it wasn’t kindly and Skye felt herself shiver. “Don’t you remember our contract? The one you signed when I discovered you in New York City?”
“I do, and I remember the no-nudity clause in it,” Skye shot back.
“Then you also must remember the lifetime agency rights you granted me. Lifetime. I own you, Skye. Forever. So pull up your big girl panties, or should I say pull them down?”
Anger and fear coursed through her, but she wouldn’t back down. “No. I refuse and I’ll challenge you in court to break the contract. You taught me that, Jim. That every contract can be renegotiated.”
“Not this one, so you better get used to it. I’m done with your princess attitude. You’re twenty-nine years old. You’re aging out of these roles and into motherly ones. I’m going to milk you for every penny until you’re all used up and there isn’t anything you can do about it. I own you, Skye Jessamine. Down to the trademark I have on your name for merchandising. You’re taking that role and I don’t want to hear a single word about it or I will blacklist you faster than you can blink.”
“Don’t you threaten me,” Skye shot back at him.
Lenny held up his hands and stepped toward them. “Okay, okay. Let’s take a deep breath, everyone. No more threats. We’ll table this conversation until later, but the reason I’m here is just that. Threats.”
Skye’s stomach plummeted even further to the point she was nauseous. There was nothing that scared her more than what she feared Lenny was about to tell her.
“Another one?” she asked and Karri wrapped her arm around her.
Lenny nodded. “And this one wasn’t mailed to me like the others.”
Skye had layers of security to protect her privacy. To get to her, someone had to get through Jim’s secretary, Jim, Lenny, and then Karri. Only then would the phone get handed over to Skye or the email sent to her private account. Jim and Lenny had her private information, but for the general public to reach her, that was the protocol.
She’d gotten her first threat three days after Trent left. It had been mailed to Lenny’s home. Someone had tracked him down and he was shaken. They all were. The message itself wasn’t ominous, just the fact that it had been mailed directly to Lenny. The message was from a diehard fan. He wanted to meet her. They’d gotten tens of thousands of these kinds of letters sent to her PR firm. After they were all read by agency staff, the threats were taken out and the rest were sent to Lenny. He’d read them and filter out any that worried him. Then he gave the rest to Karri to review before they finally made their way to Skye. She loved her fans and wrote back to as many as she could.
However, this one was a little different. It was a fan letter, but it had given them all a bad feeling. Then, once a month a new one arrived.
“How did you get it?” Karri asked as she squeezed Skye’s hand.
Lenny looked to Jim who nodded. “It was attached to your gate.”
Skye gasped and leaned into Karri. The unknown fan had been too close to her. “I need to hire private security.”
Lenny nodded. “I’m on it. I’ll have candidates here tomorrow morning for us to interview, but everyone who is anyone here uses Star Power.”
Skye reached out and took Lenny’s hand. “Thank you, Lenny.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Let’s get this threat taken care of and get you safe. Then we can all sit down and read through this Tony Ketron script and see what we can do. Everything is negotiable. Right, Jim?” Lenny stared him down and Skye felt some relief at having someone on her side, even though she was not going to take this role whether hell froze over or not.
“I’m sorry, Skye. I got carried away. This puts everything in perspective. Your safety is paramount. We will discuss it later this week. Do you want us to stay with you tonight?” Jim asked and while Skye knew he would push this movie, here was the Jim she’d known for the past eight years.
“We’re okay, thank you. I think I just want to lock everything up tight and go to bed.”
Lenny hugged her and promised to let the neighborhood security know. Jim even hugged her. “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to do my job.”