by Robyn Nyx
“I’m worried for all of us. But you have the most to lose, so I know you’ll handle it.”
Therese regarded him with disdain. “Don’t test me, Reed. I’d just as soon slice your neck open right here and watch your blood trickle down to the stage for your lack of respect.”
Nat moved closer, daring him to bolt.
“I didn’t mean anything by that. It wasn’t a challenge.”
“Then you should be more careful with your words. You know I don’t need much of an excuse to exercise my Second Amendment right.”
“Truly, I’m sorry.” He smoothed imaginary creases from his cargo pants.
“You’ve outstayed your welcome, Reed.” Nat moved away to allow him room to get up.
“Leave the package.” Therese laid her hand on the envelope and its contents. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything else from you.”
“Of course. Ladies.” He all but doffed his cap and trotted down the stairs with his tail between his legs. He looked back and offered a small wave before he disappeared around the corner of the building.
“What’s the plan, Therese? This woman’s pretty high profile.”
“I take her down.”
“We need to be careful. She’s moving in Hollywood circles, and people don’t just disappear in Hollywood.”
“Sure they do. They disappear all the time, and they die all the time. I need you to tail her and figure out the best time to snatch her. You need to do it fast. I have to know she’s the end of this problem.”
“I’ll get her if that’s what you want. I know how hard you’ve been working on your new facility. I don’t want to see you fall at the final hurdle because of some journalist on the hunt for another Pulitzer.”
“And I value your concern, Nat. You know I do. But I’m not making the same mistake I made with Gillian. We grab her and we find out what she knows. Then we kill her.” She took a handful of Nat’s hair and pulled her in close, brushing their lips together. She whispered into her mouth. “You know we’ll have some fun while we’re doing it.”
Chapter Twenty
Madison gently moved the wisp of hair that had fallen over Elodie’s eye. She didn’t want to wake her yet, but she did want to look into her beautiful eyes again. She wanted to look into them and know everything Elodie felt. Madison wanted the old cliché about the eyes being the window to the soul to be true. She wanted to understand her, to know her thoughts and dreams, to share everything, as scary as that seemed. As she watched the slow rise and fall of her chest and the tiny movements of her body as Elodie dreamt, Madison could almost feel herself slipping deeper into a pit she’d had no intention of falling into. Elodie would have to be the one to call this just sex between friends.
They’d fallen asleep after many hours of making love. Madison had awoken with Elodie wrapped in her arms, something that she expected was unusual for both of them. She’d been lying on Elodie’s chest when she suddenly felt the urge to ask if she could hold her. Elodie had taken what seemed like an inordinate amount of time before answering, and Madison had thought she’d said something wrong.
“I’m normally the one who does all the holding,” she’d replied. “I don’t remember the last time anyone held me.”
“Better get used to it.” She wanted to pull the words back as soon as they left her mouth. It was too presumptuous, too forward. Though she couldn’t help but hope that this wouldn’t be one of only a few encounters, she hadn’t planned on saying it out loud. The last thing she wanted to do was pressure her. Wordless, Elodie had snuggled in, and Madison held her tight. It was a perfect fit, and it was a moment she’d wanted to last.
“You’re willing to brave it and stick around, then?” Elodie eventually asked as she relaxed into Madison’s embrace.
“If that’s what you really want.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a gorgeous movie star. I’m a frumpy hobbit. You’ll tire of me soon enough, but I guess I want to see how long it lasts before the magic wears off.”
Elodie looked puzzled. “Wow, that’s some pretty heavy self-loathing, beautiful. If only you could see the Madison I see.” She smiled and kissed Madison’s fingers. “How long do you want it to last?”
Madison had been glad they weren’t having the conversation face-to-face. It was easier to talk to Elodie’s back than settle on her green eyes, in case she saw something devastating. Though their conversations had been honest before, communication somehow seemed an awful lot harder. She could see she was going to have to start drinking to loosen her tongue to be as open as she wanted Elodie to be.
“Maybe let’s just sleep for now.” Madison knew it was a cop-out, but suddenly she was on a merry-go-round, and her usually sharp view of the world was out of focus. She didn’t want to start exploring deeper feelings when she knew Elodie would eventually lose interest. Just like everyone before her.
She’d felt Elodie’s breathing slow and felt her completely relax in her arms. She wanted to put it into words how good that felt, but they failed her. Sometimes, even for a writer, words just weren’t enough. Madison had fallen asleep not long after, utterly exhausted, and they’d remained locked together like that until she’d woken up from her numb arm beneath Elodie’s body.
Now, as she was looking at her, waiting for her to wake up, there was an unfamiliar ache in the pit of her stomach, a wondering if she’d made the right decision to pull on the one-armed bandit and see if she hit the jackpot.
“Hey there, gorgeous, have you been awake long? You should’ve woken me.”
Madison’s breath caught as Elodie had opened her eyes and she got to look into them again. It was then she was overcome with that feeling of wanting to stare into those eyes forever. She laughed at herself. There’s no forever.
“I was just enjoying looking at you. You really are the most beautiful woman in the world.” Madison saw a flash of something—hidden insecurity?—pass briefly across Elodie’s face.
