“Danny.” Cybele stretched her legs over the settee, posing more than sitting. Juliet had sat on it first, and then Cybele and Scout had sandwiched her between them. It made Juliet feel safe.
“You should be doing perfume launches, a beauty line,” Danny continued, not missing a beat. “If you’re willing to rep diet teas, I’ve got a connect at a company—”
“Mr. Peterson,” Cybele interrupted, stopping Danny cold. “I hold a decent amount of sway in this industry, wouldn’t you say? I’m not just talking modeling. I’ve been doing this gig for years. I’ve met a lot of people.”
Danny nodded eagerly. “Absolutely. You’ve been hustling and you’ve got star potential. If you sign with me, I’ll make you one.”
He’d walked right into the trap.
“Juliet is one of those special people I’ve met,” Cybele said. So far, Scout remained silent, simply observing. “She’s become an important friend.”
Danny looked between Juliet and Cybele, trying to figure out what to do with this information. “All my clients are VIPs, including Juliet. Actually, they’re more than that—they’re family.”
Juliet wanted to scream.
“And you know us girls.” Juliet could practically hear the smirk behind Cybele’s words. “We like to talk. My new friend Juliet was telling me about the contract you had her sign when she was only thirteen. You take fifty percent when the industry standard is twenty, right?”
Danny cleared his throat. “I mean, it’s a case-by-case basis. With Juliet, she needed a lot of work. I got her started. I mean, she wouldn’t book jobs if it weren’t for me—”
“That’s not true,” Juliet interrupted. “These days, all my jobs come throughmycontacts.”
He bared his teeth in an approximation of a smile. “I gave you that ten-thousand-dollar bonus, though, remember? Helped you out of a tough spot.” His smile widened. “Without me, you’d still be in Kansas.”
“Mississippi. And it wasn’t a bonus. It was a loan.”
“See?” He turned his forced smile on Cybele. “I go above and beyond for my clients.”
“A predatory loan,” Juliet clarified.
Cybele wore the coldest expression Juliet had ever seen. “Danny, do you know what happens to predators who abuse my friends?”
The jig was up.
Danny stilled in his seat. Cybele had just called him a predator, but to Juliet, he looked like prey. “Hold up. My contracts are legal. Juliet agreed to my terms of her own free will. Isn’t that right, Ms.Snodgrass?”
Oh, he couldn’t remember where Juliet was from, but he could remember her real last name, huh? The one he’d told her to change so casting agents wouldn’t laugh her out of the room. Of course he’d throw that in her face, try to prove he had the dirt on her, that he was the one in control.
Scout spoke for the first time, directing her words to Cybele and ignoring Danny completely. “It used to be that nothing much happened to predators. That’s why this guy was able to amass over thirty clients, all of them under twenty years old. Kids who don’t know better.”
“Now people don’t stand for that stuff anymore,” Cybele said, like she and Scout were doing some sort of call-and-response, a routine they’d practiced a hundred times before. “Even if it’s technically legal.”
Juliet had never felt more alive than in that moment, buttressed between these two women as they toyed with her tormentor.
“You see.” Cybele turned to face Danny squarely. He was balanced on the edge of his seat like he was about to make a run for it. “Me and her.” She gestured at Scout. “We operate a little bit ahead of the law, but eventually it always catches up. And the reason we invited you here is to offeryoua deal. You’re going to release Juliet from her Topflight contract and make the same offer to every other client who wants out. Any new clients you sign from this moment forward, you’ll take a fair twenty percent, sign them for three years, and give them the ability to leave with a thirty-day written notice.”
“Now why thefuckwould I—”
“And in exchange,” Cybele continued, unblinking in the face of Danny’s anger, “Scout and I and every single person we knowwon’tmake your life a living hell and run you and your business into the ground. Iwon’tpersonally tell every model, brand, designer, and outlet I work with that you take financial advantage of girls when they’re new and vulnerable.”
“And you’ll be stopping me from talking to every journalist I know,” Scout added, scratching at her nail polish, completely nonchalant, “which is a fairly long list.”
Danny turned pale. “You talk shit about me, that’s libel—”
“I’d only tell the truth.” Scout gave him a look so pitiful it was almost more insulting than her words. “The percentage you take, the length of your contracts, the age of your clients. I’ll let people draw their own conclusions. And people love to talk. It would open up a much-needed conversation about standard practices in an industry rife with abuse. Unfortunately, you probably wouldn’t work in entertainment again. The internet reallydoeslove to go all in.”
The only warning Danny gave was the tensing of his muscles right before he launched out of his chair. Juliet screamed and scrambled back, but Scout and Cybele didn’t flinch. In the blink of an eye, Scout reached inside her hot-pink jacket and slid out a handgun, raising it to Danny’s face as he loomed over them. She flipped the safety with a click.
Danny froze and stared down the barrel of the gun. It was a slim piece, almost dainty, but dark as iron and no less lethal.
