Bombshell (Hollywood A-List #1)(51)

“Of course!” Ray said.

“I took her phone away for a week,” Kendall said with finality.

“Did she tell you to go f*ck yourself?”

I even flinched from my filterless comment, but Ray laughed.

Kendall didn’t look amused.

“She’ll live,” Ray said. “My lovely bride-to-be might not.” He put his arm around Kendall, and she pushed him off playfully, but without any real humor. She was mad. Willow must have sparked quite a row. I could only imagine the screaming, and Jedi hiding in his room with his Legos.

“I think you’ll be fine,” I said. “I honestly . . . I don’t know what you want out of me. I’ve never gone to the press with any kid’s problem.”

“We were worried,” Kendall said.

“Not really,” Ray interrupted.

“You didn’t work for us when you saw her. The NDA didn’t cover incidents after we terminated you.”

“Oh, Kendie,” Ray said, exasperated. “You don’t get it.”

“Look, this is business, honey.”

“Yes and no. Mostly no.”

She flipped her wrist at him and her bracelets bangled.

“There’s money involved,” Kendall insisted. “It’s business.”

“It’s more complicated—”

“You didn’t have her sign anything to earn the severance.”

“You guys are making me nuts,” I broke in. “Can we get to the point?”

Kendall leaned back and crossed her arms, her body language deferring the entire matter to her husband, who looked as if he now wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

“Just say whatever it is, Ray,” I said. “I won’t walk out. I’m hungry.”

Ray put his elbows on the table. His cuffs hiked to show off a thick gold bracelet I hadn’t seen before. It was no more than another stylish bauble, but it reminded me how much money and power he had. How many connections.

“Willow’s young, and her mistakes can follow her for a long time.”

“You know I’m not going to start calling people.”

“Maybe not now. But if something else happens and it goes public, people are going to come to you for background. She’s not covered with this incident. Legally, you could talk and we don’t want that.”

It was my turn to lean back and cross my arms. How many ways could I tell this guy I wasn’t going to hurt Willow?

“So,” he said, pulling an envelope from his inside pocket. “In here is an agreement to not disclose what happened and where you saw her. It’s the same NDA, give or take, as you signed when you were hired.”

I took the envelope. I could sign it just so these two could sleep at night. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to say anything anyway. I opened the envelope. Ray picked a pen out of his inside pocket.

“And if you sign it,” Kendall said, “it’s ten thousand for you.”

I didn’t know why I found that aggravating.

No. Once I froze in place with my hand out for the pen, I figured out why every hair on my body stood on end. The payoff implied I’d ever hold insider information about a child over that child’s head. It questioned the very basics of my integrity.

I closed the envelope.

“I don’t want your money,” I said, sliding the envelope to Ray. “And I’m not signing it. I’d never, ever hurt Willow. And thank you, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

I left, walking right out the back as if there wasn’t a pack of paparazzi waiting for me. I didn’t care. Maybe they were going to say I was storming out because Ray and I were having an affair. Sure. Why not? Let them see me. Let them think what they wanted.

Apparently, Ray didn’t care either because he caught up to me right inside the door.

“Cara, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

I just wanted to get away from him. He represented a failure I couldn’t control, and he was a passive-aggressive sad sack. I didn’t know how he managed to run an office staff of dozens, much less a household staff you could count on one hand.

“We really miss you,” he said.

“Say ‘hi’ to the kids for me.”

The ma?tre d’ held the door open for me. The dog pack was shouting to Wanda Cravitz, who was doing a three-point turn and waving before coming in for lunch.

“There’s no one like you,” Ray said from behind me. I looked back at him.

“You trying to get in my pants?”

He smiled at the joke I wouldn’t have made when I worked with him. It made me wish I’d lightened up a little when I was in his house.

“We thought about hiring you back.”

If I could have chosen my feelings, “hopeful” wouldn’t have been on the list, but that was how I felt. The door might not have been open wide, but it was ajar, or unlocked maybe. The Heywood house had been an enviable job, and if Kendall was on board, all the better. I assumed I knew what the obstacle was. I could crush it.

“I’m only with Brad a limited time.”

“I had to put the kibosh on it when pictures came across my desk this morning.”

Forty thousand pictures came across his desk in a day. One of them had to do with me. I gripped the shoulder strap on my bag so tightly my knuckles went white.