Chapter 16

“Who did you say looked at this contract before you signed it, pumpkin?” Tasha’s dad asked her as she wheeled him out of the Neuro Centre for some fresh air before dinner. He was looking through her talent management contract with Nick and his management company, looking for loopholes, at her request.

The last week had been an emotional rollercoaster for Tasha, not only because of what happened with Nick but because her dad was finally FINALLY starting to return to his old self and beginning to heal. It was nothing short of a miracle.

During the days she spent as much time with her father as she could: visiting, performing in front of him and his friends in the Neuro wing with her guitar while they had lunch, telling him stories about the people she’d met in Malibu. They’d even started making plans for his future.

She did try to keep her personal problems to herself. Her dad didn’t need to hear about how stupid and used she felt after her confrontation with Nick. He didn’t need to know that since that night, she hadn’t slept peacefully, with the thought of seeing him again approaching quicker than she had any control over.

She shook her wayward thoughts and went back to the question at hand. They were turning into the park attached to the cluster of buildings and she was thankful the weather had cleared up in time.

“It was Uncle Joe, Dad,” Tasha confirmed, mentioning the name of one of her dad’s best friends who was a genius at contract law. “I faxed it to him the same night I got it.”

“And what did he say?”

“Outside of his notes there? That’s it’s a pretty standard agreement. The only thing non-standard about it is that instead of the usual ten percent that managers take, he’s taking five. And he’s put an end date for five years, at which point we can renegotiate terms.”

“And five years is non-standard?” Jeff asked, taking off his glasses and looking up at his daughter.

“No. Apparently, standard management contracts are two years long.” She stopped next to a small fountain in the middle of the park and adjusted the blanket around her dad’s legs. “Uncle Joe said that it seems like Nick is trying to protect me by keeping my contract so low and so long. So if I suddenly jump out onto the scene, all the money I earn is mine. And even if I don’t, he’s still obligated to try and find work for me and keep me earning.”

“Hmm.” He bit into the temple tips of his glasses and turned the page. “Why would he do that?”

Tasha shrugged. She’d stopped trying to understand why Nick did the things he did. She just wanted out of it. As she continued to walk them across the park, Tasha acknowledged that her anger made her irrational. She knew Nick had drafted a fair contract. But she didn’t know what she would do if she faced him again.

Did she want a music career so bad that she sacrificed her sanity by being around him?

“How about advances? He’s charging you zero interest?” Her dad’s question broke her away from her thoughts.

“Yes. And I start paying him only when I start earning over one hundred grand a year.”

“So everything he’s given you so far, the plane tickets, the new wardrobe, the free lodging, studio time...he’s paid for all of that and not charging you for anything until you start earning six figures?”

She nodded.

“What about that advance you got for the record deal? And winning the showcase?”

She had a sinking feeling she knew where this was headed. “He gave me the full amounts. For both.”

Jeff looked at his daughter and raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Either he’s the worst businessman in the history of the music industry or he’s genuinely after your best interests, pumpkin.”

She was afraid he going to say that. The last week had her looking at her contract backwards and forward for any indication of a loophole she can use to get out from under Nick’s nose. She grew up with a lawyer for a father so she knew how to sniff out badly drawn deals. But it was airtight. Unless she wanted to pay back everything he’d advanced so far as well as provide him payment of future earnings, she was locked to him and his management company for five years.

“Why don’t you tell me why you really want to break your contract?” Her dad said, turning around and putting a hand over hers.

Tasha sighed and gave him a helpless look as she sat next to him. “He’s just...he’s not who I expected. He changed. I don’t know if I could trust him.”

“With your career?”

“With me.”

He chuckled in understanding. “Then honey, the only advice I can give you is to take control: of your feelings and your career. If you want something, fight for it. He’s just a man after all.”

She turned up at him and smiled. “I totally forgot how brilliant you are, pops.”

He laughed and kissed the top of her head. She stood up and pushed him further into the garden pathway.

