The Insiders by Tijan

FORTY-SEVEN

We were a public relations nightmare.

That much was obvious from how the publicist looked stressed. Instead of worrying about Cyclone and Seraphina sneaking in to eavesdrop, the entire group had transferred to a Phoenix Tech building downtown a few days later. Matt was deemed healthy enough to travel, and so here we were. We were around a conference table. My father. Kash. Matt. My mother. Even Marie. The only adult not present was Quinn. Peter was there to speak for her, and she had a luncheon to attend.

I’d started to zone out anytime someone mentioned where Quinn went. She was either doing charities or she was at a luncheon about a charity.

I honestly felt it was an excuse for wealthy socialite women to socialize, gossip, and wine.

I mean, I would have, if I was built that way.

I wasn’t. I was glad where I was, and in that moment, I was sitting between Matt on my right and Chrissy on my left.

When we came into the room, Kash had gone somewhere else to speak with someone. He’d slipped in just moments after the publicist team marched in.

The head lady was a shorter woman, blond hair in a blow-out framing a round face, eyeglasses perched high on her nose, and makeup on point. She was maybe around five three, with a more muscular build. She wasn’t petite, but she wasn’t overweight. She was solid, and as she went right to the front of the conference table, I saw her calf muscles.

The woman worked out in her spare time.

I was inspired by her. Slightly.

The rest of her team followed at a more sedate pace. A lanky guy with glasses, brown hair. Another two younger women, maybe a few years older than me. They were eyeing Matt, but also sending a few furtive looks to Peter as well. Matt was the only one who winked back, getting a sly grin in return. An older woman was with them, but she stood in the back with a stern face. Matt accidentally included her in his wink, and I swear he got a small growl back from the woman.

I liked her already.

I was also scared of her.

The older woman gave Kash an evil side-eye when he came in, but he gave her no attention. He walked to the end of the table and took a seat. He and Peter sat on the other side, three chairs between them. Just after, introductions were made. The head publicist was named Martha. The guy was Colin. Sly-grin girl was Coral. The other one was named Mia. Older publicist woman was named Poppy.

I really liked her now. Poppy. What a name.

Still scared, though.

She and Marie exchanged a heated look, extending into a stare-off, until somehow both slowly edged their heads up. A shared look of respect passed between them.

Chrissy was eyeing everything, like me. One eyebrow slightly raised, chin down as if no one knew what we were doing, and half turned toward the front of the room. Matt was still eyeing the sly girl but trying to get the other one to join in.

Glancing across the table, I saw faint amusement on Peter’s face as he watched my mother. Kash was not looking at anyone. His eyes were sharp, tired, and frustrated. They were trained on the windows behind Martha, but as if feeling my attention, they shifted to me. I felt a zap, like I always did when our gazes met. He gave me the slightest of grins before looking to Martha.

“Okay. Well.” Martha clasped her hands together, rubbing, those pink nails flashing together before she dropped them to her hips and braced her shoulders back. She stood up, a full inch from that gesture. “Let’s do this.” Her gaze swept over the entire table and her team. “We have multiple fires to extinguish here.”

She started with the smallest, reporting that a few articles were posted about the pending Bonham divorce proceedings. The guy moved fast.

She added, “But that story has not been linked to the smallest of our own pile.” Her eyes flicked to Matt and held. “Thanks to Mr. Colello’s employee at Naveah, no leaks came from the nightclub connecting Bonham’s appearance and Matt’s incident.”

Matt snorted at that. “Incident. Nice.” His mouth thinned. “I was poisoned. The fucker—”

“Matt.” A soft warning from Kash.

Matt swung his gaze over, and Kash met his with a not-so-soft glare.

A small breath out and Matt nodded. “Fine. Great.” His tone was biting, and he jerked his chair to face forward, noticeably not in Kash’s direction.

Peter was looking between the two, his eyebrows furrowed with a small amount of concern, but he didn’t say anything.

