“Where are the donations coming from?”
Zack typed some code onto the keyboard and it brought up a map of the world. There were colorful lights everywhere the donations were coming from.
“Pretty much everywhere… US… Europe…Asia…Fucking Africa. Who knew they watched this show? Australia…”
“Show me the numbers.”
Man, could she ask nicely? Just for that, Zack was going to have to pilfer another few million.
Zack typed some code in and brought up the spreadsheets again.
He pointed to the screen. “That’s the account in the Cayman Islands… there’s the other… there’s the other. It’s pretty much evenly divided…20 mill in that one… 24 in the next… kinda like that.”
“Hmmm…”
Did nothing make this old cow happy?
“Why isn’t it more?”
“I don’t know…”
“It should be more.”
Zack shrugged. Why was she asking him? He started to get paranoid. Did she know? How could she know? Maybe she could. Did she have a trace on the screens, could she be watching from wherever she was? Her fucking Catwoman lair. (If Catwoman was old and craggy… like one of those old cats of his neighbors. The orange one with the patch of fur missing, the three teeth missing and the halitosis.)
Sis eyed him. “It should be more.”
“Uh…I dunno.”
She shook her head and kept looking at him. Then finally she got up and walked out. Without even saying goodbye.
Zack sat frozen in his chair after she left. Like she could see anything he was doing.
“Shit… Does she fucking know?”
Outside the utility closet Sis paused for a moment. Here they were threatening to kill all these Hollywood stars and people weren’t even willing to pay a buck each for their lives. Whereas she was pissed off before about this, now the beauty of that struck her and as she made her way down the hallway back to the director’s booth, she smiled. “See, Hollywood? When it comes down to it, they don’t even give a shit about you.”
She pressed her radio to talk to Richard but thought better of it. What if the kid could hear? She’d have to grab him and tell him in person.
She’d placed a camera on the kid’s computer so she could watch what he was doing. She just had a hunch. And if that little shit was stealing from them, she’d kill him with her bare hands herself.
Although, really, what difference did it make. The little fucker would be blown to smithereens with everyone else in just about an hour and a half anyway.
57
Bronco Bennett wiped some sweat that had fallen from his brow. He looked around Hollywood Boulevard at the hundreds of officers working for him. All of them standing around like pussies. This was bullshit. There was no negotiation. Nothing to be done. If there was anything he hated it was being helpless. If there was anything he hated even more it was doing nothing. And the biggest hate was reserved for looking like a fucking pussy.
He waved Milner over with his big hand.
“We gotta do something.”
Milner looked worried.
Bennett pulled a pack of smokes out of his pocket. He pulled one out, popped it in his mouth and lit it. He thought he caught a whiff of judgment in Milner’s face. Fuck him.
Milner looked at him again. “Got any ideas?”
“Let’s find a way in…Roof… wall… something…Let’s look for a way to get in there.”
“I guess we could start some information gathering.”
Bronco Bennett rolled his eyes as he took a huge haul on his cigarette. “Fuck, man… Fuck.” He exhaled a huge plume of smoke that wafted over Milner. “How you fucking Washington assholes get anything done is a fuckin’ mystery.”
“Look, Bennett… we just got to be smart.”
“Hey… don’t fucking tell me what we’ve got to be. I know what I’m doing Milner.”
Bronco looked at the weasly little fuck. “How ‘bout I take you off this situation entirely? Cause I can. How ‘bout I send you back to Washington now. Tonight. With your tail between your legs. How ‘bout that?”
Milner shook his head. “I wouldn’t like that.”
“Didn’t think so.”
Bennett dropped the cigarette and stomped it out. “How ‘bout you let me figure out what we’re doing?”
“What about the girl in there – the cop?”
Bennett snorted with laughter. “Jones? Fuck… I can’t worry about her.”
“She’s one of yours, Bennett.”
Bronco Bennett felt his heart start to race in fury. He looked down at Milner like the piece of shit he was. “She’s not ours. Devin Jones is only out for herself. Sooner you figure that out, the better.”
58
Kaden Conroy looked at that hot actress Everett Cale sitting in the chair finishing up her polygraph.
“Anything else you want to tell us?” the blond bastard was asking her.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why don’t you tell us?”
The machine started to make little screeching noises.
“So there is something.”
Everett Cale fixed the guy with those gorgeous green eyes of hers. She was so hot Kaden didn’t care if she was like 35 or something. He dreamed about her ever since he saw her in this movie where she played a spy and she kicked ass. That was so hot.
She was not only hot; she was like, strong or something. She was the only one among all of them who wasn’t crying and shaking. She had this weird calm. At one point she’d looked over at Kaden and she gave him a little nod. Kaden took that to mean, “You’re okay…” and then she smiled. Not a big one. Not one that anyone could see. Just a little smile. “I see you… You’re okay. We’re here together.” Whatever. Something like that.
If Kaden wasn’t in love with her from that hot spy movie. He was definitely in love with her now. He wondered for a moment what his chances were. Sure, he was only 17 and she was like 35. But he didn’t care. He fell in love with lots of girls who were way too old for him. Some of them he even got. But she was something special.
