Not Talented in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 3 (6 page)

Waving as Travis pulled out of the parking lot after he
dropped me off, I found Miss Betsy working in the garden as I usually did. She
straightened as she watched Travis drive off.

“A new young man for you?” she asked expectantly.

“No, not for me” I said.

“Why ever not?” Miss Betsy said as she brushed the dirt from
her pants. “You’re a sweet girl and deserve a good man.”

“Then that definitely rules out Travis” I said smiling.

Miss Betsy smiled back. “Sometimes the bad ones are the best
kind” she said softly. “Although, I probably shouldn’t be saying anything or
that handsome police officer of yours might be a little unhappy with me.”

I gave her a tight smile and she looked at me knowingly.

“So, the boy has made some progress has he?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, this is the first time I’ve heard you not argue the
point when someone has put the two of you together.”

“He’s growing on me.”

“Persistent” she said. “That’s good, I don’t think your
walls would have come down for anyone less than that.”

I sat on the low garden wall. “What do you mean?”

Miss Betsy sat down next to me. “Your ex gave up on you when
you needed him most didn’t he?”

I nodded slowly. Well it was the truth. My ex fiancé had walked
into the hospital room where I was laying after a drunk driver decided to try
to turn me into a hood ornament, and told me he didn’t love me enough to be my caregiver
if my injuries were permanent.

Miss Betsy continued when she saw my darkening expression.
“That kind of low act from the man you loved, no matter how strong you are,
it’s going to leave a scar. Makes it hard for you to trust another man. Any man
who wants that trust is going to have to work for it, and work hard. The cop
has made some mistakes.”

I snorted indelicately.

“God knows the man looks fine but he’s not overly smooth
with the ladies is he?” she asked.

I had to agree.

“But then you don’t want smooth do you? You want strong and
loyal and from the looks of it, that cop has got those qualities in spades.”

“So you think I should take a chance with him?” I asked
tentatively.

“Honey, I am the last person in the world to tell you what
man to take a chance on. My abilities at reading a good man from a bad one,
verge on the nonexistent. I have made so many mistakes in my life when it came
to men, I should have given up on it years ago. What I will say, is that
sometimes you let the right one go for all the wrong reasons. Don’t let the one
who betrayed you be the one who dictates how you live your life from now on.
Learn from him but don’t let him run your life.”

“You’re a very smart woman” I said.

“Not so smart” she said smiling softly, but with a touch of
sadness flickering through her eyes. “If I had been smart I would have learned
that lesson myself a long time ago and I would have been living the lesson not
just doling out advice now.”

I put my hand on the back of hers and squeezed it.

“If you ever need to talk about it, I’m right here, you know
that don’t you?”

She turned over her hand and squeezed mine back.

“You are a sweet girl, letting an old woman ramble on like
that, but some things are best left in the past.”

I nodded and stood up.

“I’d better go find Crystal and Edwin and find out what
happened to them. They ditched me at a funeral.”

Miss Betsy shook her head, “I wouldn’t go looking for them
at the moment” she said. “They were arguing pretty bad when they got here earlier.”

“Maybe I can help” I said.

“Oh honey, the argument they were having is not one you can
help with. I’ve had arguments like that before and believe me they end in one
place. Trust me when I tell you that they are not going to want to be disturbed
for a while.”

“But, why, oh…” I said as her meaning finally became clear
to me.

Miss Betsy nodded. “Yes, I would say they are at the making
up portion of the proceedings. I personally would suggest keeping well away
from the two of them for a while.”

Good enough for me.

Walking up the stairs my cell phone rang. Answering it I
smiled when I heard Monique’s rich voice. Struggling with my lock I walked into
my apartment.

“Hi Monique, what can I do for you?”

“You can tell me why it is that one of my favorite recruits
was at the scene of a murder, again, and I didn’t hear it directly from her.”

I winced. Her voice was too calm, that never boded well.

“I was nowhere near the murder when it happened, I had a
very peripheral part in this one, was barely even there.”

“Oh that’s good” Monique said, although her voice still had
a tone. “From what I heard, you discovered the body, got interviewed by the
cops, your friend is a prime suspect and you attended the funeral.”

Oh, so that was the reason for the tone.

“See, peripheral, really, just on the edges” I said.

The silence coming down the phone was deafening. I could
almost feel the disapproval beating at me but I was going to be strong, I
wasn’t going to cave.

“Okay, you’re right, I should have called, I’m sorry.”

