Absolutely Famous (11 page)

Chapter
17

beep beep beep beep

What the heck? I fumble around in the dark hotel room, trying to figure out what the hell is making that noise.

Ouch! Dammit!

I clutch my foot, having stubbed my toe on a piece of furniture. Armoire maybe?

Limping out into the living area, the blue glow of my iPhone lets me know where the noise is coming from.

beep beep beep beep

Has the thing lost its ever-loving mind? After Leah left yesterday afternoon, I passed out on the couch for a few hours, then did some work on
my laptop for Vertigo. Stupid jetlag kept me awake until almost 3am, and now it’s only… I check the time on my phone, 5am. Wonderful, two whole hours of sleep.

I snatch the phone off of the table and focus on the screen.

Google Alert
– Sydney Tannen

Google Alert
– Andrew Forrester

I freeze in place. What can it be? I didn’t go anywhere or do anything yesterday. Only to work and then lunch with Leah, which we didn’t even finish.

I should just go back to bed and look later. The thought of what could be on there makes me physically ill. I walk back to the bedroom with the phone and flop down onto the huge bed. I know I won’t be able to fall back asleep either way, so I may as well get it over with. New Sydney doesn’t care, right?

I click the link on my own name first and wait for the browser to connect. I see the name of the website and start freaking out. It’s the scary accurate one. The maybe-they’re-spying-on-me website. I swallow and click the link.

CelebCast
- www.celebcast.com – Tannen/Sydney

Sydney Tannen Doesn’t Want Andrew Forrester to know about Nightclub Tryst with Adam Reynolds

CelebCast has the exclusive inside story of the Sydney Tannen/ Andrew Forrester/ Adam Reynolds love triangle. A source in their inner circle tells us that Tannen is extremely upset that Forrester will react badly when he sees the photos of her and Reynolds together at club Low Rent in London the other night. She was frantically attempting to do middle of the night damage control with Forrester’s people to prevent him from getting the idea that she and Reynolds are a couple, which she adamantly denies.

Tannen claims she didn’t know that Reynolds was going to be at the club that night. Her good friend is dating actor Ryker Bancroft and Bancroft is supposedly the one who invited Reynolds to join them at Low Rent. Reynolds is currently writing the soundtrack for the second installment in Bancroft’s Quantum Stranger trilogy that is being filmed in London, which is how the two met.

The insider also tells CelebCast that Tannen is the one who decided to take time off from her and Forrester’s tumultuous relationship to try to adjust to life in the public eye after having remained out of sight for the last twelve years. His hot temper in the aftermath of the attempt on her life coupled with the extreme panic attacks that Tannen had been experiencing proved to be too much for her to handle.

We also know that Tannen will be in London for several months to head the remodel and relaunch of the Warren Hotel chain’s London nightclub. Tannen was the lead designer for the redesign of the hotel’s flagship location in New York City, where she created the impressive look for the new Verve nightclub. Vertigo, the sister location in London, is the next design venture for the young Sydney Tannen. Hopefully, the launch party for Vertigo goes better than the one for Verve. Although if things continue as they are, we can expect to see some interesting exchanges that night.

I’m speechless. I think I’m actually going to die of speechlessness. Is that possible? If it is then dig my grave and roll me in.

I’m being spied on. There’s no doubt in my mind anymore. Someone at this website is monitoring me. How else would they know so many accurate private details? Leah wouldn’t tell them, and she wasn’t even present for any of the conversations that I had with Drew that they got information from.

I look at my phone. Can they put a bug on my phone? I don’t know anything about any of this secret agent crap. I pry off the battery cover and pull it out. I don’t see any pieces that don’t belong. Shoving it back together I get out of bed and throw on some running clothes, a hat and my iPod. Two hours of sleep or not, I need to think and this is the only way I know how.

Drew would have a coronary if he knew I was going running by myself in a strange city at 5am. Come to think of it, he’s probably so mad at me right now; he wouldn’t give a crap if I fell into the Thames and floated out to the Atlantic Ocean.

I grab my keycard and slam the door behind me, eager to get the hell out of the confines of the room.

An hour later and I’m no closer to figuring anything out, so here I am at 6:30 in the morning, standing outside movie star Ryker Bancroft’s hotel suite like an idiot, pounding on the door with my fist. I don’t dare call Leah on my possibly tainted phone, so they don’t know that I’m the one making the racket.

An exhausted looking Leah opens the door and I shove her out of the way and shut it, flipping the locks and pulling the chain in place.

“What the heck?” she says sleepily.

“I’m being spied on, Leah. Like for real, honest to goodness listen
ing device in my phone spied on.” I begin pacing the dark room like a maniac.

“Who’s being spied on?” Ryker says from the bedroom door, wearing only a pair of tight blue boxer briefs.

I feel the heat stain my cheeks at his semi-nakedness and turn back to Leah. “Give me your phone,” I demand.

She looks a little freaked out, so she hurries past Ryker and returns quickly with her phone. I type in the
CelebCast
website and show it to her.

Leah pales, her eyes widening in surprise. Her mouth falls open and I can see her mind attempting to find a logical explanation for the article.

“Holy shit,” she whispers.

Ryker comes st
alking over, his usually playful eyes darkening. “Tell me what the hell is happening. Leah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He turns his sharp gaze to me. “And Syd, you look like shit. What are you looking at on the phone?”

Leah can barely make
the sounds loud enough to hear. “Someone is monitoring Sydney’s conversations and putting them on the internet.”

He laughs
. “Come on, no way!”