Kaden watched Everett Cale, watched her amazing mouth as she talked. Wondered what it’d be like to kiss her. Wondered what it’d be like if she loved him. Man, that would be awesome. Imagine that beautiful mouth saying something like I love you. Wow. Yeah, he was definitely gonna write a song for her.
“What do you want to know?” Everett was saying.
“You tell me… polygraph says it’s something.”
She sighed. “Then ask me a question.”
The blond guy looked at her. “Okay… what are you hiding?”
The guy loved this. He smirked. “Everett Cale… What are you hiding from the general public?
In Kyp Valentine’s dressing room, Devin Jones held the phone away from her ear as she watched Everett on the show monitor.
“Lori, hang on a sec…”
She could hear Lori’s voice plowing on. She clearly hadn’t heard or cared what Devin said. Nothing much had changed since their date started earlier that evening.
“Okay..” Lori was rambling, “And we need to set you up a Twitter account. I can’t get you tweeting right now and-”
Devin put the phone mouthpiece right up to her mouth and spoke loudly directly into it; clearly causing distortion she was so close. “I SAID HANG ON A SEC!”
She heard a quiet, “…Fair enough” come out of the phone.
Devin lowered the phone and reached over and turned up the TV Volume on the remote. She watched Everett who was looking nervous.
“I… I wouldn’t say I’m hiding anything,” Everett was saying.
Devin knew that tone. That wasn’t good. That was freaked.
The guy asking the questions, that ‘Richard’ Sis had talked about, he looked at the levels of the screeching polygraph then calmly back at Everett.
“The Polygraph says otherwise,” he said.
“What do you want to kn
ow? Maybe there’s lots of things?”
“Pick one.”
“Like - ”
“The worst one.”
Everett looked down. Then she looked straight at that Richard guy.
“Who the fuck is that guy,” Devin whispered to herself. Making mental notes as she went along.
Devin watched as Everett looked straight at the guy. She tilted her head. She stared him down.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m bisexual.”
The machine screeched indicating a lie. Devin saw Everett’s eyes close. It was over. It made Devin’s heart ache. Because she knew. She knew how much this hurt Everett. How much she didn’t want the following sentence to be true let alone have to say it out loud.
Everett opened her eyes again. She just looked at him. She had no choice now. She couldn’t even lie to herself.
“I’m gay.”
The Richard guy smiled and he looked at the unmoving polygraph.
“See? Silence. The truth feels good, doesn’t it?”
Everett shook her head. “Yeah. Not really.”
“Well,” the guy said. “Chances are you won’t make it out of here anyway, unless people start paying some money… So no one’s gonna care you’re a homo.”
He waved his hand. “Okay, go.”
Devin heard the boom of Lori’s voice yelling into the phone.
“Who the fuck is that guy? He’s a fucking terrorist and he’s putting down GAY PEOPLE?! For Fuck’s Sake!! Some pecking order.”
Devin gingerly put the phone back up to her ear.
“Lori?”
“I can’t believe this bullshit!”
“Lori… Stop. I agree. But who cares right now?”
“Okay, fine.”
“So…” Devin said, “Tell me how you’re going to make me famous and how long it’s gonna take. Because I don’t have much time here.”
“Honey… all I need is a picture and thirty seconds. We’ve got you up on Twitter already.”
“Call my friend Brad… he’s got pictures of me.”
“Brad. Got it. Okay, we’re off and running, kiddo.”
“Hey, Lori.”
“Yes, Babe?”
Devin cringed. But it didn’t last long this time. “Thanks for this.”
Devin felt a surprising warmth inside for Lori Plom. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.
“No prob,” Lori said. “Look I’m sorry things didn’t work out before…So maybe after this is all over, we can start again.”
Devin smiled. “Maybe.”
Lori almost sputtered as she said the next words. “You mean you’ll sleep with me?!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake… Goodbye Lori. Call me when there’s something.”
Devin could hear the beginnings of a “Fair enough” coming from Lori, but she hung up the phone before it was finished.
Devin looked at the guy on the screen.
“Okay, Richard… Whoever you are. You’re about to find out all about Devin Jones.”
59
Brad looked at his phone to make sure it was still on and working. Devin might need him. She could call at any minute. He had to make sure it was still working.
Brad paced across his kitchen a couple of times. He had his computer open on the kitchen table, ready for anything else Devin might need him to do. He’d just emailed a couple of pictures to her bad blind date Lori Plom. And earlier he’d gotten her a blueprint of the theater. He was happy just to be doing something. The thought that his best friend was in danger, that she could be killed at any moment had him so freaked out he could hardly even breathe. So it was good to have things to do. Right now he didn’t have something to do, so he paced.
How had this night become this? How had it been that he had kissed his friend goodbye, she got into a limo and next thing he knew she was in a life or death situation like this. All these people being held captive by a madman.
He rubbed his face. Trying to rub the thoughts away. It made his heart ache and his throat tighten to think of his Devin in this situation. Brad loved Devin more than he loved anyone in the world. She was something special. And they were something special. Like they’d always known each other. Connected somehow, through like a thousand years and a zillion reincarnations. That they both landed here in this LA place as a couple of attractive homos who somehow found each other was pretty funny.