“It’s all smoke and mirrors, babe.”
“Funny, I don’t see any of either at the moment. I’m sure I did see a tiny chink in that otherwise impervious armor of yours just now.”
Elodie looked away briefly. “What of it? I know you’re not expecting me to be more than human. You already know me better than people who’ve known me for years. Witchcraft, I tell you.” Elodie accented the last few words old crone Macbeth-style, almost negating the seriousness of her words. “Though I hope you turn out to be a white witch.”
“You’re under my spell, then? It worked?”
“It certainly looks like it. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you.”
Madison smiled and traced her fingers across Elodie’s chest before flicking her nipple playfully. “I’m glad that’s not already past tense.” At least for now.
Elodie grasped Madison’s wrist, flipped her over, and climbed on top of her. Madison could feel the heat of Elodie’s center on her stomach.
“You captivate me, little one. Cheesy, I realize, but absolutely true. Despite my best efforts.”
“Hey! Get your own lines.” Madison wriggled beneath Elodie’s weight, but she had her pinned.
“I don’t have to now that I have such an esteemed writer in my bed. No longer do my words have to be substandard and colorless.”
“Hardly. You don’t need me to write your lines. You’re smoother than I could ever be.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit for your influence, lady. You’ve no idea how powerful your words are.”
“Tell me.” Madison was fishing for compliments, but couldn’t help it. She felt intensely vulnerable and with good reason. But she’d decided to run with this, and no matter the outcome, it would be an experience. She’d spent years studying people rather than becoming intimate with them, believing herself unworthy of their love and trying to figure out why.
“You’re sure you want to know? It might freak you out.” Elodie released her grip and leaned back.
Madison re
sted her hands on Elodie’s taut thighs and squeezed gently. “I’m not sure I could be any more freaked out than I already am. Yesterday, I had a great new friend. Today, I seem to have a lover.”
“You need to relax, baby. I want you, and you want me. Just let it be.”
Madison smiled and nodded. If only it were that simple. “You were saying how powerful my words are…”
“You’re the reason I got involved with the human trafficking work.”
Madison couldn’t disguise her surprise and frowned, unsure she’d heard right. “Really?”
“Really.” Elodie climbed off Madison and settled back beside her, staring at the ceiling. “I’ve followed your writing for a while, particularly after you and your photographer friend won the Pulitzer for your feature on Troy. But your article on human trafficking in the States woke me up.”
Madison snuggled into Elodie’s arms and laid her head on her chest. She followed the outline of her six-pack abs with her nails, drawing a passionate sigh from Elodie. “What do you mean, woke you up?”
“I was at the height of my career—”
“You still are.”
Elodie smiled and kissed Madison’s fingers. “You’re sweet, but anyway, I was banking the same amount of money as the top male actors, a first in Hollywood. I was on fire, and everyone wanted a piece of me, either on screen or between the sheets.” She paused and stole a quick look at Madison, as if to gauge her reaction to the passing reference to her sex life.
Madison laughed. “Are you worried about what I make of your bedroom reputation?”
“Maybe.” There was a hint of shyness in Elodie’s voice.
“Don’t. I’m not competing with your past. Carry on, sweetness.”
“I was hedonistic in the extreme. Anything I wanted, I could have. Any woman I wanted, I could have. People were bending over backward to make sure I was happy.”
She smirked, and Madison thought she’d probably recalled an image of some woman actually bending over backward in some sexual scenario or another. “And back to the present moment, please.”
“It was everything I thought I’d ever wanted. I had more money than I could ever spend. I had the house, the cars, the acting parts. I thought ‘this is happiness.’ Someone had left a copy of your article in my dressing room one day, and I ended up being late on set because I couldn’t put it down. It made everything seem so extravagant and insignificant at the same time. I realized I could be one of the people you were writing about—my liver could’ve failed me and I could get a replacement like I was ordering a book from Amazon. I knew my agent would be the one making the call before I even thought about the consequences to another human being. It was sobering. It was a ‘wake up and smell the putrefying flesh’ moment. At first, I figured I couldn’t do anything about it, apart from maybe stop living so decadently, although I couldn’t figure out how that would help anyone else. But I got to talking to an old friend, and she put me in touch with the GTIP office. They practically snapped my hand off and got me involved with the Decade of Delivery. I started trekking all over the world, meeting real people in dire situations, and I never looked back.”
Elodie had taken Madison’s hand in hers and was absently stroking it. “You, your words, did that for me, and I’ll always be grateful.” She laced her fingers with Madison’s and looked directly into her eyes. “You have to know, I haven’t planned this, but I can’t deny that I’ve had a thing for you since you came onto my radar.”
Madison had been listening intently to Elodie’s pseudo-confession, but she was struggling to believe it. That this movie star had followed her work for so long was praise enough, but that she admitted to having a crush on her was astonishing. Elodie could have any woman on the planet, but she wanted Madison. She valued her work, and while past relationships had more or less supported her writing, they didn’t understand it like Elodie seemed to. They never grasped its importance like she wanted, like she needed, them to.
