In a fit of sobbing and hiccups, he began to explain. "I got into some financial trouble." Ace squatted to be closer to Grayson's eye level. "Gambling?" "Horse racing." "That's tough." Ace didn't have a gambling problem; in fact, he'd never made anything but a friendly bet in his life, but he understood it could be a debilitating thing to get involved in. "I went to the network. I take a cut of all of Alice's deals. They told me the only way she could renegotiate for more money this year was if the ratings sky rocketed." Grayson sniffed. "I came to her with a bunch of ideas. I wanted her to film from a cruise boat surrounded by her fans. We could charge for the cruise. She said she was not spending a week in the blistering sun on a boat talking to strangers all day." That sounded like Alice. He wasn't sure what made him want to grin more, the idea of Alice in cruise apparel cooking steaks or the way she'd told Grayson no way in hell would she do it. "Go on." "I wanted her to branch out to clothing.
