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Axe-Rated Lumberjack

Page 74

by Annee Jones

Peyton had been looking forward to these.

She’d also been looking forward to spending Sunday with me, and I’d managed to ruin that before either of us got dressed for breakfast.

My phone rang while I was filling a glass of water.

Bridget’s name appeared on the screen.

“Hudson, I’ve just spoken with Oliver. First, I want you to know we’re taking the post down immediately. Nobody should’ve released your name or photograph, and I’m extremely sorry this happened.”

“Oliver said it was an internal campaign idea.”

“It was. We were considering possibilities after yesterday’s conversation, but nothing had been approved. Your existing agreement is very clear about publicity, and that hasn’t changed.”

“Then how did something that wasn’t approved wind up on your social media?”

“We’re checking exactly that now. Oliver’s working with the publicity department, and I’ve asked them to preserve the internal records so we can establish what happened. We’ll give you a proper explanation as soon as we’ve confirmed it.”

She sounded angry, although thankfully not with me.

“I appreciate that. I don’t want anyone getting away with blaming a computer glitch or some other nonsense.”

“Neither do I. Someone made a decision they weren’t authorized to make, and we need to know who and why.”

I liked Bridget’s answer. She wasn’t trying to convince me that what happened wasn’t serious.

“What about the people who’ve already seen it?” I asked. “My brother sent me the screenshot. There’s no telling how far it’s gone.”

“I can’t promise we’ll be able to retrieve every copy. I won’t insult you by pretending otherwise. What we can do is remove everything under our control, stop any further promotion, and make sure nobody at Folio uses your identity again without the permission your contract requires.”

“That would be a good start.”

“It’s the least we owe you. I’ll call again when I have the details.”

After we disconnected, I checked my messages.

There was another text from my brother, asking whether I’d started signing autographs yet. I could practically hear him laughing.

I sent a short reply explaining that I’d taken a temporary narration job and that the publicity wasn’t authorized. I asked him not to forward the screenshot.

He answered a minute later, apologizing and promising to keep it to himself.

That was one person dealt with, at least.

I sat at the kitchen table and thought about calling Peyton.

I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted another chance to talk to her, preferably without making an even bigger ass of myself.

But I still didn’t know the whole story, and she’d been right about one thing. I should’ve called Folio before accusing her.

I wasn’t going to make her listen to another round of questions while I waited for somebody else to confirm what she’d already told me.

Bridget called back a little over twenty minutes later, with Oliver joining us.

“We’ve identified what happened,” Oliver said. “The post came from our publicity intern, Eddie Vandyck. He’s twenty-three and recently joined the team. He was working with an internal promotional concept that included your legal name and a photograph obtained from a publicly available source.”

“Where’d he get my name?”

“It was included in the internal materials prepared after your original contract and yesterday’s discussion. Eddie mistook the proposed campaign for approved publicity. He published it without checking the authorization status.”