Free Rumor Has It: A Bad Boy Romantic Comedy by Lila Moore Page A

on his own.
    “Do you understand?” Theo said. “I’m not going to ask you a third time.”
    “Ye- yes.”
    “And I’m not your brother. If you call me that again, I’ll throw you from the roof of this hotel. You get me?” Theo released him.
    “Guys, why don’t you take off for the day, eh? Jamie and I need some time alone,” he stammered.
    Louis’s entourage slowly filed out of the room; his PR team remained behind. It was at that moment Shonda walked in.
    “What’s going on?” she said. “You all look like you just found out your mothers are dead.”
    “We should get down to business,” Louis’s publicist said.
    “I need to talk to Louis alone first,” Theo said. He grabbed him by the back of the neck and forced him out of the room.
    “But, I- wait…” Louis protested, to no avail.
    Theo pushed him into one of the guest bedrooms and slammed the door shut behind him. There was a loud crash as if a piece of furniture was thrown at the wall followed by a second loud bang. We stared at each other awkwardly. Then the guest bedroom door opened and Louis emerged. His eye was swollen and his normally perfectly styled hair was a mess. His publicist’s mouth dropped open.
    “What did you do?” she demanded of Theo. “Don’t you know who he is?”
    “I know exactly who he is,” Theo said with an edge to his voice that made his words sound more like an insult that a compliment.
    “Then you know how he makes his living. He can’t have bruising on his face! Couldn’t you have punched him in the stomach?”
    “Hey!” Louis protested. “Or you could have just not hit me at all, y’know?”
    Theo turned to him causing Louis to jump behind his publicist for protection. He looked like a little boy hiding behind his mommy’s skirts.
    “I don’t see how it matters. I mean, he saved Jamie’s life, right?” Shonda said drily. “He’s bound to have a couple of bruises after fighting off her attacker.”
    “Of course. And that’s exactly how we’ll spin it. Understood?” his publicist replied.
    There was a not-so-subtle warning in her voice. If we didn’t stick to the story, she’d make us pay. I didn’t doubt her threat for a second. She represented some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. She didn’t get to where she was by making idle threats.
    “So, I hear you want to go with a new angle: ‘Jamie King Bad Girl’?” the publicist said blandly. “I don’t like it. She needs to be a victim.”
    “No,” Shonda said. “She’s a survivor.”
    “A victim is better. If she’s seen as a bad girl, then it’s implied she can take care of herself. Louis has to be her savior.”
    I rolled my eyes. “How are we going to explain the nude photos?”
    The publicist shrugged. “She sent them to her boyfriend- Louis . We’ll leak to the press that his phone was hacked. We’ll say how deeply upset we are at this attempt to re-victimize Jamie. It’s disgusting. The photos were an intimate moment between two lovers and not meant to be shared with the world. Blah, blah… They’re deeply in love. We’re greatly offended… You get the idea.”
    “That doesn’t work for me,” Shonda said.
    Her phone beeped. She glanced at the screen then showed it to Theo. He immediately turned and left the room. I started to follow after him. He pulled me aside out of earshot of the fight brewing in the living room.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said. He opened the door and looked down the hallway. “Connor is here. You can trust him. He’s going to stay by your side until I come back.”
    “When will you be back? Where are you going?”
    “I need to check something out.”
    “What happened? What did Shonda show you?”
    “The website that published your nude photos-”
    “Gossip Guru.”
    “Right. Well, they’re claiming they didn’t pay for the photos. They said they were sent to them anonymously.”
    “What? That’s bullshit. No one leaks photos of celebrities for free. What’s the point if