Walking in companionable silence for a few minutes, Tasha looked back at the last week that she spent with her dad. It was as if the last year never happened. Recovering quickly from his surgery, he was sitting up and alert in a matter of days. The abrasive personality that showed up in the beginning of his confinement last year seemed to have disappeared and it in its place was the easy going loving dad she grew up with.

Her extended stay was easier because she had her old dad back. But in a matter of hours, she was leaving Baltimore behind and going into the craziness that was Malibu and loose ends with Nick.

Not that they’d talked since he’d left.

JC and Leigh were the only people she communicated with and even then she refused to talk about Nick. They were concerned and she recognized that, but acknowledging their worry only increased the pain she felt at trusting him so quickly.

JC had given her a few songs to work on, arrangements she wanted to start recording before she headed back to California. He directed her to a studio he used when he was in town and challenged her to do four new arrangements on her own.

She was grateful for the distraction so she poured herself into creating new music. While she spent her days at the hospital, hanging with her dad, she spent her nights in the studio, fine tuning her music, finding her voice.

Nick’s boorish behaviour was just the push she needed to get to the next level of her creativity. She’d not only recorded and remixed four tracks but she’d also written three other songs that perfectly matched how she wanted her sound to be.

“I’m going to miss you, Dad,” she told him softly. “It’s been so good to have you back.”

He covered her hand with his. “You’ll be back in a few weeks. I promise not to change until then, my darling.”

She wiped the single tear that coursed down her cheek and smiled. “You promise to eat properly, okay? Don’t give Rose a hard time.”

“She insists a proper meal can be eaten with a spoon. Is it so hard to get a steak around here?”

They turned to a path that revealed a massive brightly lit tent. “Dad, before I go,” she started.

“Yes, pumpkin?”

“Happy birthday.”

At that, the tent opened up and out spilled people as familiar to him as his right arm. Friends and colleagues he hadn’t seen since he’d been confined at the Neuro Centre were coming out of the tent in droves and headed straight for them.

Music played from speakers and she could tell he was surprised at seeing the familiar smiling faces.

“Tasha, what---?”

“I wanted to make up for the birthdays I wasn’t here for.”

Jeff Callaghan wasn’t prone to displays of emotion but at that moment, he looked up at her with bright tearful eyes and smiled. “I love you, Natasha.”

She kissed the back of his hand, equally teary eyed. “Right back atcha, pops.”

*********

“You need to see this.”

Nick looked up from his laptop screen and was surprised to see Leigh in his office, especially since she’d made it a particular point to stop talking to him since he’d returned from Baltimore.

“I didn’t realize we were talking again.”

Her glower would’ve reduced a lesser man to tears. Nick decided to just clear his throat and look back at his laptop screen. “What is it, Leigh?”

She dropped a folded copy of the Washington Post on his keyboard. “What’s this?” he asked, seeing it turned to the Society column. “Gossip?”

“There’s a photo below the fold you might be interested in,” Leigh said quietly, her arms over her chest.

Nick turned over the page as he took a sip of his coffee and when he saw the photo Leigh was referring to, he almost choked.

The photo, which spanned all four columns of the paper, showed Tasha, in a fitted sweater smiling--BLUSHING--as a suited-up Ryan Gosling kissed the back of her hand. Looking on next to her were the smiling faces of the President and First Lady. Of the United States.

The photo caption read: “Up and coming singer makes a presidential impression at Johns Hopkins reception.”

“When was this? And why didn’t she tell me?” He looked up at Leigh accusingly. “Why didn’t YOU tell me?”

“The dinner was last night,” she responded coolly. “She threw a party for her dad. The President and First Lady were on the guest list. Didn’t you read my update this morning?”

