“Kiana looks great, doesn’t she?” Clara said, looking at the screen over his shoulder, oblivious to the effect she had on him.

Josh forced his gaze back to the video, where a blonde was enjoying some heavy petting from her partner. The shot focused on her reaction. Clara openly admiring another woman in the throes of passion was too much for him at the moment. His hindbrain sat up and growled. “You’ve seen this?”

“Oh yeah. I was there when they shot it last week,” she said, nonchalant.

The sensory knowledge he’d gained the other night had only added fuel to his desire for her. He stood up abruptly, needing to put more distance between them, needing to think of anything but licking her warm, wet skin.

“You wanna order Thai for lunch?” he asked.

“Oh, um . . .” She grew enthralled with a crack in the vinyl of the table.

“Clara’s got plans,” Naomi said, joining them. “But I’ll go in on noodles with you.”

“Plans?” He looked at Clara for clarification. Since when did Clara have plans that didn’t include him?

“A day date,” Naomi answered. Her eyes told him not to argue. “I set it up two weeks ago. My dentist is handsome and single. They’re meeting at Griffith Park at two.”

“A blind date, huh?” Josh tried to ask like a normal person, a person with less to lose.

Clara nodded. “Naomi insisted on setting it up because I haven’t gone out much since I moved here.”

Josh had kissed her and held her and been inside her, and she would still rather go on a date with some random guy.

“Your phone is ringing,” Naomi said, handing him the offending electronic device. Her raised brows said, What is wrong with you?

The caller ID made him grimace. “It’s Bennie.” He moved his thumb to send the call to voice mail. Everything was wrong and he didn’t know how to fix it. He needed to talk to Clara. Now.

“Answer,” Naomi told him.

He shot daggers at her. “Hello?”

“Darling.” His agent’s voice sounded in his ear. “It’s been too long. I hope you didn’t think you were done with me?”

“What do you want, Bennie?”

“Now, now. Better watch that tone. Someone less charitable might take offense. I’m calling to let you know about some industry developments I thought you might find interesting. I believe you know Paulo Santiago and Lucie Corben?”

Of course Josh knew those names. Paulo was the editor who’d given him the Final Cut software download in exchange for a round of beers, and Lucie was a makeup artist who told him dirty jokes until he laughed so hard he cried off all her handiwork. They were two of his favorite people in the business.

“Get to your point.”

“They’ve both been removed from consideration on any future Black Hat productions.”

He covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his palm. “Pruitt’s making good on his threats.”

Naomi cursed under her breath.

“You’re a piece of shit, Bennie. Doing that bastard’s dirty work is low, even for you,” Josh said into the phone.

“Hey, kid. I’m the messenger. For every day you go without signing a new contract, the list of people who find themselves out of work goes up. And if you’re thinking about pushing your luck, let me remind you that Mr. Pruitt’s holdings are vast. He’s got a lot of expendable resources. He can afford to wait. If you change your mind about signing, you know where to reach me,” he said before disconnecting the call.

In contrast to the people caught in the crosshairs was the implicit subtext. Josh knew that Paulo and Lucie lived paycheck to paycheck, like a lot of Pruitt’s employees. He thought about Paulo’s kids and Lucie’s expensive ongoing hormone therapy treatments.

He couldn’t let them suffer for his actions. His mistakes. He slammed his fist on the card table so hard the legs wobbled. This week was shaping up to be a real kick in the teeth.

“Damn it. I can’t be worth this much effort. Why go to all this trouble to get me to bend to his will? This industry is full of white guys with big dicks.”

“I don’t think it’s just about you,” Naomi said. “We’ve been noisy in our dissent. Word’s getting around about our little project. People are calling, ready to defect, no matter the risks. We’ve got interviews set up through next week. I think this is about Pruitt sending a message. About crushing anyone who stands in opposition to him. If he doesn’t nip this in the bud he could find himself with a mass revolt on his hands.”

“Good,” Clara said from the corner. “Sorry. That’s good, isn’t it?”

