“No. I’m starting to think Carlos is behind it himself.”
“That wouldn’t make sense.”
Terry shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
As if on cue, my phone rang.Carlos.
I groaned but picked it up. “I’m almost done,” I said.
“You’d better be. The guys from Rumble Productions want an answer by tomorrow morning.”
“You can give them the answer already. I’m not doing any of those.”
“Are you crazy? They’re offering twice the money we got from them last time.”
“I don’t want to work with them anymore. I’ll be stuck as an action dummy for the rest of my career.”
“I hate to break it to you, superstar, but you are an action dummy. Just because you fucked Paris isn’t going to change that. Acting talent isn’t an STD.”
I gritted my teeth. He was going way too far. “Allan Caspian doesn’t seem to agree with you.”
“You haven’t received any proposals from Caspian. I haven’t heard from him at all. You’re stuck with me, Lothair, so toe the line.”
And I had him. I winked at Terry, who eyed me over the edge of his coffee cup. “You’re wrong, Carlos.Youhaven’t received any proposals from him, but I have. He sent three pre-approved scripts directly to my house.”
That knocked the wind out of him.
“As your talent manager, I demand that any proposals go throughmyoffice.”
“Maybe Allan doesn’t find your office reliable anymore since you did nothing about the location leaks.”
“You ungrateful shit.”
Uh-oh. “I don’t think you’re supposed to talk to yourclient like this, Carlos. Unless you don’t want me to be your client anymore.”
“You’re going to regret this.”
The phone went silent.
I glanced at Terry, who’d been watching me from the sofa with raised eyebrows.
“I think I’ve just fired my manager.”
Terry grinned. “Good job. It was about time.”
With glee, I scooped up one of the piles of papers on my desk and dumped it into the wastebasket. “Bye-bye. I’ll email my lawyer about a contract termination. I used to think I’d be lost without Carlos, but now I feel kinda good about this.”
“I’m sure Paris can recommend someone far more capable.”
Was I being ungrateful? But my manager had already gotten filthy fucking rich thanks to my success. No, I didn’t owe Carlos anything.
I smiled at my mate. “Let’s go for a swim.”
Later in the afternoon,when Paris called me back and showed interest in thePhoenix Heistadaptation, I’d already served Carlos a contract termination. I was in a celebratory mood.
“Can we go out?”
Terry sighed. “Remember you and Paris agreed that we should keep a low profile for a few weeks.”
