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“Something Laney also knows but apparently you don’t.”
Impatient now, I cleared my throat in an effort to keep from yelling at the little weasel. “Go on then. Fill me in.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but the deafening screams from the crowd of teeny boppers drowned him out as Laney announced Riley was about to come out for their duet. Great.
I rolled my shoulders while I waited for the singing to start, predicting they’d all hush their mouths if they wanted to hear a word of it. When the noise dimmed slightly, I waved a hand. “Well?”
“I told my client that this breakup isn’t permanent,” Jim said with a challenging lift to his pointy chin. “If any of you think this whole thing will be anything but another heavily orchestrated publicity stunt to sell more albums and tickets, you’re all idiots.”
I chuckled darkly. “Their breakup is permanent, and none of this is for publicity.”
“Oh yeah? Tell that to them,” he commanded with a wry smile and nod toward the dozens of paparazzi circling the crowd and stage. “We’ve got the scoop ready for them. Small-town girl heads home for her ten-year reunion; her mechanic ex-boyfriend fixes her car, taking just long enough for her to put on a show and make her question who she really loves. If that kind of rich-and-famous singer versus poor-blue-collar worker love triangle doesn’t say media gold mine, I don’t know what does.”
I swallowed. “That’s not— You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I? Do you believe any of the bigwigs at Legends are going to lose millions of dollars just because Laney Cole thinks she’s done being exactly who they’ve created her to be? Do you really think they’ll let her get out of her contracts that easily? You’re naïve to assume there’s any hope of a future between the two of you. It’s ridiculous.”
“What’s ridiculous is you standin’ here thinkin’ you have a say in the matter. This is what Laney wants, so this is how it’ll be. End of story.”
He snorted. “Like I said, you’re an idiot. Laney doesn’t get to have wants. The only thing she gets to do is what she’s told by the people who own her, and before you get any bright ideas about acting on that murderous rage I can read all over your face, remember that hitting me will only be an exciting addition to the narrative.”
Frowning, I looked over at the photographers closest to us who were watching us like they couldn’t decide if we were worthy of wasting room on their memory cards or if they’d be fools not to aim their cameras and be ready to take their shots.
“Laney will never go along with this,” I said, making sure the warning in my tone and body language were still easy as pie for him to read.
At this, he let out a laugh that reminded me of a villain in a Saturday morning cartoon. “She already has.”
“What?”
“I’ve already settled it all with Paisley. She’s off taking care of their side of things.” At my disbelieving smirk, Jim tried another angle. He stared past me and looked at the stage, his mouth twisting into a sneer. “Look at them. Do they look like the kind of people who’d risk everything to be true to themselves when they don’t even know who they are behind the curtain?”
Against my better judgment, I swiveled at the hips to see Laney and Riley sharing the same mic as they sang about how much they couldn’t wait for the night to be over so they could have some time alone. I cringed inwardly but kept my face even as I turned back around to this dirtbag.
“They look like they’re just playin’ a part,” I said with a shrug that wasn’t nearly as casual as I wanted it to be.
“That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said. They’re playing their parts because they don’t have a say in the matter. They’re smart enough to know they’d ruin more than just their own lives if they did anything else. Laney doesn’t want her poor choices to mean hundreds of people get laid off. She also doesn’t want to buy herself out of her contract, since it would undoubtedly drain whatever she’s saved throughout her career and leave her penniless. Not with a car mechanic in a small town as her only refuge, anyway.”
Each word he spoke landed like a separate blow to my gut, but still, I held firm to the Laney Cole I knew. The one who wouldn’t care about losing her fortune if it meant living the life she wanted to live. “She’ll help her people find work, and she doesn’t care about the money.”
“Easy for you to say, since you don’t have much. But Laney got used to living a much better life than the one she had here over the last six years, and despite whatever she says about being tired of it, she’ll never quit. This is nothing more than a detour. When the press gets ahold of the narrative we’ve prepared, she won’t have the guts—or even the inclination—to do anything to clear it up. She’ll just go back to Nashville and live her life as it was. Maybe even better, with a fresh bout of gossip lining each of our pockets.”
I didn’t want to believe this joker, but where was Paisley? Was she really off getting their version of this horse-manure story straight? And did Laney really know what was goin’ down?
“Won’t be long now,” Jim said as he checked his gold watch with a satisfied smile.
I turned back to the stage as Laney came off and the first notes of a Riley Conrad song began to play, surprised to find her chatting with Paisley. Where’d she come from? Their heads were bent together for what felt like ten years, then Laney drew back with tears in her eyes. My heart stuttered in my chest as resignation slid over her pretty face, then she grabbed a mic and headed for the stage again.
“She’s making a little announcement when this song is over,” Jim said, suddenly standing a lot closer to me than he’d been before. My gut churned as I watched Laney singing backup for Riley and smiling at the crowd.
“What announcement?” I asked, surprised my jaw had functioned well enough to even manage the words.
“That she and my nephew are getting married, of course.”
I whipped around to face him. “Your nephew?”
“Riley. He’s my idiot brother’s son. After he and his wife died in a car accident when the little brat was only ten years old, I was the only family he had left. Thankfully, he’s proved to be of some use to me, though. Surely, now you see why I’d never let your little Hallmark love story unfold and ruin everything.”
I turned back to the stage, every muscle in my body thrumming with the need to wallop this disgusting excuse for a man. No wonder Riley had looked so rough when I’d walked up. He’d seemed like such a good guy, and maybe he was, but in addition to that, he was also firmly under the thumb of a man who’d clearly abused him in one way or another for most of his life.
