TWENTY-FOUR
ZANE SLID AN ARM around her to guide her through the portico. They met Roxie and Zairn in the living room on this side of the kitchen. Zairn was at the bar.
“Are you both okay?” she asked.
Roxie gestured her over to pull her down on the couch. “Z is mixing drinks, we’ll be fine with a little of his elixir.”
“I didn’t eat much.”
“Oh, don’t worry about getting crazy, my Casanova has seen everything.”
And Zane?
Hubbub rose in volume from around the front door. Thankfully, it didn’t come their way. It carried through the house, getting a little quieter before rising again outside at the front of the building. A sliding door was open, but they could only see the corner of the terrace.
“Guy loves a stage,” she murmured.
“I know, right?” Roxie asked, her head swinging toward her fiancé. “Isn’t this the part of the conversation where you remind me to cut him some slack?”
“Lola, it’s taking all my restraint not to go out there and throw the damn guy into the ocean. Good riddance. I’ll do the fucking time.”
“He’s usually not like this,” Roxie said, threading their fingers together. “He’s a very patient man.”
“Has to be to survive being with you,” Zane said, dropping onto the couch opposite theirs. On an exhale, his elbow met his knee, and his palm cupped his forehead. “This place is supposed to be a sanctuary.”
Zairn brought drinks to her and Roxie. Whatever the drink, it was good.
“Gin and It,” Roxie murmured and touched their glasses. “Good for every occasion.”
Magnus came striding in. “Let’s straighten this out.”
Who exactly was he appealing to…? Magnus fixated on Zairn during his walk back to the bar, then switched to Zane.
“What is it you’re waiting for?” Roxie asked.
“This is your cousin, Zane, you must want to help.”
Zairn snickered and continued pouring.
“We are helping, Magnus,” Zane said. “You invited the press. That wasn’t us, that was you.” Without the media’s presence, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. But they just had to show off, Roman just had to toot his own horn. Well done, guy, does that still seem like a smart move? “On top of that, there’s no cell signal or Wi-Fi accessible by them. It’s because of us…” Or more specifically Zane, “that right now, this is still under wraps.”
“Excellent!” Roxie declared, raising her glass. “So long as they never leave here, the world will never know. Perfect solution.”
The elder man seemed certain. “We can control this. We can. We call in a couple of favors—”
“We?” Zairn asked and bit into an olive.
“Yeah,” Zane said. “What is this we , Magnus? This isn’t an us problem.”
“He’s your cousin.”
“You said that already,” Zairn said, retrieving a bottle of Scotch. “Just what do you think he’s getting at.”
The men snickered, but it was Roxie who tapped her wrist. “He’s talking about the Colliers.”
“Yes!” Magnus leaped on that revelation like he would a life raft. “The Colliers. You have influence, you have pull—”
“Not we anymore? Because you know they’ll never do this. Why would they waste professional capital on a lost cause?”
“He is not a lost cause,” Magnus snapped at Zairn. Interesting choice of action given he wanted the man’s help. Maybe he’d momentarily forgotten that because he quickly pulled back. “Roman needs help. He needs understanding—”
“Rehab and a psych workup,” Zairn said. “We won’t call the Colliers. We will send him to rehab.”
Again. She sighed. It would only work if he wanted it. Hadn’t they figured that out yet?
“If he goes back to rehab, he loses the role. This whole trip will have been for nothing. He’s heartbroken, not high. His sobriety—”
“Collapsed on a private island away from all regular temptations. You really think he’ll keep it together on the continent? Hell, the group is supposed to be leaving for Honolulu tomorrow, what do you think will happen there?”
“We should keep Deacon here.”
“He won’t want to be here,” Roxie said. “Sway’s in Honolulu.”
“Shit,” Zane exhaled. It sounded like maybe Magnus did the same. “So it’s a shitshow waiting to happen.”
“He won’t stay away from her.”
“We can call,” Zairn said. “Keep her concealed or fly her back to LA.”
“She’s in Honolulu waiting for Deacon.”
“Doesn’t that mean even if you miraculously fix whatever happened today with the press, there’s just going to be a bigger, more public blowout tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” Roxie said. “That’s exactly what it means.”
“No, it doesn’t!”
“You’ve got to rein Roman in,” Zairn said. “If he won’t be handled, it’s a losing battle.”
“This role is everything.”
And in that plea, she read Magnus’s desperation too. People relied on Roman. Wasn’t that Struan’s point? A whole machine moved around the central cog of Roman Lowe. If only his nephew, his client, could see more than his indulgent excessive ego would allow.
“Who is best placed to make him see that?” she asked.
“Sway,” Roxie said. “If their relationship was as real as he’s making out, if there was that much love there.”
“You want to arrange a meet between them?” Zane asked. “On purpose?”
Magnus exhaled. “Let me go talk to him, he’ll have calmed down now.”
The guy went outside and they all looked at each other for a few seconds. Zairn’s set brow fixed on his fiancée.
“What?” Roxie asked, all innocence. “I’m not helping the guy. I just… say things out loud and they happen. It’s details, babe.”
“Getting Deacon out of his eye line would be a good start. Struan and Logan will have a better shot without him around.”
