her materials. It’s insane. As in, never been done. I got a look at the contract, and let’s just say I wish someone had set me up so well with my first publishing house.” Fernando ran both hands through his hair, alerting Sophie to his level of agitation.
“So that’s how you got her name. I have a feeling sharing that contract information before the sale was final wasn’t exactly legal. Are you still going to buy out the publishing company?”
“We’re still in negotiations. It turns out they are having some internal issues. They hired some middle managers who ran off some of their best people, and there is unrest in their ranks. Sarah is their meal ticket, so they are keeping her happy, but if they aren’t careful, she’ll walk. I don’t know that I want to take on rehabbing a dysfunctional company; that is more Gabriel and Anthony’s thing. I just want Sarah. ”
“So, why is this making you so grouchy? If the publishing house isn’t in top shape, doesn’t that make offering her a deal to switch to our publishing house easier?”
“It would, except I’m not supposed to know her identity. I’m not supposed to be able to make her an offer as all such communication is supposed to go through her publicist and lawyer, but if I did that, they would know that I got insider information on her. Enrique told me to treat her like I would treat Hannah and that her family is powerful and could possibly endanger my family, so now… I’m not sure what to do.”
Sophie sat back in her chair and just stared at him. “Fernando, for such a level-headed man, sometimes you make the dumbest decisions. If Enrique warned you off, why did you pursue this? Why did you ask me to call her and set up a meeting?”
“Because if she is the best and I can’t beat her, then I want her on my team. To do that, I need to talk to her,” he said defensively.
“But you got her information illegally. You looked at her contract illegally. And it sounds like you got all of that after your brother warned you. Your family would not be kind to a person who went snooping around on Hannah. How do you think her family is going to respond to you snooping around on Sarah when they went to such great lengths to protect her?” Sophie’s mind was spinning. She had asked their PI to get her contact information. She had made the phone call to arrange the meeting. If her family was dangerous, was she going to be implicated in this now? What about the safety of her own family?
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s just Enrique being dramatic. He can be that way sometimes. Did you set up a meeting with her yet?” he asked hopefully.
“No. She wasn’t expecting that call, and I’m not sure she was happy about it. She has my number. If she is interested, I assume she will reach out to us. If she doesn’t, I wouldn’t pursue this particular path any longer, Andy. I’m not sure it was a wise move to begin with. Trying a second time without permission would be straight-up foolish,” Sophie admonished.