Nick’s look remained impassive. He didn’t want to admit he hadn’t been able to concentrate on pretty much anything in the last week, when the enormity of what he’d done and said to Tasha sunk in. Mildly drunk on misery and tequila, it was easy for him to run his mouth and take out his anger on her. But in the light of day (and the excruciating pain of a morning-after hangover), his regrets knew no limits. He’d been vulnerable and confused but that was no excuse to say what he said.

“How did Gosling get on the list? And how does she know the President, for Christ’s sake?”

Leigh shrugged. “Read the article.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. Curt, short responses. Yep, Leigh was still angry.

She leaned over and jabbed her finger on the newsprint to emphasize her last statement. “Read.”

Nick looked down to the article that accompanied the photo.

Tasha (full name Tasha Callaghan), darling of rockers and pop music aficionados across the country, drew an admiring crowd during a private dinner hosted by the President and First Lady at the John Hopkins Hospital grounds on Tuesday. The dinner honored JJ Callaghan, the President’s former Chief Counsel and attended by Democratic Party A-list as well as visiting presidential supporters. It was said that the First Lady introduced Tasha to actor Ryan Gosling (pictured above) as “a friend of the family”.

Sources say that Tasha and Gosling enjoyed after party drinks at a local Baltimore pub together.

Tasha is currently featured in the Black Keys record “Under Pressure” and the rising R&B chart hit “Candlelight”, a collaboration with Bruno Mars. Gosling can be seen in the Oscar nominated “Ides of March”.

“Together?” Nick raised an eyebrow at the last line. “Who are these sources?”

“You’re missing the point, Nick.” Leigh pointed to the paper again. “Did you know that Tasha’s dad used to be the President’s Chief Counsel?”

He skimmed the paragraph again and frowned. “No.”

“We’ve already been getting calls and emails asking for comment. I’ve already told Tasha not to respond to anything.”

“Who’s been calling?” Nick asked, brows furrowed, his mind working through possible scenarios they needed to work through.

“US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly. Rolling Stone. The Enquirer. TMZ.” She then paused for effect. “New York Times AND Fox News.”

Nick’s brows furrowed even more. “Did you say New York Times? Why would they be interested in this story?”

“Politics combined with Hollywood is always a big seller.”

“What kind of piece are they doing?”

“Presidential celebrity supporters. And they want dirt. Especially Fox News.”

Nick absently rubbed the scruff on his face. “Jesus, they’re going to dig up everything aren’t they?”

“Potentially. What kind of dirt do you think they’ll find?”

“Not much outside of some research that Mike did for me in the beginning.” Nick’s eyes widened when he remembered. “No wait, there is something. Did she tell you about Belinda?”

Leigh was confused. “No. Who’s Belinda?”

Nick was already standing up and on the phone. “Mike, I need you in my office right now.” Not giving the other man a chance to respond, Nick put the phone down and turned to Leigh. “Where’s Tasha?”

“Her flight just left Baltimore. What’s going on?”

“What time is she arriving?”

Leigh looked at her watch. “In six hours, so four o’clock today. Wait, slow down, Nick, tell me what’s going on.”

“Tell Damon to take two of the security guys and pick her up from the airport. Is she flying commercial?”

“Yes.”

“Call the airport, request for a special pass so Damon and the guys meet her at the gate. They need to sneak her out using the loading dock. No paparazzo gets a photo of her until I talk to her.”

Leigh’s hands fell on her hips. “Aren’t you overdoing it just a tad?”

“No.”

“What do you know, Nick? You need to tell me so we can fix this.”

Nick bit the inside of his mouth, distracted. “There was a sex tape. Mike’s been working on burying it and taking it off the internet. I need to know if he was successful.”

“A sex tape?” Leigh practically screamed in his ear. “You knew this and you didn’t tell me?”

“It was confidential.”

“Is it you two?”

Nick whipped his head around. “What?”

“Is the tape of you two?”

“Jesus, of course not. It was something that happened to her five years ago.” Nick sat back down. All this stress was giving him a headache. “When I asked Mike to look into it, he found the damn video in a matter of hours. The press would probably find it sooner.”