Monique changed her tone. “Of course you should have called.
I love you darling, the thought of you going through such a traumatic event, it
tears at me and then to know you didn’t feel you could come to me with it, it
breaks my heart.”

Emotional guilt from Monique was always done so well.

“How did you hear about it anyway?” I asked suspiciously.

“I have my sources” she said smoothly.

“Uh huh.”

Of course she had her sources. Nothing happened in this town
without Monique knowing about it. If the woman ever decided to sell out to the
tabloids there would be mass panic in the streets. After twenty years
networking in the background in Hollywood, Monique had information about
everyone. Her staff had worked in every section of Hollywood and she learned
and retained every piece of information she could find.

“So” said Monique. “I know you said you wanted some time off
after the Kai Roth incident, but I’ve got a job that just came up for this
afternoon and tonight. Should be an easy one.”

I grunted. “That’s what you said about the last job.”

“Well, you had to know that I was lying on that one. I mean
for goodness sake it was Kai Roth. That was never going to be pleasant. Anyway
you were desperate to get out of town. You would have taken that job no matter
what I said.”

I had to agree with her there, I knew walking into that job
that I was dealing with the perceived stereotype of a spoiled pop star. Thanks
to the internet the whole world knew what Kai Roth was like.

“So why do you have a job for just one day?” I asked
curiously.

“Blythe Stanton broke out of rehab for a club opening
tonight. She’s flying in from Europe right now. Her parents contacted me and they
want someone to meet her at the airport and escort her until she leaves again
tonight. She has a ticket to fly back to England at five tomorrow and it will
be your job to make sure she is on that flight.”

I sat down heavily. This was a babysitting job. Blythe
Stanton was almost thirty years old and the heiress to a fortune in Europe. In
her life she had dabbled as a singer and actress. She had been married and
divorced three times already and was very well known to have a massive drug
problem. Rumor had it that her father had finally got tired of her antics and
told her that unless she did rehab and kicked the drugs, he was going to pull
the trust fund which he still had complete control over. According to the
tabloids she had gone into rehab in Switzerland. Sounded like the rehab hadn’t
really worked for her if she was making a break for it.

“Why on Earth is she coming here?” I asked.

“Seems one of the ex-husbands is opening a club in LA and
she wants to be here for that, whether it’s to help him or destroy him is
anyone’s guess right now.”

“She’s a grown woman Monique, how am I supposed to get her
on that plane if she really doesn’t want to go?” I asked.

“I’m going to be honest with you Trudie, if you can’t get
her on the plane her parents are going to give up on her. The trust fund is
going to be yanked, she’ll be on her own. If you can impress that on her the
best way you can, there isn’t a lot else you can do.”

“What about the drugs. If she wants to score I’ll do the
best I can to stop it but her reputation is well known. The second she hits the
airport word’s going to go out and every dealer is going to hone in on us.” I’d
been through this kind of situation many times before.

“You’re not going to have to deal with this on your own.
I’ve sent in Jorge with you to help with security.”

I started to breathe a little easier. Usually I don’t have
much time for security people of the rich and famous. I’ve had a few too many
clashes with guys who are little more than thugs. Jorge was one of Monique’s
staff and there was a good reason for that. He was huge with muscles on muscles
and I had actually seen him move a car once by pushing it out of the way. The
difference with other bodyguards was that he was also smart. If there was a way
out of a situation without violence he would take it.

“Okay, what time do I need to be at the airport for pick up?”
I asked.

I heard a knock at the door and dropped my head. “That’s
Jorge now isn’t it?” I asked Monique.

“Why yes it is. That man does have an exquisite sense of
timing.”

I opened the door and sure enough there was Jorge, in a
tight t shirt that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. His tattooed
arms bulged out of the sleeves and not for the first time I wondered whether I
would be able to wrap both hands around them.

“I’ll get back to you later Monique” I said as I hung up on
her.

“Come in Jorge.” I motioned him in. “Do I have time to get
changed?”

“Yeah, we got about fifteen minutes before we need to leave
for the airport.”

“Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be ready in five.”

Jorge chuckled. “Sure you will.”

Closing my door I changed out of my funeral clothes and into
my assistant clothes, comfortable and nondescript. As an assistant to some of
the most attention needy people in the world I had learned long ago to dress as
if I was fading into the background. If I was noticed then I had made a
mistake. Pulling my hair back into the classic pony tail and slipping on comfortable
shoes I grabbed my bag and headed out.

“See, I told you, five minutes. You should have more faith
in me.”

