AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Good, I think home is where you need to be right now. Let me call Paul and inform him you’re taking a short sabbatical.” Elle lifted her phone from my hand and began doing what Elle did best. Moving and shaking. I let my head fall back to the cushion, my nose was stuffy now, and I felt drained. Drained in that kind of good way, though. In the way that only a good cry and a pint of ice cream could bring.
“I want some ice cream.” I sighed to the hot, dry air that blew around my home.
“Katy will not like that. You do have to stay in shape, Elias,” Elle warned as she tried to get through to the head of Four Winds Studio. “You still have two films under contract.Armageddon Dazeis slated to start shooting in three months.”
“That’s if I still have a job with Four Winds,” I replied sluggishly, the forty-eight hours of no sleep seemingly catching up with me. My eyelids felt like cement bags. Giving up on the battle, I let myself drift off, legs splayed, in the same boxers that I had been wearing when the shit had gone upside down. Whatever Elle said next, I couldn’t say.
I came awake about an hour later when Katy was taking potshots at a drone buzzing my patio.
“Fuck off!” she bellowed as she lobbed a bath bomb at the dark gray whirligig. The hard ball of lilac and vanilla scent hit true, shattering one of the four little propellers. The little alien-looking craft cocked off sideways but stayed in the air. Katy lobbed another bath grenade, this one pink and white—the strawberry ones were my favorites—and that one smashed in the front of the drone, destroying the camera I hoped. I stood up and joined her at the end of the deck to watch the fucking thing nosedive into the cliff below my house. A small crash followed.
“Nice shot,” I said as I leaned over the railing to enjoy the sight of the carnage below.
“Thanks. I used to pitch softball back in high school.” She beamed and then turned to look at me. “You stink.”
“Sorry.” I probably did have a slight manly odor. “I think I’ll go shower.”
“Yeah, do that. Elle has a way to get you off this hillside without hauling you to LAX to fight off the press.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Is she rolling me up in that imported rug in the dining room?”
“Not even close. Go shower, pack some clothes, and know that I will always be willing to be your fake date.”
“No need for that now. But I do appreciate you being willing to cover for me all this time. You were a great date. Cheap.” She slugged me, and I almost went over the railing. My bicep throbbed, but I was still clinging to my macho actor persona so I couldn’t whine or rub the offended muscle.
“That’ll teach you,” she said, pulling me in for a hug. “I’m taking the gardener out through the main gates in your clothes while Elle sneaks you down to Bomb Bay D’s place.”
I pulled back. “Wait, hold on. You’re hauling poor Rufus through the sharks in my clothes while Elle sneaks me to the mansion with the helipad and moat?”
“Yep.” She smiled at me, kissed my whiskery cheeks, and shoved me in the direction of the sliding glass doors. “Now go. Get out of this town for a while. Go home and eat fresh lobster or whatever it is you Maine people do.”
“Yep, that’s all we do. Eat lobster, pickle octopi, and complain about the weather.” She grinned. God she was a stunner. Some man was going to be really lucky. “Hey, you can date now. I mean, like openly dating without the press calling you a trashy trollop for cheating on me.”
“Meh, I’m not in a hurry. I’m more worried about you. Now go wash. You really do smell terrible. I’ll see you when you come back home.”
I gave her a weak thumbs-up and made my way through my mansion. The dark fog that had clung to me for the past two days lifted just a bit. Maine and my father awaited. Smelling that fresh ocean air instead of the smog of Los Angeles would please my lungs, I was sure. Maybe those salty winds would blow away more than the stink of city life. Maybe, just maybe, it would clear my head and set me on a new heading. One that would get me out of churning seas and into a calm, quiet cove of serenity.
Fuck knew I needed a little peace.
Chapter Two
Youhaven’tliveduntilyou’ve crossed a moat around a rap superstar’s mansion and then you’re whisked away in a helicopter that takes off from the helipad of said rap superstar.
And people thoughtmyplace was extravagant because I had rippling water streams on my frigging patio. Yeah, nope. My home was a dump compared to some of the places out here. Hell, I didn’t even have a bowling alley or private theater for screening my movies. Talk about living in squalor.
Bomb Bay D had been gracious through and through. He even offered me some of his bodacious female company for the flight, but I graciously turned him down. Then the lightbulb went off over his head.
“Ah, right. You’re into dick.” He shrugged, took off the official Bomb Bay D hat he had been wearing, and placed it on my head. “Pull that down low, brother.”
We rapped knuckles and Elle hauled me to the waiting chopper and then I was off into the wild blue yonder. I’d removed my sunglasses to stare down at my home as it grew smaller and smaller. We’d snuck across the border to Arizona to land at the Grand Canyon West Airport where a private jet had been all gassed up and waiting. This flight would take me to another small airport, Bangor International, where I’d be picked up by a chauffeur service and taken to Kesside Isle.
All the subterfuge sucked. My flight out of Arizona had gone off without a hitch. Poor Katy and Rufus had been followed all through my neighborhood by news vans until they’d stopped at a Dairy Queen for milkshakes. Once the press saw that the passenger in her Vette wasn’t a recently outed movie icon but a sixty-four-year-old gardener from Maravilla, they got pretty pissy and then stormed off. Katy and Rufus had enjoyed their frozen treats while laughing manically at the pouty press.
“Hey, Elle,” I said into my phone as my private jet taxied for takeoff. “Thank you for being so fucking clever. I’ll touch base when I reach my destination.” I smiled at the lithe little flight attendant who was waiting for me to turn off my phone. Not that I didn’t trust her, but…yeah, I didn’t trust her to not tell the media—if they found me and they would find me—where I was headed. “Also, give my accountant the go-ahead to add hazard pay bonuses for Katy and Rufus. Oh, and make sure my place is locked up tight.”
“Already done all the above,” Elle replied, staring at me from a tiny square on my phone. “Let me know when you land. Try to get some rest. You look like hell.”
“Yep, I’m doing that resting thing for sure. Talk to you in a few hours.” I made a show of turning off my phone. The flight attendant smiled graciously. The plane then began to roll along, bumping over small humps in the runway as I stuffed a neck pillow behind my head. Staring out the small round window, lost in thoughts, I saw the runway speeding by faster and faster. The flight attendant was up in the galley, strapped in, I was sure, as we built up speed. I drew in a breath when the wheels left the earth, that push of pressure on my chest releasing some sort of pressure valve inside my mind.
