Betrayal (3 page)

“I’ll pick you up at four-thirty tomorrow morning,” Brigitte called out to her, and Tallie waved as she got to her front door. She wanted to be back on the set by six. As usual, it would be a short night, and before she could unlock the front door with her key, it was opened by a tall, handsome man with dark hair and a beard wearing an apron over a T-shirt and shorts. He kissed Tallie hard on the mouth, and the door closed.

Brigitte drove away. One of the actors from Tallie’s current movie was waiting for her at her house. She had told him where the spare key was. Tommy was twenty-six years old, and when Brigitte got home, he was naked and waiting for her in the pool.

“Well, isn’t that a pretty sight.” Brigitte smiled as she admired him, and then stepped out of her skirt, and stood there in her thong and high heels, and then she pulled off her shirt and unhooked her bra. The breasts she had invested in several years before stood in sharp relief against the spotlights as the young actor gazed at her appreciatively. She had an amazing body, and made good use of it.

“Come on in,” he said invitingly, thoroughly enjoying the warm water and the prospect of a night with her. They had been having an affair for the past six weeks, during the making of the film. No promises had been exchanged and wouldn’t be. The kind of night they were about to spend with each other was all they wanted and all it would ever be. Brigitte wanted nothing more. She dove into the pool and came up between his legs, and he laughed. She was an incredible woman, and he had a great time with her. And he was hoping she’d help get him a part in another of Tallie’s films after this. She hadn’t promised, but she had implied it. And even if she didn’t, he was having a ball with her. She was one of the most important women in Hollywood, as far as he and others were concerned, she had total access and the confidence of Tallie Jones. The one thing you could never do with Brigitte was say anything bad about Tallie. Brigitte was instantly ready to kill you if you did. She was the most loyal woman he had ever met. And offered the best sex.

* * *

Hunt handed Tallie a glass of wine as she walked in. She put her canvas bag and the script down on a kitchen chair, and smiled at the great smells all around them. The kitchen led out into the garden, and they wandered out onto the deck together and sat down. She was happy to see him and glad she had come home to him instead of staying in Palm Springs, and he was happy too. He was an easygoing person, and their lives had meshed perfectly for the past four years. There was rarely any friction between them, he had never disappointed her, and she loved sharing her work with him.

“Good day?” he asked, as he took off the apron and tossed it on a chair. He was taller than she was, and slightly round since he enjoyed eating well, but he was a handsome man. He was forty-five years old, and the beard gave him a more mature look than his years.

“Very good,” she confirmed with a smile about her day. “When are you coming to Palm Springs?”

“I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got meetings. Maybe the day after. How’d the death scene work out today?” He tried to keep up on the script changes, but with Tallie there were many of them, and sometimes she altered the script as she went along. She was always sensitive to how the dialogue was working, and let her actors add something more to it, if they could. The results were often breathtaking.

“It was perfect,” Tallie said, looking pleased. “I’m starving. What’s for dinner?” He often made Japanese food for her, Chinese, and Thai. He had a gift for Asian cuisine, and French, and sometimes made Mexican on the weekends. Hunt loved cooking, and everyone devoured what he made. It was fun coming home to the
surprises
he prepared, and the dinner he served her that night was no exception. They spent a relaxing evening, talking and eating on the deck, and he had gotten a bottle of her favorite white wine, Corton-Charlemagne. It was like going out to dinner whenever she came home, only better, because they were alone and she didn’t have to get dressed up or even comb her hair.

He was already working on putting together their next joint venture. They would be on location in Italy for it, and he was planning to spend a lot of the time there with her. They wanted to rent a villa in Tuscany for the duration of the film. He was already lining up the cast, and working with their insurers and investors to secure the film. It was what he did best, while Tallie did the directing. And he set it all up meticulously. He had enlisted an important Japanese investor to back the film. It was easy raising money for a movie directed by Tallie Jones, but all the conditions had to be right. Hunt was great about it and as meticulous a perfectionist as Tallie.