“Why doesn’t he know what’s good for him?” she asked the room. “He must see that screwing this up is a death sentence for his career.”
“Either he’s an idiot,” Roxie said, stroking the back of her hand still linked in Roxie’s other. “Or he really loved her. If you love like that and lose it…” Next time her new friend’s gaze met Zairn’s, his was much softer, much deeper. “You can’t find your balance without it.”
“Okay,” Zairn said, eating another olive before he spoke again. “You compare us to them one more time, I’m looking for the emergency hatch.”
Giving that couple their moment, she searched Zane. “Why did he think the Colliers would help? That’s the CollCom Colliers, right?”
“We’re close to them.”
“Their influence must only reach so far though. What about the contest winners? The staff who work here? Anyone could talk to anyone.”
“The Colliers—”
Roxie stopped talking when Magnus came in again, this time with Roman and Struan.
“Are you considering it?” Magnus asked. “Asking for their help? Knox’s bit of fluff, you’re friends with her, right?”
Roxie’s brows about shot off her head. “His bit of fluff?”
The moment Roxie set her feet on the floor to rise, Zairn materialized to curve an arm around her shoulders, holding her back against him.
“Easy, Lola. Whoa, girl,” he murmured before switching his offense to match his fiancée’s in addressing Magnus. “Knox is serious about Jane. You’re lucky he’s not here to hear what you just said.”
“Oh, he’ll know he said it,” Roxie proclaimed. “Because I’ll tell him. We won’t tell Jane of course, she’s too kindhearted to deserve pain, but there’s a good chance after I tell Knox he’ll set out to ruin you and your stupid, little show.”
“The tension’s ratcheting up again,” Struan said. “We just got him calmed down.”
“I’ll see her,” Roman said, like it was some big concession. “Sway, in Honolulu.”
And then what? All would be well?
“The press will likely be interviewing the staff and contest winners as we speak.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Magnus’s confidence was surprising. “They all signed NDAs.”
Damn, she’d signed one too. Not that she planned to go searching for an outlet interested in the story, but it wasn’t nice to be contractually silenced, protecting someone who wasn’t gracious or appreciative of the discretion.
“What about the releases?” Struan asked, sparking dread in Magnus’ eyes.
“Damn. Damn. Damn!”
“What about what releases?”
“Everyone had to sign a release,” Struan said. “Allowing footage shot or pictures taken to be used for marketing, advertisement, etc. It gave us the right to use anything shot in any way we wanted.”
“Oh, that’s right.” A glimmer from her first morning there flickered in her mind. “I didn’t sign that.”
Hope speared Magnus a few steps forward. “You didn’t?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “But does it matter? Won’t they just blur me out?”
“I didn’t sign a release,” Roxie said, holding Zairn’s forearm at her clavicle. “Neither did Casanova.”
“Isn’t this just a disgusting back-alley retreat,” Zane said and exhaled. “If you want to stop them using that footage—”
“We threaten them with a lawsuit.” Magnus’s energy skyrocketed. “Tell them our richest, most influential sponsors, will not comply with the footage being aired.”
That might be good for keeping Roman squeaky clean, but it did feel kind of underhanded.
“We won’t sue them,” Roxie said. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t have to sue them,” Magnus said, glee shimmering in his aura. “The threat will be enough. They know you’re connected to the Colliers, everyone on the planet knows that.” Uh, no, she hadn’t. Was Hollywood and celebrity always so Machiavellian? “This is good. This is good. The threat will be enough!”
“I’m not threatening anyone.” Roxie’s care-o-meter was registering pretty low, she couldn’t say hers was much different. “You overestimate how much we care about Roman’s career.”
“You care about the careers of others though,” Struan said. “His staff, the crew on the show, this is a juggernaut, you know that, it’s never about just one man’s livelihood.”
Roxie’s head fell back on Zairn in almost surrender.
“Don’t you have news to announce?” Magnus asked the couple. “Something we can tell the press to divert their attention to something else.”
“No,” Roxie said, unhooking Zairn’s arm to sit and snatch her glass from the end table. “We’re not doing that. Absolutely no way.”
“Agreed.” Zairn went back to the bar. “We won’t be a part of whatever BS you feed them. We won’t talk to them. Won’t out this… farce. But we won’t use our relationship to bolster your cause or disguise the truth, to raise up a man uninterested in raising up others.”
Or even maintaining the status quo. Roman didn’t know what was good for him, sure, but the expression “being one’s own worst enemy” had never been truer than it was with him.
Zane looked frayed. Tired. He dropped against the back of the couch, eyes closed. And just like Roxie and Zairn did with each other on instinct, she prioritized her man over everything else.
She sipped her drink and handed it off to Roxie, then offered a one-armed hug.
“Are you leaving?” Roxie asked, drinking from her glass and giving hers to Zairn as he joined her on the couch.
“We’ve done all we can do here.” She got up and went around the table to open both hands to Zane. “Will you take me home, please?”
Once there, she wouldn’t let him leave again. They could talk, make love, whatever he wanted, but she would not let Roman’s mess weigh on him any more than it already had. His kind heart brought everyone to that beautiful place, now he had to be worrying he’d damned them all.