She grab
s his arm. “No, it’s true. Sydney told me other things that they’ve printed. It’s always just this one website and it’s always information from private conversations in private places.” Leah sticks her phone under his nose. “This! This is a discussion she had yesterday on the phone with someone while we were in her hotel suite. It was just the two of us. I didn’t tell anyone, she didn’t even leave the room after that. There’s no other explanation, Ry.”

He skims the article and hands her back the phone. Without another word he heads back into the bedroom. We can hear him make a phone call, his low voice barely audible from the living area. He storms back
into the room, having thrown on a pair of jeans and holds his hand out.

“Give me your phones,” he
demands.

“Why?” asks Leah.

Ryker’s normally boyish face is downright hostile looking, so I drop my phone into his hand. Leah doesn’t know what else to do so she hands her phone to him as well. He turns them both off, adds his own phone to the pile, walks into the kitchen and puts them into the freezer.

We must both be staring at him like he’s lost his mind so he explains
. “I called my lawyer in New York, that’s what he said to do. He’s sending someone to talk to us, a former MI6 agent who does private investigative work.” Ryker goes back into the kitchen and grabs a bottle of orange juice, drinking it straight from the bottle.

“Isn’t it 3am in New York?
” Leah questions.

“Yep. I pay him a lot,” Ryker says before leaning against the counter and drinking more juice.

“When is he going to be here?” I ask.

“I don’t know, maybe an hour? I
t isn’t even seven yet.”

“Cra
p, when is your call time today?” I say to him, forgetting that not everything revolves around me and my bottomless shitbag of problems.

“I’m off today,” he grins.

I turn back to Leah. “I think I’m going to go shower. I’ll be back in an hour.” I turn and whisper to Leah. “I also got the feeling that someone was following me on my run. You know, that creepy sixth sense I get?”

“Syd, this is getting out of control,” she says as she walks me to the door.
“You need to tell Drew.”

I shake my head.
“Just … just tell Ryker I really appreciate his help,” I murmur softly.

“Sydney,
Ryker’s shit is pretty similar to your shit, it’s just a different color. He has hordes, and I mean screaming hordes of women that follow him everywhere and try to tear his clothes off. Literally, tear his clothes off. Sometimes he doesn’t even want to go out.”

I give her a pathetic smile and head
back to my room to wait.

“
Your phones are clear and so are both of your suites,” the slender man sent by Ryker’s attorney says. “That means someone is carrying a recorder on their person, or planting it and removing it right away.”

Ryker and Leah are huddled on the couch, clutching cups of coffee in their hands. Adam is on the opposite couch next to me, drinking a cup of tea. Ryker called Adam and told him to get his ass over to the hotel ASAP, wanting him here in case he had any kind of surveillance on him. He didn’t. I, of course, am holding my giant cup of coffee like it’s my only hope for survival, which, at this point, it probably is.

“No one has been in the room with me,” I say.

“Then it’s someone on the hotel staff,”
former MI6 agent Wilson says, unbuttoning his suit jacket and leaning forward in his chair. He declined any food or drink we offered, instead scribbling notes on a small leather bound pad. He reminds me of the detective from the hospital after the attack. I shiver and clutch my coffee even tighter. Adam gives me a weird look out of the corner of his eye but doesn’t say anything.

“But I’ve been in three different hotels,” I whine. “They can’t have a spy in each hotel. It would be too coincidental.”

“There are no coincidences, Miss Tannen. If the articles you showed me all came the day after you had a private conversation in a hotel suite, then someone is taping you and removing the evidence that same day.”

“How do we catch them?” Leah asks. “That’s all I really care about. Getting the assholes that think it’s okay to invade people’s privacy and spill their secrets and personal problems for everyone to see.” Her tiny mouth curves down into a frown.

“I’ll have to get the equipment to give you, but basically you’re going to sweep your rooms every couple of hours until we catch them,” Wilson responds.

“Every couple of hours!” Ryker yells. “I can’t remember to do that!”

Leah puts her hand on his arm. “I’ll do it, don’t worry.” He smiles and kisses her, totally placated by Leah. At least someone is happy around here.

“I’m going to go then,” I say as I stand up. “Thanks for coming Agent, uh, Mr. Wilson.” He stands with me and shakes my hand. “I’ll stop by later to get the scanning thingy Leah
. Bye Ryker, Adam.” I turn to wave to Adam and find him following me to the door.

“I’m heading out too,” he says. “I really don’t think that anyone is bugging me. I’
m just not all that interesting.” Adam grins as we leave the suite.

I smile back.
“I don’t know,
CelebCast
seems to find you very interesting.”

“Yes, but only in reference to you it seems.” He leans a little closer and places
an arm on the wall next to me. Now that we’re in the hallway waiting for the elevator, he’s staring at me from under his thick black lashes.

This is the first time he’s worn short sleeves in front of me. I glance over and can see the rest of the mysterious tattoo that peeks out from his winter clothes. He has a beautiful, intricate black tribal design spiraling around one entire arm from his wrist to up inside his T-shirt. His tattoo, and his gorgeous face are only an inch from mine, it’s making it difficult to concentrate.

That tattoo is pretty freaking hot
.

I need to get out of here.

“Ummm, I’m only two flights down. So, uh, I’m just going to take the stairs.”

Humiliated, I squeeze past Adam and duck through the stairwell door, leaving him standing there alone, thinking I’m crazy. Or he’s thinking that he was affecting me, which he totally was.

I close the door to my suite and lock all of the latches. Running around the rooms, I check once more for anything out of place. After twenty minutes of searching and coming up empty, I allow myself to flop belly first onto the bed and sleep.

****