Chrissy, on the other hand—her hand shot up. “I have a question!” She was loud about it, too.

Martha was about to proceed, but paused. “Uh. Yes. Miss Hayes.”

“It’s Ms. Thank you.” Chrissy didn’t give her time to digest that. Her elbows rested on the table and she leaned forward. “What’s your plan of action when it comes out what Bonham did? Because it’s a matter of time. Court reports can be public, and I can see Bonham wanting that to happen, just to be a pain in the ass for Matthew.”

“Uh,” Martha said, “I will handle that when we get to that, but until then, the next biggest problem for us to cover is Matthew himself.” Her head clicked to the side, focusing on Matthew. “There’s a fair amount of stories focusing on your drug overdose at the club.” She glanced to Peter, then to Kash. “It’s not as many as there would’ve been without the other two stories breaking, but it’s enough to worry about.” She paused. “Enough where it could come back and bite Matthew or yourself in the rear.”

Peter nodded, straightening in his seat. “What are your suggestions?”

“Now, we have two other, bigger problems happening at the same time.” Her eyes lingered on me, then Kash. Her words were for Peter. “Your daughter and Mr. Colello.” Then she frowned, noting where I was sitting and where Kash was sitting. She coughed before proceeding. “There are images out there of the two touching—”

Kash’s gaze sharpened. “Excuse me?”

See. She’d been all gung-ho, hear me roar woman. Now, under Kash’s attention, hesitant little lamb. Made me feel all hot and bothered.

She cleared her throat again, glancing down, tapping the table with her nail before swinging her head back up. “There are pictures of you and Miss…” She glanced to me, then my mother. “Hayes.” A pause. “In an intimate setting.”

Oh God.

Matt was grinning at me.

Floor, pull me down. Let me melt and disappear.

“What pictures?” Kash’s voice was clipped.

She nodded to one of her staff members.

Joy. It was the sultry one.

She slid the pictures to Kash first. His jaw tightened, then he slid them toward me.

My mom leaned over to see.

“Whoa.” That was Matt.

“Honey.” That was my mom.

Me. I was dying. Again.

The picture must’ve been taken just as Torie stepped out of our private suite. She was to the side, moving away. The door was starting to swing closed, and Kash’s body was on top of mine. Our feet were entwined, and he was starting to sit up. A good amount of flesh was seen from just under him, along with my shirt pooled at my waist.

No boob or even side boob was showing. Hallelujah.

Still. I was embarrassed.

Kash was on his phone, and as it buzzed, he slid it over to me. I caught it, reading a text from Torie.

I’ll have security look, but maybe your girl could find them faster?

I typed back on his phone.

Kash: This is Bailey. I’ll look after this meeting.

Torie: Look now in case there’s more going out.

I sent him the phone back. The entire meeting was on hold, waiting for us. Kash read the text, then nodded to me. He stood up. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” Martha piped up, her eyes widening.

“Bailey’s tech skills are needed, and at the earliest.” He nodded to the photographs. “Those should’ve been brought to my attention the second you knew about them.”

“But—”

Peter stood, going to a corner of the room. He picked up a briefcase and brought it back, opening it again. “Excuse me, but I do think this will allow my daughter”—he paused, his eyes moving to me as he said that word—“to do what she’s going to be doing and we can all remain here.” He pulled out a laptop, opening it for me. “This meeting is needed, Kash. You should stay.”

I didn’t wait for Kash’s response. I was already up and moving around the table.

Peter was pulling out a mouse and a pair of headphones. I almost purred like a cat, and I was soon going at it.

I was trying not to focus on it, but I was having a moment. Again.

It was in the back of my mind. I was trying to push it back there, way back there, but I was on Peter Francis’s laptop. His personal laptop. The memory size alone had me blinking in shock, and the speed of his bandwidth—more melting moments for me. The good kind, the nerdy tech hacker kind. Plus, this guy had been my idol growing up. Finding out who he really was, how he’d been ignoring me, that put a damper on that, but there were years of history of idolatry there.