“I think we’re all set,” he said about the Japanese investor as they cleared the table together after a wonderful meal. She had thanked him with a kiss. “The only thing he wants is an audit of our books on the project, and our personal ones as well. I guess he wants to make sure we’re both solvent and won’t run off with his money.” He was smiling as he said it. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?” he asked her as they cleaned up the kitchen.

“Of course not. I’ll tell Victor Carson to give him whatever he wants.” They both knew he was a solid investor, and they wanted his money for their next film.

“He’s using some very fancy independent accounting firm, run
by
a couple of ex-FBI guys. I hear they’re pretty thorough, but that way everyone will be happy. We’ll have his money, he’ll know we’re honest, and we can lock everything in.” He’d been talking to all the big agents in Hollywood about who he wanted to star in it, and once they had the money, they’d be ready to move ahead very quickly with contracts.

“I’ll have Brigitte call Victor tomorrow,” Tallie said as they turned the light off in the kitchen and went upstairs to the large master bedroom with the enormous movie screen in it. They loved lying in bed and watching movies. But not tonight. It was midnight by then, and she had to get up in four hours. She was used to living on very little sleep when she was working.

She had wanted to call Max that night, but it was too late in New York by the time she thought of it, and she’d have to call her in the morning. And then Hunt mentioned that her father had called right before she got home and he’d forgotten to tell her.

“He has to have some tests tomorrow,” Hunt told her, and she looked instantly concerned. “He said it’s nothing important, just routine stuff. He was wondering if you were working tomorrow, and I said you were.”

“I can have Brig take him, or his housekeeper Amelia,” she said thoughtfully. Her father always said that her assistant was a Hot Mama, which made her laugh. He thought Brigitte was gorgeous and the sexiest woman he’d ever seen.

“I told him I’d drive him,” Hunt said easily. “I can make the time. It’s not a big deal. He was fine with it, if that’s okay with you.”

“You’re a saint,” she said, putting her arms around him and he pulled her close.

“No, I just love you. Thanks for coming home tonight.”

“Thank you for cooking me dinner. Do you want to come to Palm Springs tomorrow night?” she asked him again, thinking that they’d have more time together without the long drive back to L.A., and the hotel they were staying at in Palm Springs was very nice, and had a terrific spa. She liked it when he came out there to spend the night with her. And sometimes it was easier for her than coming home if she had long shooting days.

“I’ve got some things I really need to do tomorrow, and a meeting tomorrow night. I think I’ll come out the day after. Why don’t you stay out there for the next couple of nights, so you don’t have the long drive after work, and I’ll spend the night with you the day after tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, and then went off to take a shower, and a few minutes later she was in bed next to him, and cuddled up close to his body. She noticed that he was naked, and she peeled off the T-shirt she had worn as a nightgown, and they lay pressed against each other as he kissed her, and she was even happier that she’d come home.

“I miss you when you’re on location,” he whispered to her, and she kissed him again. Palm Springs was hardly a hardship location. There were films she had made where she’d spent six months in the jungle, three months living in a village in Africa, and they had been in places where civil war had broken out while they were there. Palm Springs was a piece of cake, and it was only two hours from home. They’d be coming back from location soon anyway, and it was a little bit like a vacation when he came out to spend the night with her.

“I miss you too,” she whispered as he started to make love to her, and after that she forgot everything but him.

Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms and talked for a few minutes, and she had to fight to stay awake. She was so peaceful and at ease, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She put an arm around him, and while he was still talking to her and stroking her hair, Tallie fell sound asleep.

Chapter 3

BRIGITTE WAS IN
the driveway at four-thirty the next morning, right on time, as always. No matter what she did the night before, she always came to work on schedule, whatever the hour. She texted Tallie that she was there, and she came out of the house barefoot and carrying her shoes, and closed the door silently behind her. Tallie ran to the Aston Martin and got in. She had showered again and her hair was wet, and if possible she looked an even bigger mess than she had the day before. She was wearing another pair of ratty, torn denim cut-off shorts with a T-shirt that was in shreds.

