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“What are you doing here?” she gasped as I patted her back, frantically shaking her head when Naomi appeared and raised a hand to help. “No fucking way. You’ll break my ribs. I just survived the hell my old car put me through. I’m not going down because you broke my back trying to help me clear the water from my lungs.”
Not offended in the slightest, Naomi snickered. “Fair enough. I’ll leave you guys to it.”
“Do you have a minute, baby?” I asked, still rubbing her back even though she’d stopped coughing.
Her worried gaze searched my face. “Of course. Do you want to go to the office?”
Once we were in there, surrounded by hair magazines neatly organized in piles with Post-its on them, boxes of samples, and whatever else they’d put in here, I pulled her down on my lap and buried my face in her neck.
“Kortni went on Ask Anita—the talk show—this morning. She repeated the bullshit she spewed on the other show and got tears and snot everywhere when she said you refused to talk to her and how she’d been a victim, too.” Her body stiffened, but she didn’t say anything. “She says she’s even been offered a book deal and is going to outline everything in it.”
“That bitch,” she hissed. “I’ll shove that book as far up her ass as I can get it.”
“It gets worse.”
Jumping up from my lap, she started pacing. “Worse? How much worse can it get?”
“She took photos of y’all on the show and said she’s chosen five to go in the book.”
I’d fully expected her to scream or shout, but instead, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and hit the screen. Putting it on speakerphone, she sat back on my lap and held it up in front of her face.
“Jacinda, is everything okay?” I’d been to enough Bandara family meals to recognize Giselle’s voice.
“No, it’s not.”
Outlining everything I’d just told her, she stayed quiet as Giselle asked me questions about it, and I tried to remember all of the details from the show.
“That’s about it,” I sighed at the end. “I was too pissed to write things down and memorize all of it.”
“No problems. It was on television, so we can watch it online. And you definitely didn’t consent to Kortni using photos of you or anything like that, Jacinda?”
“Like I’d do that,” she snorted humorlessly. “I’d rather masturbate with an armadillo.”
“Gross,” I muttered, just as Giselle made a choking noise.
“Okay, leave it with me, and I’ll find out who the publisher is. I’ll also contact the show and issue a cease and desist. Hopefully it’ll be enough for them not to allow her to do that again if they have her back for a follow-up.”
Jacinda was just about to say something, when there was a knock at the door, and Cynthia popped her head around it.
“Uh, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might want to see this,” she said as she came in. Passing her phone to us to look at, she stood back while we read what was on the screen.
My girl growled. “Uh, Giselle, you might want to get moving on that, and I might have the contact details of the agent and editor dealing with Kortni’s bullshit.”
“Tell me.”
“They’ve contacted Ned Dahl, the governor, for his side of the story, as well as his nephew’s, because they both helped me after it happened.”
Giselle’s laughter lifted the mood in the room.
“Do me a favor, tell him to forward you the details of his lawyer, and we’ll both respond at the same time. That was a stupid move to make, contacting the freaking governor.” There was a pause, then she gasped, “Wait, the governor of Texas?”
“That’s my dad,” Cyn told her, looking questioningly at us.
“Oh, shit, sorry. Cyn, this is Giselle, my sister’s girlfriend. Giselle, this firecracker is Ned Dahl’s eldest daughter, Cynthia.”
“Small world, innit?” Cyn snickered. “I’ve texted Dad to ask him for the details.”
“Here, give him mine,” Giselle offered, then reeled off her details and email address, as Cyn frantically typed the information on her phone.
Once she was done, a sinister smile crossed her face. “I looked up what Dad was talking about before I came in here, and she’s messed with the wrong woman. Friends don’t like it when bitches mess with their girls.”
“I’m more than a friend,” Giselle told her. “I’m a lawyer, but most importantly, I’m family. I’m taking it Jacinda’s close to your family, so there’s no way Kortni’s going to get what she thinks out of this shit.”
Can smiled wickedly. “I think I love the sound of that, and I just know Dad and Aidan will, too. Kortni bitch can bring it.”
It was funny, I’d walked in feeling like I was going to explode. But after thirty minutes, I was relaxed, safe in the knowledge that some people were going to make shit difficult for Kortni, her editor, the publisher, and the agent responsible.
