The Seven: Four tales of passion, danger and love by Ciana Stone

that statement embarrass her? Were she and others in her profession that desirous of the public eye? Was she one of those people shouting "look at me" in a manner of speaking?
    "What are reporters doing here? How did they even know we'd be here? We didn't tell anyone of our plans but—"
    "Your publisher and publicist." Augustus finished the sentence for her.
    That brought a flash of annoyance she quickly tried to quell by reminding herself that if it was Sheila's doing, then she was just doing her job. Still, she'd give her own reaction more thought later. At the moment, her publicist, Sheila Rayburn was descending upon them and it was clear that Sheila's attention was more on Augustus that her. To her credit, she turned her attention to Layla when she drew near.
    "Girl, you really had me going there for a while."
    "Excuse me?" That wasn’t the greeting Layla had expected.
    "This disappearing stunt."
    "It wasn't—"
    "Not that it wasn't freaking brilliant, but you could have clued me in. Until we got that email we thought something really had happened to you. Which media outlets are those reporters with? What did they ask and what did you tell them? Has anyone asked for an exclusive—?"
    "Whoa! Slow down. We just got here and we haven't talked with anyone."
    "Good. We need to go over what you're going to say before you speak with the media. I've got you booked into the penthouse and have the key cards so why don't we go on up? Where're your bags?"
    "We just have the two overnight bags." Layla indicated the two small pull-along pieces of luggage sitting beside them.
    "Okay, fine. The elevator's that way." Sheila grabbed Layla's arm and started marching her toward the bank of elevators, leaving Augustus to take hold of the luggage and follow.
    " Who is that?" Sheila leaned in to ask.
    "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to introduce you." Layla stopped walking to wait on Augustus. No sooner had he reached them, Sheila chimed up with, "I hate to ask, but would you mind terribly catching the next car? I need to speak with Layla privately for just two minutes."
    "Certainly."
    "No." Layla didn't like it. Sheila was treating Augustus like he was Layla's hired helper or servant.
    "Please?" Sheila gave him a flirtatious smile.
    Layla looked at Augustus and he gave her a smile. "It's fine. I'll be right behind you."
    She nodded and Sheila smiled. "Great. Here's your key card. You'll need it to access the penthouse level."
    Sheila didn't wait for a response before she was pulling Layla to the elevator. No sooner had the doors closed, Sheila started in on her. "So that's why you took off? Not that I blame you 'cause damn he's hot as a match but still, that was a ballsy stunt and it could have backfired on you in a big way.
    "I thought your publisher was going to go nova when you didn't show up for your flight to LA and we couldn't find you. It wasn't until we planted that "missing bestselling author, possible abduction article that I was able to get things under control."
    "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
    "Sales, honey. Sales. Less than twenty-four hours after the article came out, you'd sold nearly sixteen million copies, and the press was going nuts. Like I said, it was ballsy as hell and I probably wouldn't have had the guts to try it but kudos to you. The publisher is over the moon happy and just asks that before you pull another stunt you let us in on it so we don’t end up standing around with our dicks in our hands, so to speak."
    "But I –"
    "What?" Sheila gestured toward the door that had opened.
    "Never mind." Layla wasn't about to reveal the truth of what had happened. She hadn't even thought to ask Augustus what they were going to tell people and until she spoke with him, she wasn't saying a word.
    And maybe she didn't have to. Let her publisher and Sheila think it was just a publicity stunt. If they were happy then it let her off to hook of having to reveal who Augustus really was. Correction, what he was.
    She