“And since she’s getting A-List attention...political attention...we need to nip this in the bud.” Leigh was understanding now. “What do you want me to do?”

“Call Jeff Callaghan. That’s Tasha’s dad. He’ll know how far this whole Presidential connection goes. He’s in Johns Hopkins Neuro.”

Leigh nodded and turned to leave the room.

“And Leigh, after you talk to Tasha’s dad?”

She turned back to him. “Anything else Nick?”

He gave her a wry smile. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this but do you think you can try and get me the White House?”

**********

“I don’t care what he told you. I’m tired, I’m going to my room. Tell him I’ll talk to him at the photo shoot in the morning.”

Damon stared her down, dropping her bags on the foyer of the main building. “The boss issued direct orders, darlin’. And to be honest, your stink eye is nowhere near as effective as Nick firing my ass if I don’t get you to him right now.”

Tasha ran an exhausted hand over her face. “Does no one care that I need my sleep so I don’t scare the freakin’ photographer with my face in the morning?”

Truthfully, Tasha didn’t have the energy or the courage to deal with Nick face-to-face right now. She wanted her first contact with him after a week to be...well, under control. Drunk or not, he was right. They were adults, and if anything, they still needed to work together.

But that didn’t mean she won’t try her best to keep their interactions to a minimum.

“It’s okay, Damon. I got it from here. Can you put Tasha’s bags in her room?”

Tasha turned and saw Nick walk out of his office, his hands casually in his khakis trying to look relaxed. His eyes zeroed in on hers, making her step back. As ready as she thought she was for this first meeting, she was quite frankly breathless.

He looked tired, like he had suffered similar sleepless nights as she did. His hair was all over the place and she knew him well enough to conclude that he’d likely been pulling on it for hours.

Her heart did a traitorous tha-thump. He didn’t take his eyes off her for one second and it was unnerving.

She didn’t even notice that Damon left the foyer, but she was sure he wanted no part in the growing tense atmosphere.

“How was your flight?” he asked quietly, not moving, presumably waiting for her to not be spooked.

Straightening her stance, she looked up at him, hoping she seemed at least more composed than she felt.

Realizing she wasn’t going to answer him, he continued by saying “We need to talk.”

She shook her head. “Not tonight. I’m tired.” She was. Not only did she get back to her hotel in the wee hours of the morning, the anxiety at coming back to Malibu kept her awake all throughout her flight.

“We have a situation. Can we talk in my office? There’s--”

Tasha shook her head before he could finish. “Whatever it is, I’m sure you can handle it.” She turned and walked out of the foyer.

She heard his hurried footsteps behind her before she felt his hand grab her arm.

After a quick intake of breath, she turned. “Don’t,” she said sharply, shaking his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

He stepped back, his hands up. “I’m sorry. But we really need to talk. Right now.”

“What is it? At this point we don’t really have anything to say to each other. You’ve made that clear---”

“Your tapes,” he cut in grimly. “The press have your tapes.”

********

He wasn’t going to survive this meeting without blubbering like an idiot in front of Tasha, he was sure of it.

Seeing her for the first time since...well since that night he wanted to forget, Nick just couldn’t look away from her. She was fiercely angry and ice cold at the same time, yet her eyes gave him a look of hurt so deep it was almost enough to send him to his knees. It took all his willpower not to pull her to him and kiss the hurt away, but he knew he couldn’t do it. She deserved better than him and his haunted past.

Tasha collapsed on the leather chair next to his desk, looking panicked. As Leigh sat down next to her, JC looked puzzled at being called into this meeting.

“I’m not sure why I have to be here while you talk about Tasha’s new boytoy.” JC turned to Tasha and gave her a grin. “Well done, by the way. Gosling is a champ. Fist pump?”

Distracted, Tasha waved him away. “Not now, JC.” She turned to Nick. “You better start talking before I start freaking out.”