Years.

I could feel Chrissy’s attention on me, like a hawk, but I had to ignore her.

It was quick work to get into Naveah’s security feeds; Torie’s passcode helped. I just had to sift through their history. Some had been deleted. I was making a mental note to look where those disappeared to and who did that, but then I found our footage.

It was the same footage as the picture. There’d been no person there. Whoever released that image worked at Naveah.

“Thank God that other camera was turned off.” I dropped my voice low.

Kash nodded, his jaw rigid again. He peered over me to Peter. “Can you run accounts on your staff?” His eyes flicked to me, then to Peter.

I was pretty sure Kash was asking Peter to break the law. I could do it, look into bank statements of the club’s employees, but that wasn’t the bomb being dropped here. It was the fact that Peter owned the club. Though, was that really a shock? He owned the hotel Matt lived at, and I knew he owned a good amount of the city.

Peter nodded, his own jaw tightening. “I’ll make inquiries.” Without asking, he took the computer and he was off to work.

I was gawking. I was a stalker. I was a fan.

I was openly drooling over everything he was doing. Again. He was moving on his computer at a speed where I barely had time to identify what screen he was on before he was moving to the next. Then he was pulling up some dark web stuff, and I almost fainted right there.

Kash’s hand found my leg, and he anchored me to him.

I looked back and found him watching me, a small tug at his lip. Without thinking, I sagged against his side.

“Um…” Martha was talking.

I looked.

Everyone was watching us. Some were confused. Some were hostile (Chrissy, Sultry woman), and some were grinning. That was Matt and Marie. The gangly guy was perplexed. His bottom lip folded down and he was itching at his forehead, pushing his glasses up.

“As I was starting to say, I feel some of the fires can be extinguished by a joint interview with Matthew and Bailey.”

Peter paused on his typing, looking up. “Hmm?”

“What?” Matt barked.

“Yes.” This was the part she didn’t want to handle. Those shoulders squared back, and her whole demeanor of take-charge boss lady made more sense. She was going to push us to do something we didn’t want to do.

An interview? Me? With Matt?

Did she not know about the kidnapping attempt, or attempts, since Kash told me it had been the third?

I expected Peter to say something, but he only slid his eyes to Kash and gave a firm nod. This was Kash’s ballpark, and he wasted no time.

“No.”

“But—”

“No.” He was speaking clear and concise, but no heat. He was being kind to her, not barking like Matt. “There will be no interviews with Bailey. You will put out what you need to through lawsuits. Matthew can be interviewed, but there’ll be no mention of Bailey or his relation to her. You want help? Distract them. Give them something else to focus on other than Bailey, or myself.”

Her chin rose. “All due respect, we haven’t even gotten to the shit show of you.”

Oh. She had balls. Big hairy ones.

Kash’s eyes narrowed, but he opened them like normal just as quick. He didn’t raise his voice or change his demeanor.

“I am not your client. I’m not interested in having my ‘story’ being spun in any way. You want to take my grandfather on?” He waited.

She gulped. That gave her away.

He kept on. “I didn’t think so. Focus your energy on Matthew and trying to distract from Bailey as much as possible. We have one month before she’s to go to graduate school. I’d like a plan put in action that’ll slowly diminish curiosity about who she is.” He stopped, pausing on Matthew, and then he sighed. “Fuck. Give them Matthew.”

“What?” My brother’s head shot upright. He’d been slouching down in his seat, but also enjoying the back-and-forth around him.

Kash nodded. “Yes. Give them Bonham. The divorce. The affair. The poisoning.”

“Fuck you!” Matt’s chair was shoved back, and he was advancing on Kash. “Forget that. No way—”

“It’s a good idea.”

“Do it.”

He paused, halfway around the table. His body almost fell over from how abruptly he stopped. He went to Martha, who said the first, then to Peter, who added the second sentiment. Both were careful about their words, low but firm.

