Her Forbidden Millionaire

Chapter 7

The sun was still rising over Crimson City when Phoebe got out of bed in the morning. Lincoln was still sleeping peacefully as she began to get herself ready for work. She couldn’t believe how many of her own rules she’d broken in that one spectacular night. Sleeping with a client would surely get her fired too. She put the thoughts out of her head to finish getting herself together. There was no use in dwelling on something she’d already done, she might as well accept it and move forward.

After Phoebe got dressed, she went into the kitchen to make breakfast for Lincoln and herself. It didn’t take long for her to whip up some pancakes, sausage, and eggs. The smell of a home cooked meal wafting through the house must have gotten him up because she heard him making his way towards her.

Lincoln was still naked when he walked out to see what Phoebe was cooking. She nearly choked on her juice when she saw him. “Go get dressed!” she laughed.

Lincoln yawned and stretched purposely and deliberately drawing attention to his morning hard on. Phoebe threw a hand towel at him just as her phone began to ring. “Phoebe Grissom here,” she answered with a smile.

“Nice to hear you’re in such a good mood, bi*ch!” the familiar and raspy voice screeched.

Phoebe’s joyous expression dropped immediately and Lincoln noticed. He went to grab his sweatpants and rejoined her in the kitchen as she was getting off the phone. “What’s the matter? Who was that? What’s going on?”

“I’ve been getting these calls telling me to mind my business, and to stop fu*king up money. Just a lot of crazy sh*t from this one guy. And it all started after I called that number for the Jimmy B. Vault place. I wish I would have just let you handle it from the beginning. This asshole won’t stop calling me now!”

“Sh*t, I’m sorry, Phoebe. This is getting way out of hand. I never wanted to get you involved. I swore after Isabelle…” He got choked up once the name spilled from his lips. He took a deep breath resolving to tell Phoebe the entire truth. “This whole blackmail thing is from that last year before I went to rehab. I was 16 and my girlfriend Isabelle was 16 too. We had been invited to one of those parties I was telling you about and it got crazy. We were high on all kinds of sh*t and ended up having s*x in front of everybody there. Jimmy was there and recording the entire thing. We didn’t know we were being recorded until we got copies sent to the both of us. Isabelle was so depressed and already using. When she got the blackmail letter, she couldn’t afford the payments so I started making them for her but then both our shows were cancelled and I could barely afford to make my payments. I stopped paying for her and I have no idea what she did to keep up her side of the deal.”

“I have a feeling,” Phoebe said with a disgusted shutter travelling down her spine. If it was the same guy who was calling her, she hated to imagine the things he made that poor girl do to keep that s*x tape from being released. “Have you heard from her? What’s she doing now?”

“She’s dead,” Lincoln sighed. “We both went into rehab after that party, but she started using again and overdosed. I just wished that I could have done more for her. She deserved better than me.”

“Don’t say that,” Phoebe said, rubbing his shoulder. “You could have never predicted that was going to happen. You couldn’t have stopped it without that tape coming out and ruining your reputation and your career. There was nothing you did wrong in this blackmail situation. We need to figure out a way to stop him.”

Lincoln didn’t have any answers to that. All he knew how to do was come up with the money to pay him. It was as if Phoebe could read his mind. “You know you can’t spend the rest of your life working to pay that scumbag off. What he’s doing is illegal. Thankfully you’re strong enough to put up with it, but you know at some point you have to end this. He’s never going to just wake up one morning and be like, ‘Hey, Lincoln’s paid me enough.’ He’s only going to keep asking for more and more.”

“You don’t think I know that, Phoebe?! It was ten grand a month when he first started. Sh*t’s just growing, especially after I started getting bigger roles. I just don’t know what else to do. It’s gotten to a point where that tape will do too much damage. I don’t think it’s worth the risk of it getting out,” Lincoln told her in a defeated tone.

Phoebe couldn’t stand to see anyone be beaten down like this. She had to do something. There was only one way to stop anyone from being blackmailed and she knew Lincoln may not go for it. After taking a deep breath, Phoebe sat down across from Lincoln and touched his hand lightly. She made sure to look into his eyes.

Before she could even say anything, he snatched his hand away. “Absolutely not! There’s no way in hell, Phoebe.”

“You didn’t even let me say anything!” she snapped.

“I know what you’re going to say and I can’t do that! All of my work will be tarnished. No one will want to hire me because I will be THAT GUY. I don’t want to be that guy who gets accused of making a s*x tape to keep myself relevant. I don’t want the quality of my talents judged on the caliber of the fu*king styles of a 16 year old kid!” he shouted.

Phoebe could tell that he’d thought of that option before, but she gathered he had to as long as this has been going on. She took a deep breath again. “Listen, I know this is a sensitive subject and it could hurt you and that poor girl who lost her life over this. Why don’t we call my friend Pam and let her help with this? She has a certain panache for manipulating a bad story into one that will gain you the public’s sympathy, which you’ll have anyway since you were only a teenager.”

“Fine, call her over here,” Lincoln agreed reluctantly. “But she’d better not breathe a word about this to anyone or I’ll have her job and my lawyer breathing down her back by the end of business today!”