She was a little too pale for his liking. Nick picked up the phone on his desk and said, “Carson, get Tasha some tea right now.” Carson, Leigh’s skittish intern, was waiting at the reception desk. “And the rest of us some lattes.” Putting a hand over the receiver, Nick turned to Tasha. “Are you hungry? We should get some food in you. You probably haven’t eaten since you left Baltimore.”

“I could eat,” JC chimed in. “Can you get Carson to do a Whole Foods run?”

Leigh looked thoughtful. “Ooh, I love their quinoa and sweet potato salad. I’ll have that.”

“Kale chips for me,” JC said. “And maybe some of those acai smoothies you keep talking about, Nick.”

Nick looked thoughtful. “Yeah, we should get some of that. Tasha, you’re going to love those smoothies--”

“PEOPLE.” Tasha’s voice reverberated through the space, her icy frown making him pause. “Focus, goddammit. Nick, put the fucking phone down before I punch you in the balls.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Putting the receiver back on its cradle, he gave Leigh a glare for her loud cackle.

JC looked at Tasha adoringly. “Your potty mouth is such a turn on.”

Tasha didn’t have time for JC’s adoration, obviously. “How did the press get the tapes, Nick? You were supposed to take care of this.”

“We should backtrack.” He handed her the same copy of the Washington Post that Leigh had handed him earlier. “Have you seen this?”

Tasha looked over the photo and accompanying article and nodded. “Leigh sent me the online version before I left.”

“Is it true?”

She kept her gaze steady. “Which part?”

“All of it.”

Tasha leaned back and chewed on her lower lip, looking particularly adorable and thoughtful. “It’s true I was at a party with the President and the First Lady. And I met a lot of people last night. This isn’t a big deal.”

“Tasha, it was Ryan Gosling. And the President and the First Lady. You’re going to get A-list attention whether you think it’s a big deal or not.” Nick explained. “So did you? Have drinks with him after the party?”

The daggers that came out of her eyes made him lean back slightly. “I can’t see why that’s any of your business.”

“It’s my business because I’m your manager, Tasha.”

“You manage my music career, not my personal life.”

“Yes, your personal life, if it starts affecting your career.”

“It hasn’t.”

“Sex tapes, Tasha,” he said, practically screaming, frustrated at the direction this discussion was going.

“Enough, you two,” Leigh intervened, standing physically between them.

Tasha crossed her fingers over her chest and kept her eyes on Leigh, pointedly ignoring Nick. “You still have to tell me what this photo has to do with the press finding the tapes.”

JC’s surprised voice cut into the tension. “Hold the phone, did Nick just say sex tapes?”

“Shut up, JC,” Nick and Tasha said at the same time. Nick didn’t miss JC’s self-satisfied grin as he leaned back on his seat and watched everything unfold.

“After that photo surfaced, it was picked up by all the news outlets, blogs and tabloids. And because you are virtually an unknown in the Hollywood and political set, everyone’s trying to dig up as much information as they can.” Leigh smiled at Tasha. “Good news is you’ve been invited to play all sorts of gigs around the country now. Everyone wants you.”

“And the bad news?”

Nick gave her a wry smile. “At the risk of repeating myself, there is the issue of the tapes.”

Leigh turned to Nick and gave him a warning look. “I said ‘enough’. You two need to stop talking and let me finish.”

Nick frowned. He knew better than to piss Leigh off when she was making a point but it was his meeting, dammit.

“Nick told me about the tapes just after your flight took off this morning, Tash, because we both wanted to make sure we were prepared for whatever the press found. He also told me the story of what happened five years ago. That video that was online those years ago? Mike’s forensic team found it and gave Nick a copy. Approximately around the same time as you signed with him.”

Tasha gasped and turned to Nick accusingly. “You’ve had it all along? And you didn’t tell me?”

Nick bit the inside of his lip and refused to take the bait. Nothing he said at this point would make this discussion any shorter or his pulse beat any slower. Dammit, did he have to smell Tasha’s perfume all the way across the room?