“A couple weeks hanging around a bunch of sex workers and suddenly you’ve got an appetite for rebellion?” Naomi raised a finely arched eyebrow.

Clara gave a demure shrug.

Josh sank back into the folding chair with his head spinning. There was no way he could justify being this selfish. Look at the cost. How could he let people he cared about suffer when he had the power to stop it?

“You can’t sign that contract,” Clara said. “If you sign, Pruitt and Bennie win. Besides.” She folded her hands. “There’s still nothing to stop him from firing more people after he gets what he wants. You’d be giving up your leverage.”

Josh rubbed his palms against his eyes. “My leverage doesn’t matter anymore. We can’t hire the whole industry,” he said. “Black Hat’s pockets are deeper than even yours.”

Naomi shook her head. “We need to hold out long enough to get to the press. It’s only a few more days.”

Clara smiled hopefully. She and Naomi and so many other amazing women had given their time and knowledge and experience so this tiny, probably fruitless rebellion could see the light of day.

Josh looked at the screen left up on his computer, at the banner across the top of the website, the first thing people would see when they visited, designed in Clara’s hand, brought to life from a sketch Naomi had rescued from among a hundred destined for the trash. Shameless, the letters growing out of the earth like fresh blooms.

He could do this for them.

Even if Clara had broken his heart. Even if she continued to baffle him, continued to infuriate him with how much she made him want her. If she wanted to go to war with a porn monolith, well, the least he could do was ride in beside her.

Josh grabbed his backpack, hunting for a nondescript black flash drive he’d taken to keeping on hand. He’d been adding to it sporadically for months now. Even with the stakes raised, he wasn’t sure he’d ever have the guts to do anything with it, but holding it, knowing he had it, made breathing a little easier. No matter what the next few weeks held, Josh had underestimated Black Hat for the last time.

Chapter thirty-two

CLARA WINCED AS Toni Granger exited the stage of the local L.A. County Baptist Church.

This was the third public campaign appearance she and Jill had attended in the last two weeks, and the trend was clear. Toni would need a miracle to defend her position against her brash super PAC–funded opponent with his big mouth and even bigger promises.

“She got bulldozed.” Jill agreed with Clara’s assessment of their client’s performance at the Candidates’ Forum. “He made her look soft on crime.” She took a sip from a paper cup of instant coffee, courtesy of the event’s meager refreshment table.

Earlier this week, supporters of her opponent had released a nasty attack ad, going for the jugular. The crowd today had obviously seen it. They’d practically eaten out of her opponent’s hand while he fired off out-of-context statistics about Toni’s conviction record.

“She’s a reform candidate,” Clara said, shifting her weight to the opposite leg and trying to stick up for Toni. “She’s trying to correct the criminal justice system of mass incarceration.”

Clara’s feet throbbed inside her heels. Josh had been in the living room this morning when she got ready for the event. He’d lain on the sofa, eating frozen waffles, right next to where she’d left her preferred pair of work shoes. She’d been avoiding him for three nights. Ever since she got back from her lackluster date with the dentist. A date she hadn’t even wanted in the first place. Clara had spent the whole picnic thinking about Josh. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Last night she’d woken up saying his name into her pillow.

She needed to get over her roommate, and fast. He’d made it crystal clear that anything more than sex between them was off the table after she’d humiliated him at the movies. Too bad her heart couldn’t separate lust from love as easily.

Still, she wished she hadn’t chickened out and had rescued her shoes. Sometime in the last hour, her toes had gone numb.

“The material we gave her wasn’t bold enough.” The longer Clara worked for Toni, the more she admired her. The public servant worked a truly thankless job, trying to fight for equality and justice. Clara noticed that not a single event went by without some old white man coming up to Toni and trying to explain her own job to her.

“Bold makes her nervous.” Jill chucked the coffee into a nearby trash can. “Come on, she’ll want to debrief.” Her aunt led the way to the lobby of the church where the current district attorney glad-handed potential voters.