Martha was nodding at Kash. “If the focus is to pull attention away from Bailey, then you’re right. We need to use what we have.”

“Dad?” Matt’s jaw was on the floor, but it was the pain that had guilt pooling in my stomach. He braced himself on the table. “You can’t possibly be saying—”

Peter paused from the computer and turned to his son. “Think about your sister.”

Sister.

Jesus.

I didn’t know if I liked hearing that or … Warmth was next to the guilt, overtaking it. Almost. There was still guilt there, because Matt was shook. He was truly shook.

Peter kept on. “You’re not losing anything here. You’ve had gossip sites report on you for years. Your partying. Having an affair with a married woman is nothing new for you. They’ll find you were poisoned, not that you overdosed. You will get judgment, but also perhaps some sympathy at the same time. Or the very least, opinions will not have changed. You have never cared what the public thinks of you, so you will do this. You will help distract from the attention focused on your sister, because you need to remember the reason she came to us in the first place.”

Straight to the point. Damn. A not-so-subtle reminder of what I was guessing the PR team didn’t know about, based on their confusion now.

Understanding brought some color back to Matt’s face. “Oh. I see.” He glanced to me, embarrassment showing, then that cleared too. Resolve had him raising his head farther, and he nodded again. “Okay. Yes.” He said to Martha, “Use me. I can release texts from Amanda and any other sordid detail you’ll need.”

Martha was looking from Peter to me to Kash and to Matt. Back and forth. Her eyebrows firmly pinched downward. Then she came to a decision, and they smoothed out.

“Okay,” she said to Kash. “You are not our client. I was not aware. Good that I am now, and our most important priority is shielding Bailey. We can adjust to these parameters and do this. You’ll cooperate?” The last question was to Matt.

He nodded, his lips thinning once again. “I said I would.” But he wasn’t doing it happily. That was clear.

Martha turned to her team. “Okay. We can go and start moving on this.” Her gaze fell to Chrissy, and she faltered as her workers began leaving the room. “Unless there’s another matter we haven’t addressed?”

“There isn’t.” Peter spoke up before my mom could. He had gone back to his computer. “Bailey’s mother is here for her daughter. That is all.”

It was a nice dismissal, but I was sure there was an added sting being sent in my mother’s direction. Her eyes clouded over, so I was right, but Kash was standing. His hand on my wrist. He was pulling me with him, shaking his head when I looked up at him. He was warning me against getting between the two.

Matt was trailing behind the PR team, talking to the two girls.

Martha was moving ahead of us, so once we cleared the doors, we still didn’t say a word. Kash didn’t want my father’s PR team to learn anything more, but we did move to the elevator with them all.

I glanced back.

Chrissy was coming down the hallway with Marie, their heads together, talking in quiet tones.

The elevator opened. Kash waited as most of the publicists got on. Matt looked to remain once it was filled, but Martha stepped back and nodded to him. “You stay. Go with them. I’ll catch the next one.”

The door closed.

Marie and Chrissy joined us, and we were all silent. Waiting for another elevator to ping its arrival.

Once it did, Kash still didn’t go.

Marie and Chrissy moved around us, pausing as they stepped inside.

He said to Marie, “Take Bailey’s mother to the estate. We’ll be coming later.”

Martha was clearly hoping to go with us, but when he gave her a pointed look, she got on. Slapping a hand to hold the doors open, she lowered her voice. “I have been aware of who you are while I’ve worked for Peter Francis. I didn’t know all the details, and I’m impressed with how much you were able to keep quiet. But make no mistake. That time is gone, Mr. Colello. You are firmly, and I believe permanently, in the spotlight—your holdings with Phoenix Tech, who your grandfather is … and I have a feeling you have more you are attempting to hide. But you are not only a national interest but global as well. Governments are going to be interested in you. Do not put off moving on your public perception. You will be shocked how much it will help if we work with the press rather than against them.”

Those were her parting words before she stepped back.

The door closed between us and them.