“It didn’t take too long to find. Mike dug it up in a download site archive in a matter of hours. Although whatever your dad did to make it disappear seemed to have worked because it was the only server that had it. Mike made a very friendly call to owners of the server farm and bought out their entire archive. As of two weeks ago, those units were physically destroyed.”

JC crossed his legs and leaned forward. “And then what happened?”

“Then TMZ happened. Apparently, someone sent them a few clips, clearly from the same recording as your old video, alleged that it was you and that a porn site was releasing the ‘sex tape’ for download in three days for $8.99. Fox News and New York Times picked it up and now the clips have gone viral.”

Tasha struggled to keep a straight face.

“We don’t want you to think we don’t have your back, Tasha. We do. But this will get worse before it gets better, so we want you to be prepared. Nick and I came up with a gameplan.”

Leigh nodded to Nick.

“Our official stance is to deny it,” Nick announced. “We suspect that whoever is releasing this video is either out to blackmail you and your family, has some political beef against the President or just someone cashing in on a quick buck. I remember you told me that you’re the only one with physical copies of the tapes. Do you know where they are?”

Tasha nodded. “Yes. They’re in my safe deposit box in Baltimore.”

“When was the last time you checked?”

“Not since I first got back in the States last year.”

“Okay, when you get back to Baltimore, we need you to move it. Or burn it. Just make sure it’s somewhere close by and safe. We can’t risk it being all the way in Maryland.”

Tasha nodded in understanding.

“You have your Rolling Stone cover shoot and interview tomorrow. And a few more interviews scheduled for the rest of the week. Your official response is no comment. On anything: your connection with the First Family, Gosling, the video. We’ll need to keep people focused on the music, so they don’t forget.”

Leigh chimed in. “On the flip side, we want you to increase your social media presence. Tweet more, post a few more vids on YouTube, talk to your fans. We want people to know YOU, not what the press is spinning. JC tells me that you have a few songs you’ve recorded in Baltimore. Do you have them with you?”

Tasha nodded. JC smiled at her. “I’ve heard them, they’re beautifully done, Tash.”

Nick cut in. “In the meantime, the label’s lawyers have filed, as of an hour ago, a cease and desist order to all the sites that have the clips on their servers as well as the production company who’s releasing the video. That will give us some time to sort out who it came from and if it’s the real deal. Mike is on the case and he’ll let us know in a day or two what happened.”

Nick paused to see if Tasha was still listening. She looked deep in thought.

“We also had to call your dad.”

That got her attention quickly. “You what?”

“We needed to tell him about this since his White House connection may be exploited, as well as get more information about his connection with the President.”

“Did you...did you tell him everything?”

Nick nodded. “He asked me if it was about the tapes from years ago and I said yes. I also told him we wanted to protect you so we need as much information before we plan our attack.”

Her head fell to her hands in desperation. “Oh my God, not again. I can’t believe you did that. This is going to kill him.”

“Tasha, baby, give your dad some credit. He was the one who came up with the plan.”

“DON’T call me that,” she said firmly, looking Nick straight in the eye. “And what do you mean he came up with the plan?”

“After he briefed us with what his team did five years ago, he also told us that he still had affidavits and a signed testimony from Belinda releasing any claim on the tapes as well as admitting that all her copies of the recording were destroyed. He also said that if it turned out that she was behind this, this means she lied in court documents and faces jail time.”

Leigh added, “And if it wasn’t her, then it’s plain and simple ‘pirates’ who must’ve gotten their hands on these tapes somewhere and they can get prosecuted because technically these tapes were stolen from you, the sole owner.”

“So what’s the plan then?”

“The lawyers will go full on attack mode and find who’s distributing the tapes. Once we figure out motive, we’ll bury them in legal proceedings, they wouldn’t come up for air for years.”

