Bailey jumped in. “Your bun boy over there, Mike Borden, knew who we were because he was in the lobby when we got in this morning. And he knew Erica had teamed up with us because he was watching her the whole time so he could push her buttons, make her panic and call the police-”
“The jerk deliberately tortured her all day,” Toni said, fuming. “He kept texting her, asking, ‘What’s going on with Tammy Susie?’ And when that didn’t work, he ordered her to bring Tammy Susie back to the hotel immediately.”
I folded my arms and stared hard at Borden. “That little stunt of yours nearly gave Erica a nervous breakdown. And you’re just damn lucky Tammy Susie was okay.”
Borden tried for a look of defiance, but the effort was undermined by his fearful sidelong glances at Kraft.
After several long moments of silence, Kraft turned to Erica. “What if Tammy Susie really had been kidnapped?” He looked at her sternly. “I don’t know whether to keep you on the show or not, but I definitely can’t afford to have you wrangle Tammy Susie anymore.” Erica looked miserable, but she just nodded and said nothing. Then he turned to Borden.
I prepared to enjoy the spectacle of seeing Borden get fired on the spot. He needed a good, hard ass-kicking.
“Mike.” He shook his head. “That was friggin’ brilliant, man! Jeopardy, drama, you had it all. That would’ve scored us the highest ratings of the season!” Kraft held up a hand for a high five.
Borden, taken by surprise, squeaked out a laugh and slapped his hand. “That was the plan!”
“How’d you get Tammy Susie out of the dressing room?” Kraft asked. The admiration in his voice made me want to gag.
“I met the store owner’s nephew before he took off for college. He told me about the hidden door because he thought it was funny. But when I came up with the plan, I remembered what he said. All I had to do was send Sasha-”
“Are you out of your minds?” I said. “What if something had happened to Tammy Susie?”
“Nothing was going to happen to Tammy,” Borden scoffed. “I knew Babu was totally safe because I vetted her. If you guys hadn’t gotten in the way, our ratings would’ve gone through the roof, and a fourth-season pickup would’ve been a done deal.”
I looked from Borden to Kraft. “I’d call you pond scum, but it’d be an insult to pond scum.” And on that note, we walked out. We all fumed in silence as we headed for our suite. Were Tammy Susie’s parents in on the fake kidnapping? I couldn’t prove it, but I suspected they were. And I was half hoping to run into them now, so I could confront them.