Brad had loved Devin from the moment he met her, when he was working as a casting assistant and this completely gorgeous girl came in to audition for a two-line part in a bad movie. He made a joke about the script, she convinced him somehow that her father had written it, made him feel terrible and then copped to the fact that that she was joking and that she hated the script too -when it wasn’t misogynist it was totally homophobic. He loved hearing this model type going on with some kind of fury about homophobia in Hollywood. He thought she was just an ally, a straight girl with an open mind. Well, a couple of years later she turned out to be a straight girl with a really open mind. So open, she realized she was gay. Brad was the first person she told. And what he loved about the telling was she was completely comfortable with it. There wasn’t any wondering… any hesitation. Any “Will I still fit in?” None of that. She was gay and that was the way it was and it was totally cool. Kind of the way she would have treated anyone else.
And of course Brad loved telling his other lesbian friends that the hot actress and model friend of his they all had a crush on had just come out as gay. His friend Bernadette actually choked on a French fry she was eating. “DEVIN JONES??!” she’d sputtered. “is fucking GAY?!”
Brad just nodded and smiled. Her coming out caused a flurry of lesbian hearts a-flutter in his world. There were a lot of love letter emails written and invitations extended. Devin was cool with all of it. She even went out with a couple of girls Brad thought she wouldn’t go out with. Like Alice, the sweet girl with the lisp who worked at Whole Foods. And then there was Taylor, his friend who worked in a vet’s office. She was only 22 and was madly in love with Devin Jones since she first met her. The thing is Brad and pretty much everyone else thought she’d go out with actressy model types. And sure there were a couple, but what was so refreshing and so sexy about Devin Jones and Devin Jones being gay was how much she just loved women. Loved all kinds of women. And it was almost like the more someone expected her to go out with a certain type, the more she’d veer off in another direction.
She had a couple of sort of long term things, one with a woman named Jen who worked in an ad agency in Santa Monica. But she kind of fucked Devin over. She was really cute and a bit of a player. And kind of once she landed this hot babe she didn’t feel like she needed to be particularly nice to her to keep her. It kind of drove Brad crazy – Devin was the most beautiful person he’d ever known – so for anyone to treat her as anything other than the most amazing woman in the world was just too much for him.
And then there was Everett Cale. From the moment that thing started Brad cringed. “Oh, God…no…” he said when Devin told him. Brad had heard enough stories about Everett Cale over the years, through the people he knew in the industry. She was a total closet case. Like old time. And broke a lot of hearts in the process. That one of those hearts was going to belong to his best friend was more than Brad could take. But he tried to be supportive. And Everett Cale was beyond gorgeous. And he supposed there must be a part of her she seemed to share with Devin that was really true and apparently beautiful. A self that he hoped against hope she could actually be.
But the truth was, she was a movie star. And they lived in this rarefied world. And what mattered to a movie star was very different from anyone else.
And of course his worst fears came true, Everett Cale not only hurt Devin, but broke her heart a thousand times in the two years they had been together. Brad had lost count of the number of times Devin showed up at his place pretending she hadn’t been crying and really she had. Yeah, fuck that. Anyone who hurts his friend… no way.
Brad stopped at the kitchen counter, mid pace. He shook his head remembering what he’d just seen Everett Cale have to confess to to a billion people.
He saw how it killed her to say it. How the lie was finally over for her. But not in a way like relief. In a way like death.
But who knows? Everett Cale was no wilting flower in the press, and she was so hot – beauty wise and money making movie star wise – she’d probably be able to get through this. Especially given how the story came out. Anyone not on her side after this would have to be a pretty cold-hearted individual. Yeah, this might almost work in her favor.
Or at least it wouldn’t kill her.
At least that wouldn’t. He couldn’t say the same about that madman with the gun.
Brad’s heart ached again. God…Devin. Please. Get through this.
At that moment, Brad’s boyfriend Armand called from the living room. “Brad! Come here! Check this out!”
Brad strode out into their beautiful Beachwood Canyon 1930’s living room, where the TV was on. It was no longer the live telecast. It was coverage from another channel.
Brad felt his face flush with anger. “Armand, what are you doing changing the channel? I need to see what’s happening.”
Armand waved him over. “Babe, I know. But I was upstairs in the bedroom and I’d left the TV on in there… Check it out.”
Brad looked at the screen and what he saw made him smile. There on the screen. A gorgeous picture of his best friend. The reporter standing outside the theater was talking into a mic and the other half of the screen was Devin Jones.
“This apparently is the police officer inside right now. We’re told her name is Devin Jones. She’s a Detective with the Beverly Hills Police Department.”
Armand grabbed the remote. “And check this out. I changed the channel.”
“Wait! Don’t change it. I want to see Devin - ”
Armand smiled. “Oh, you’ll see Devin alright.”
Armand started changing the channel and every channel they landed on was covering the story and every channel they landed on was flashing a picture of Devin Jones. They caught blips as they went by.
This is Devin Jones Page 14