The smile on my face froze when I found Griffin in my
apartment glaring at Jorge, who was quite comfortably lounging on my couch with
a drink, looking like he spent quite a bit of time there.

“Oh, hi Griffin, what are you doing here?”

With his hands on hips he turned his glare from Jorge to me.

“Tomas Burnelli told me about your little incident at the
wake, so I was checking to make sure you were okay.”

“Tomas worries too much, nothing happened to us. We just hid
in a closet while Catarina’s assistant was talking to the guy who looked like
he kicked puppies for fun.”

“I was just on my way to see Peter but I wanted to check on
you first” Griffin said.

“Oh sure.” I shrugged. “Not the first time I’ve had to avoid
someone by hiding in a closet.”

Griffin looked from me to Jorge’s grinning face.

“So exactly what is happening here?” he asked.

“Jorge and I have a job to do for the rest of the day and
tonight. He was sent to pick me up and I just needed to get changed from the
funeral.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen, you won’t be doing the
job” Griffin said.

Jorge choked on the glass of water he had been drinking.

“Dude” he muttered “so uncool.”

“Jorge, could you please give me a moment?” I asked sweetly
although the look I was shooting in Griffin’s direction was anything but sweet.

“Sure, sure” said Jorge, “I’ll just wait for you in the
limo.” As he walked past Griffin I heard him mutter under his breath. “Dead man
walking.”

He closed the door gently behind him but not before shooting
me a pointed look.

“So was there a real reason for this visit or did you just
intend to humiliate me in front of my co-worker?” I asked.

Griffin held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I didn’t
say that right, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’re sorry for telling me I couldn’t do my job.” I
wanted to be clear on this so that I knew exactly the reason I was furious with
him or whether I should just go nuclear.

Griffin looked at me sheepishly. “Well no, you can’t go and
especially not with him.”

Nuclear it was then.

“How dare you tell me what I can do with my job. You do not
have any right to do that. You especially don’t have any right to tell me who I
can and can’t work with. Anyway, what is your problem with Jorge? He is one of
the nicest guys that I know. I’m actually happy when I get to work with him,
because then I can concentrate on my job and I know he’ll help me if I need
it.”

“He’s not who you think he is, I can’t say anything more
than that but I don’t want you anywhere near that guy” Griffin said with that
infuriatingly calm voice he seemed to employ with me regularly.

“No” I said.

“Excuse me.” Griffin looked startled. I shrugged, the anger
still there but I wasn’t going to argue about this. A part of me marveled that
he honestly seemed to expect me to just fall into line with his edicts.

“No, you don’t get to tell me what to do and expect me to do
it. I will take any suggestions you give under advisement but you do not get to
give me orders and expect me to obey you.”

Griffin pulled his hand through his hair, his frustration
evident. “I’m not trying to control you, I’m trying to keep you safe which
seems to be a full time job. In less than a couple of hours you almost walk in
on what sounds to have been a shake down by a very, and I can’t emphasize this
enough, very, bad man. Now you’re about to get into a car and spend the day and
night with a man that I do not want you anywhere near. I don’t want you hurt,
not in any way. I know you’re angry with me but you can’t ask me to stand by
when I see you may be walking into a dangerous situation.”

He had stepped closer and looking into his eyes I could see
that he was dealing with emotions that he wasn’t overly familiar with.

“This is one of those moments” I said quietly.

“What moments?” Griffin asked, probably a bit more harshly
than he meant to.

I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “This is one of
those moments where you tell me your opinion and you trust me to make the right
decision. I don’t know what you think you know about Jorge but I can guarantee
that he is not that person.”

“Are you willing to bet your life and your safety on that?”
Griffin said harshly.

“Yes” I said quietly. “I exasperate you don’t I?” I asked as
I wound my arms around him.”

He put his arms around my shoulders and held me tight. “You
terrify me” he mumbled as he kissed the top of my head. I put my hand in his
and pulled him towards the door.

“Now you need to let me do my job, I have to go.”

“I’m not going to win this one am I?” said Griffin.

I looked at him seriously. “You were never going to win.”

“Does this qualify as our first fight? Griffin grinned
ruefully.

I smiled back. “You must have the memory of a goldfish,
we’ve done nothing but argue since the first day we met. Now you are going to
walk me down to the car and you are not going to pull Jorge aside for a quiet
word.”

Griffin quirked an eyebrow and I laughed.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know you were thinking it.
You can’t get anything past me Detective.”