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‘Get you.’

‘I’m an expert at my job now,’ I reply proudly – of course, I know there’s still more that I don’t know than that I do.

‘Speaking of work, I need you later.’

‘What’s up?’ I reply.

‘I might have a bit of a… PR crisis, shall we say, that I need you to deal with.’

My heart sinks.

‘Already?’ I reply in disbelief.

He wipes sweat from his brow.

‘Yeah,’ he confirms. ‘Can you come and see me later? We can talk about it then.’

‘Is it serious?’ I ask.

Jamie gives me a smile that does nothing to reassure me.

‘Maybe… maybe not…’

Wonderful.

‘Okay, I can meet you,’ I say. ‘When?’

‘I’ll message you,’ he tells me. ‘But let’s just keep this between us for now, yeah?’

‘Okay,’ I say again.

Lord have mercy – we’ve been here less than twenty-four hours, what trouble could he be in already?

‘I’d better get back, before Smith has me swimming laps of the ocean,’ he says.

I laugh, for now, but we’ll see how funny things seem later, when I find out what he’s done.

21

My mind is all over the place, wondering what Jamie’s PR crisis could be. Has he had a scrap in a bar? Has he sold secret tactics to the opposition? Has he had a threesome? Well, I don’t know, do I? My imagination is in overdrive.

Trouble to Jamie is like a flame to a moth – he can’t seem to keep away, no matter how dangerous it may be. He gets away with it sometimes, because he’s good-looking, talented and charming, but if he’s coming to me for help then, my God, what chaos is he creating now? The only relief I have is that it’s nothing to do with Eddy, because I’m sure Eddy would have told me by now… right?

I meet him outside the hotel, as instructed, but Jamie isn’t there – instead, there’s a car waiting for me.

There’s a driver standing beside it holding a sign with my name on. I stare at it long enough to tip him off.

‘Brooke York?’ he asks.

‘Er… yeah?’ I reply.

He smiles politely.

‘Mr Royle has asked me to take you to him,’ he replies.

‘Oh… okay… sure.’

Well, what else can I say?