Was this the whole fairy-tale package that was the mainstay of Hollywood movies? Had Madison somehow stumbled on the mythical magic of the Utopian relationship she’d never thought to search for? But she hadn’t stumbled on it so much, as it had chased her down the rabbit hole trying to lasso her like a crazy cowboy. The real question, though, was would it last? Or would Elodie, like the others, find that the rigors of Madison’s work—the long hours, the intensive travel, the safety issues—all became too much to bear in the long run? Only time will tell.
“Baby, I don’t know what to say to that. I’m speechless. And honored. I’ve always written in the hope that I can make a difference, but to know that I was instrumental in your decision to take the path you’ve taken, that’s fucking mind-blowing. When I think of the difference you’ve been able to make, raising the nation’s consciousness about so many issues…and not just America, but worldwide. That I had a little to do with that is hard to take in.”
“You didn’t have a little to do with it. It was all you. It was your words that hit me, your words that changed my direction. I know I’m still pretty flamboyant with my finances, but I guess I’m finding a balance. I’ll spend two hundred thousand on a car, but—”
“Have it auctioned for charity barely six months after buying it?” Madison had read many such accounts of Elodie’s generosity.
“How did you know that?”
Madison buried her face under the comforter. Busted.
Elodie pulled it from Madison’s face and stroked her cheek softly. “But if my agent had her way, I would never have gotten involved—she’s not so happy with fifteen percent of volunteer work.”
Madison laughed, but she was still in a sort of shock. She knew she had more words to say, but she’d probably end up having to write them down and email them. Often, she thought more clearly with her fingers on a keyboard. Right now, she just had to show her physically. She leaned over her and kissed her with all the emotion she couldn’t put into words. Elodie responded, breathless.
“If I’d known that telling you that would have got you this horny for me, I would’ve told you when we first met.”
“Shut up and fuck me, stud.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Madison couldn’t shake the feeling she was being followed. When she’d finally managed to pull herself away from Elodie, with the promise of returning in the evening, she’d headed off to meet her agent. She’d called Dom to cancel, but he was adamant he had an offer she needed to look at, the proverbial couldn’t-refuse type. So much for taking that much-needed break. She’d been just as busy in L.A. as she ever was in New York.
She didn’t much enjoy driving, particularly in L.A. where the traffic took the term to a whole new level. It bored her, so she’d often read, or play Scrabble on her iPad to while away the otherwise lost hours as she sat at a standstill in a never-ending march of cars. Sometimes she’d play the license plate game she’d invented to amuse herself, making up words from the impossible mix of letters. Other times, she’d just watch the people in the cars around her and wonder about their lives.
Today’s journey had been one of those days, except she kept noticing the same car behind her for miles, despite its driver having plenty of opportunities to pass. It was a black Escalade with darkened windows. The windshield was tinted so she couldn’t make out how many people were in it, but for some reason, she’d found it unsettling. So much so that she’d taken the turn off Santa Monica Boulevard onto Melrose. It took her out of the way since she was headed to WeHo, but she wanted to see if the mystery truck followed.
Much to her chagrin, it had followed her until she swung into the parking lot of Soho House for her meeting. The Escalade continued past her, and although she’d nearly given herself whiplash trying to catch the plate details, she didn’t manage it. She’d been careful with Powell. There was no way Therese could’ve found her. Was there?
Dom greeted her at the front desk with his trademark bear hug, but it did nothing to quell her absolute sense of
anxiety.
“Hello, stranger.” Dom’s crisp English accent was as strong as ever, despite his constant exposure to the Californian burr. Madison had a good ear for phonological variations, but she hadn’t guessed Dom’s correctly even though he’d given her three attempts, a challenge when they’d first met. If she’d guessed correctly, she was free to choose whether or not he’d become her agent. If she couldn’t, she had no choice but to accept that he was the man to guide her career as she became more in demand. The very suggestion of the game was enough to secure her as his client, but her epic and unexpected fail sealed the deal anyway. His Yorkshire accent had been polished by his eclectic education.
“Have you missed me that much?”
Before she’d met with Elodie, Madison wanted to make sure Dom was suitably apologetic for his unabashed favor pulling. She wanted him to know that asking her to do the Elodie Fontaine interview had been quite the imposition. Now, she wanted to return his hug with ferocious gratitude. Friend or lover, Madison was enjoying having Elodie in her life.
“Force of habit, girlie. I’m used to you being away for far longer.”
Dom was the only guy she’d let get away with that kind of endearment and only because he was “family.” That and the way his cute little cheek dimples looked when he said it.
One of the beautiful people came around from the front desk and pressed for the elevator. Madison could never quite decide if she liked this place or not. She always found it slightly pretentious, but on the other hand, could see its appeal for Hollywood’s movers and shakers. Actors in particular could come here without being bothered by adoring fans. Given that they weren’t alone, Dom made small talk on the trip to the rooftop garden. Despite the fact that this was a members club, and known worldwide for its discreet patrons and staff, Dom was always reluctant to share any of his business with anyone but his client.
The maître d’ showed them to Dom’s usual table before disappearing with their drink order.