Everyone turned to see Laney standing in the doorway, the receptionist standing next to her. Wearing yoga pants and a long shirt with her platinum hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, she looked more sorority sister than country music’s newest sweetheart.
“I’m sorry to barge in, but Marla told me what was going on and I couldn’t stay out of it, as much as I want to.” She focused her attention on Rowan. “I thought I had no choice. Brett has pictures of me, from when we were dating.”
“You dated Brett?” Luke asked.
“For a few weeks, right after I was signed. I won’t go into the gory details, but I broke it off. Except he had taken some pictures of me while I was asleep one night and he’s held them over my head since. The night of the gala he said if I got you in a position where someone could take pictures of us kissing, he would delete the pictures. If not, he’d put them online.” Her voice broke and tears escaped her bottom lashes. “I’m so sorry. He’s been threatening me with those pictures for the past two years and I thought this was my chance to finally get rid of him for good, but he lied. No big surprise there.” She huffed out a self-deprecating laugh and shook her head.
“Those are serious accusations, Laney,” a deep voice said from behind them.
Rowan jumped, forgetting there was another person in the room.
“I know, Mr. Doll,” Laney said.
“Do you have copies of these pictures?” he asked.
Laney shook her head. “They’re on his phone though. He showed them to me again the night of the gala.”
“Samantha?” Mr. Doll called.
The receptionist poked her head around the corner of the door. “Yes, Mr. Doll?”
“Is Brett in the building?” he asked.
“I’ll find out,” she said, disappearing from the doorway.
“Why don’t we all have a seat and try to figure this out?” Mr. Doll gestured to the table.