“Is that fashionable and you paid a fortune for it,” Brigitte asked, referring to the shirt with fascination, “or did you get it at Goodwill?” There were in fact items of clothing that looked like that, wrecked by trendy designers who tore the clothes before they sold them. Max was always buying things with that look at Max-field’s. Tallie usually created hers for free, but with her you never
knew.
She rarely spent much on clothes. And designer anything was of no interest to her.

“No,” Tallie said happily, “I got this shirt out of the garbage. Hunt threw it away, but I hated to waste it. It looks like it still has some life in it.” She seemed pleased.

“As what? A rag at a car wash? You’re the only woman I know who makes the kind of money you do and dresses out of the garbage.” Brigitte laughed as they drove down the street.

“If I told you it came from Maxfield’s, would it be chic?”

“Of course,” Brigitte said without hesitation.

“Okay, then pretend it did. I don’t have time to worry about the way I look.” She never did. It wasn’t on her priority list. She cared about what was in her head, not on her back, unlike most of the women she knew, and Brigitte certainly, who wore new designer clothes almost every day. Brigitte spent most of her salary on jewelry and clothes. She liked to say that she had an image to keep up, since she represented Tallie Jones. But Tallie didn’t give a damn about that herself.

She called Max in New York on the way to Palm Springs, and caught her just as she was leaving for school. Max said she had just been calling to check in the day before, to see how she was and how the movie was coming.

“It’s going great. We’re pretty much on schedule, and we should be back in L.A. in a few weeks. What’s happening with you? How’s school?” Tallie loved talking to her, and called her as often as she could.

“It’s okay. I met a new boy in the library last week. He seems pretty cool. He’s in pre-med.” Her romances always worried Tallie,
realizing
that she’d only been two years older when she fell for the cowboy from Montana and got pregnant with Max. But it didn’t seem like the kind of thing she would do. Max was less naïve than Tallie had been at the same age, and Tallie felt now that if her mother hadn’t died a few years before that, she wouldn’t have gotten pregnant and had a baby. She was pretty lost for a while, although her father had always been there for her. But she was sure her mother would have handled it differently, and probably wouldn’t have insisted she get married, which her father did. The whole event had been a big mistake, except that she had gotten a terrific daughter out of it, and was grateful for that. Max was a wonderful kid, and had never caused her mother a moment of grief. And her aspirations to be a lawyer like her grandfather sounded good to Tallie. She didn’t want her in the movie business. It was too hard a life, full of unstable people, and a crazy world. She had never encouraged her to hang out with movie stars’ children, although Max had met several at school. But she was a levelheaded girl, and some of the stars’ children were surprisingly nice kids too. Max had always avoided the bad ones, and had a knack for gathering wholesome young people around her.

“Have a nice day, Mom,” she said cheerfully after a few minutes, and they hung up, and then Tallie remembered to tell Brigitte about the audit for their Japanese investor. Tallie asked her to call Victor Carson, their accountant, and ask him to cooperate fully with them, and give them whatever they wanted.

“At least you don’t have to do the work on it,” Tallie said to her, looking relaxed as she pulled out the script.

“I’ll give Victor whatever he wants, if he needs anything from
me.”
Brigitte was good with figures and kept impeccable track of all of Tallie’s bills. There was never a problem about not having bills or receipts for whatever she paid for. After the first several years of chasing Tallie around to sign the checks, they had set up an account where Brigitte could sign them to pay all her bills. It saved Tallie the time and headache, and Brigitte kept meticulous accounts of everything. She had a charge card she used for Tallie’s expenditures as well, and she handled everything for Max, who lived in the apartment Tallie owned in New York.