‘I’m sorry, Hayley, but if I am going to re-sign here, I need to make sure that something like this won’t happen again. That we can work though any issues together. And as we’ve discussed, what happened at the conference has increased interest in my new book, and the backlist has gone up the charts on Amazon too, so I would need my new deal to not only reflect this but the fact that these past few months, you haven’t been at all bothered about me or my career.’

Craig went pale. ‘Jake, come on, it wasn’t like that; you have to understand that⁠—’

‘I do,’ Jake cut in again, taking no prisoners. I bit my lip in case I started cheering or something. I had always admired Hayley’s style but now I could see just how much of it was based on manipulating people and situations, whereas Jake was telling the cold, hard truth. I had found him intimidating but now I just admired the hell out of him. It was making him even more attractive to me but I tried hard not to think in that direction and keep my thoughts on professional ground. He was making that bloody hard, though.

‘I understand completely what has happened,’ Jake continued. ‘And as I say, that has made me need to think very carefully about bringing this book, and my next ones, to this company again. I need to be sure the new deal you offer me is right for me now and for the future. So, I look forward to receiving it from you and I’ll then think it over very carefully.’

Hayley eyed Jake for a moment and then turned to Craig. I could almost see her brain ticking over. Jake had gone rogue but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from taking back control of this situation. She gave a firm nod. ‘Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better myself, Jake. We have discussed the fact that several other publishers have been in touch in the past couple of days to ask whether Jake is still under contract with you, and I have told them that currently, that is not the case.’