The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy #1) - Tijan Page 0,106

Kash and gave a firm nod. This was Kash’s ballpark, and he wasted no time.

“No.”

“But—”

“No.” He was speaking clear and concise, but no heat. He was being kind to her, not barking like Matt. “There will be no interviews with Bailey. You will put out what you need to through lawsuits. Matthew can be interviewed, but there’ll be no mention of Bailey or his relation to her. You want help? Distract them. Give them something else to focus on other than Bailey, or myself.”

Her chin rose. “All due respect, we haven’t even gotten to the shit show of you.”

Oh. She had balls. Big hairy ones.

Kash’s eyes narrowed, but he opened them like normal just as quick. He didn’t raise his voice or change his demeanor.

“I am not your client. I’m not interested in having my ‘story’ being spun in any way. You want to take my grandfather on?” He waited.

She gulped. That gave her away.

He kept on. “I didn’t think so. Focus your energy on Matthew and trying to distract from Bailey as much as possible. We have one month before she’s to go to graduate school. I’d like a plan put in action that’ll slowly diminish curiosity about who she is.” He stopped, pausing on Matthew, and then he sighed. “Fuck. Give them Matthew.”

“What?” My brother’s head shot upright. He’d been slouching down in his seat, but also enjoying the back-and-forth around him.

Kash nodded. “Yes. Give them Bonham. The divorce. The affair. The poisoning.”

“Fuck you!” Matt’s chair was shoved back, and he was advancing on Kash. “Forget that. No way—”

“It’s a good idea.”

“Do it.”

He paused, halfway around the table. His body almost fell over from how abruptly he stopped. He went to Martha, who said the first, then to Peter, who added the second sentiment. Both were careful about their words, low but firm.

Martha was nodding at Kash. “If the focus is to pull attention away from Bailey, then you’re right. We need to use what we have.”

“Dad?” Matt’s jaw was on the floor, but it was the pain that had guilt pooling in my stomach. He braced himself on the table. “You can’t possibly be saying—”

Peter paused from the computer and turned to his son. “Think about your sister.”

Sister.

Jesus.

I didn’t know if I liked hearing that or … Warmth was next to the guilt, overtaking it. Almost. There was still guilt there, because Matt was shook. He was truly shook.

Peter kept on. “You’re not losing anything here. You’ve had gossip sites report on you for years. Your partying. Having an affair with a married woman is nothing new for you. They’ll find you were poisoned, not that you overdosed. You will get judgment, but also perhaps some sympathy at the same time. Or the very least, opinions will not have changed. You have never cared what the public thinks of you, so you will do this. You will help distract from the attention focused on your sister, because you need to remember the reason she came to us in the first place.”

Straight to the point. Damn. A not-so-subtle reminder of what I was guessing the PR team didn’t know about, based on their confusion now.

Understanding brought some color back to Matt’s face. “Oh. I see.” He glanced to me, embarrassment showing, then that cleared too. Resolve had him raising his head farther, and he nodded again. “Okay. Yes.” He said to Martha, “Use me. I can release texts from Amanda and any other sordid detail you’ll need.”

Martha was looking from Peter to me to Kash and to Matt. Back and forth. Her eyebrows firmly pinched downward. Then she came to a decision, and they smoothed out.

“Okay,” she said to Kash. “You are not our client. I was not aware. Good that I am now, and our most important priority is shielding Bailey. We can adjust to these parameters and do this. You’ll cooperate?” The last question was to Matt.

He nodded, his lips thinning once again. “I said I would.” But he wasn’t doing it happily. That was clear.

Martha turned to her team. “Okay. We can go and start moving on this.” Her gaze fell to Chrissy, and she faltered as her workers began leaving the room. “Unless there’s another matter we haven’t addressed?”

“There isn’t.” Peter spoke up before my mom could. He had gone back to his computer. “Bailey’s mother is here for her daughter. That is all.”

It was a nice dismissal, but I was sure there was an added sting being sent in my mother’s direction. Her