“That sounds like a lot of money, Nick. I can’t afford a court battle like that---”

“No it’s fine. We fight things like these at the label all the time. It’s par for the course in the music business.” Nick gave her a half-smile. “There’s also a clause on my contract with you to make sure I keep your image the way you want it. If the label didn’t do it, I would’ve fought it on my own.”

“Right now, Tash,” Leigh said hesitantly, “We wanted to show you the clips that leaked to the press. Is that okay? If you’re doing the Rolling Stone interview tomorrow, you need to know what they know.”

Tasha turned a deep shade of red and Nick thought it was adorable. God he needed a drink.

“I don’t think we should watch it here,” she said quietly, with a sidelong glance at Nick. “Maybe if you send me a link...”

Nick shook his head. “We had some questions to ask you. Can you play it now, Leigh?”

As Leigh turned on the big screen at the far wall, JC remarked, “Do you think it’s too late to get Carson to go get us some popcorn? I never watch home videos without it.”

Tasha put a hand on JC’s knee, to signal him to stop talking. She was obviously more affected than she wanted to admit and JC’s off-the-cuff remarks were starting to annoy her.

Nick saw JC’s hand cover hers in a gesture meant to comfort. JC may be an inappropriate bastard but he was still here for moral support. She trusted him.

There was a noticeable tightening in Nick’s chest when he thought that just a week ago, she trusted him too.

*********

Tasha hung onto JC’s hand like it was her lifeline.

First of all, even though they were only showing two thirty-second clips, seeing herself on screen so bare like that, especially in the same room as Nick, made her want to disappear.

Secondly, she’d forgotten how vivid that footage was, and how incredibly foolish. Unlike most people’s videos that are shrouded in darkness, this one was shot with bright sunlight streaming through their hotel room. No detail was hidden, even her soul felt naked.

Lastly, Tasha could feel Nick’s eyes on her the whole time, observing, gauging her reaction, taking in every single flutter of her lashes, the deepening creases of her brow.

Leigh turned off the TV and the room was thrust into silence. It was obvious that they were all waiting for Tasha to speak, but she was still trying to get over the fact that this actually happened.

“Ooh boy, that was hot.” JC said shaking his head. “No disrespect, Tash, but if this singing thing doesn’t work out, you’ll make MILLIONS in the porn industry.”

“You’re not helping at all, JC,” Leigh said with a frown. “Tash? You okay?”

She breathed in, deeply. “Give me a minute.”

Nick cleared his throat. “Leigh and I agree that there weren’t any solid shots that showed your face in full, only sideways and the back of your head.” He paused. “Would you be comfortable saying ‘no comment’ to the press?”

Tasha knew Nick fidgeted when he was uncomfortable. This time was no exception. In this instance, though, she noticed him playing with the band on his left hand. His wedding ring, she realized. Of course he was still wearing it.

Nick saw where she was looking and immediately took his hands off the desk. “You can sleep on it if you want. We can talk again in the morning.”

“No, it’s fine. If our official position is no comment, then no comment it is. I took some acting classes in university. I can handle one interview.” Her conviction was strong, even though her voice didn’t seem to sound like it.

She looked up at Nick again, this time straightening to sit taller. “But I want to be informed immediately when your lawyers find out exactly what’s going on. I don’t imagine Dad’s happy this is being dredged up again and I don’t want to cause him undue grief for too long. He’s still recovering from surgery after all.”

Nick nodded. “Your dad already has his lawyers working on investigating this as well as some help from the President’s legal team. We’re going to sniff this idiot out in the next twenty-four hours if I have anything to say about it.”

She looked surprised. “I don’t want any of them involved, Nick. It’s bad enough---”

Nick shook his head. “We’re all in this together, Tasha. All of us. We want what’s best for you and right now, you need to trust us to do our jobs.”

His gaze seared through her and for a second, her heart seemed to leap off her chest. “In the meantime, when I find those assholes that dared to hurt you, I promise they won’t live long enough to do it again. You have my word.”