The Stars Trilogy (80 page)

One of the waiters attending to them served their drinks.

“I thought you’d still be in France,” Uly commented.

“Had to shorten the stay.”

Uly smiled knowingly. “Trouble in paradise?”

He grimaced. “I didn’t know you read the rags.”

Uly laughed. “I just can’t help checking you out on Yahoo news, man. You’re the headline today.”

“I see. Well, it was one of those things that end when it has run its course,” he said flippantly.

“Ah,” Uly nodded. “Shame. She’s quite beautiful.”

He cleared his throat. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about DO’s proposal.”

“Great. Have you decided? Raine’s been calling me every day. I said you’re still busy at the Cannes. He wants his new company SynerCorp to carry our shares and go public. He’s in a kind of rush to buy us out. But I didn’t hound you about it the past days. You know, the more he waits, the bigger the offer gets. I’m thinking I can close the deal at three. What do you think?” Uly’s eyes were full of excitement.

Three billion dollars. That was the cost of their friendship. Certainly not cheap, he thought with an ache in his heart that he can’t help. He had trusted this man too much.

“I don’t think we should sell.”

Uly was arrested from drinking his wine. He carefully set the glass on the table and leaned back in his seat. “May I know why?”

“Sphinx just hit a major well. Why would we sell at this point when we can rake in all the profits if we do all the drilling? We are looking at another billion if we don’t sell. Sphinx can go public with that.”

Uly nodded. “You have a point. But I’m thinking of a shortcut to another five to eight billion.”

He listened.

“Our men in Alaska are so close to nailing another well. Bigger than East Texas. This could be the find of the decade.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’m on it twenty-four-seven. I will bring the data next time but it doesn’t show much. But I know, I feel it. This is huge! I have been in this business long enough to know not to trust all data and judge by gut feel. We need additional funding for the drilling. Our deal with DO can easily take care of that. When we hit the well in Alaska, that’s the time we go public with Sphinx.”

He fell silent and pretended to think deeply. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to sell.”

Uly was clearly unsettled. “But Dare…think about this! Have you been listening to what I said?”

“Yes.”

“When did I ever fail you?”

When you decided to have me killed.

“I just don’t think we should sell,” he repeated firmly, calmly.

Uly openly showed his disappointment now. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this bullshit from you.”

He didn’t even blink. “The last time I checked, I own fifty percent of Sphinx, brother.”

Uly shook his head, his face grim. “Have you been talking to people?”

“Now, why would I?”

“I don’t know. This is just not you. We’re always in this together. We’ve always been a team. I don’t feel you’re on my side now, brother.”

“I am on your side. I’m just cautioning you from acting too much on gut feel and not based on data.”

“My instincts never failed me. Never!”

He stood his ground. “Well, my instincts say you’re wrong. We’re not selling.”

Their eyes drilled into each other, giving no quarter.

Uly finally looked away and stood up. “So be it,” he said simply and left without another word.

Cruz approached him minutes later. “Let’s go, Sir.”

He stood up. “What do you think?”

They walked toward the elevator.

“His next course of action would be to abandon  his plan or to speed it up.”

“Speed it up hopefully.”

“In a hurry to meet your Maker?”

“Only if you’ll allow it.”

Cruz grunted. “By the way, about that prepaid cellphone number you asked me to trace? I had my contacts triangulate the ping signal.”

“Speak English.”

“Phones can be tracked through their GPS by the cell tower their SIM cards are connected to whether the phone’s on or off. Location can be narrowed down by triangulation. Geek jargon. Anyway, we have a trace.”

“Where?”

“The phone never leaves Beverly Hills. Even as we speak. It’s somewhere within North Alpine Drive and North Foothill Drive
.”

He stopped in his tracks. Then he spat an expletive. “Let’s go.”

Alana rushed down the steps of her mansion to greet him, elated to see him. “Dare!”

“Hello, Alana,” he said casually.

“You finally came to visit me!”

“Yes. I need some ice cold beer.”

She laughed. “You should have called before you came over. I would have stacked the bar with your favorite beer.”

“Whatever you have there is fine with me.”

She wrapped her hands around his arm. “I’m so happy you came. Come on inside.”

They walked up the front steps and entered the mansion. They proceeded to the bar. She graciously served him beer and they sat side by side on the sofa.

“Hey, you left France in a hurry. What happened?”

“Some prob I needed to attend to ASAP. Congratulations on winning the best actress award.”

“Thanks. Wish you were there when I received my trophy. I was thinking of you the whole time.”

He looked away and fell quiet. Then he looked at her again. “Hey, does that prankster still bother you with text messages?”

She paused from drinking her beer and cleared her throat. “As a matter of fact, yes. I was meaning to show them to you but you beat me to it.”

“Really? Can I see?”

“Wait, I’ll get my phone. I left it in my room.”

She stood up. He stood up as well and put his arm around her shoulders. “Can I come with you?”

Her eyes widened a bit and she stared at him, full of hope. He smiled at her to put her at ease.

She smiled back. “Of course. Let’s go.”

She looped her arms around his waist as they ascended the stairs leading to the second floor. They entered her bedroom.

She took her phone and showed him the messages. He casually fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

A few seconds later, a phone rang somewhere in the room. 

Alana froze in shock.

He stared at her as he let the phone ring a few more times and then he cut the call.

Her face was ashen. “Dare...”

“You have been sending the messages, haven’t you? There was never an anonymous texter. It was you all along!” he rasped, his voice hard.

She couldn’t answer.

“For God’s sake, why?!”

Her eyes swam with tears.

“Don’t play with me again,” he said coldly, a threat underlying his tone.

“I’m sorry...I just wanted to see you so badly but you wouldn’t...I’m sorry...Dare...” She tried to touch him.

He stepped aside, evading her.

“Dare, please...!” she implored.

“Just leave me alone, Alana. We were finished a long time ago.”

He turned around angrily and walked out of the room.

Celine was going nuts.

Her life in the Philippines was even more chaotic.

If she thought that the local press was not as scoop-hungry as their counterparts in the US, she was sorely mistaken. The local channels were full of her and Dare.

Every day, the broadsheets and tabloids alike contained a story of them. The press seemed to be so fascinated with the fact that a Filipina was able to capture the affection of a Hollywood megastar. With the way they worded their headlines, she was like a commoner who caught the fancy of a crown prince.

Our local girl snags the king of Hollywood!

From fantasy to reality! Celine Lavega caught her dream guy!

Who says fairy tales aren’t real? Celine Lavega finds her prince charming in       Hollywood!

Fan gets her idol! The Darcee love story!

Darcee? Oh God, they had coined a moniker for her and Dare! But they already broke up! She didn’t know how to handle the media and gossip mill. They were writing so many stuff about her. Maybe she should grant an interview?

She’d never been interviewed while she and Dare were still together. They just snapped pictures of them in Cannes and they became the most-talked about couple in Hollywood.

She turned down all interviews, of course. Her parents were embarrassed by all the public attention they were getting. They had always been very private people. Her brother, though he never directly confronted her about her recent scandalous antics, was obviously extremely displeased. Straitlaced Jordan had always abhorred being fawned over by the media. Ironic, one would say as he was the CEO of the biggest  television network in the country. 

At first, she tried to make her days as normal as possible, but it seemed impossible to have real peace under the circumstances. She was popular among the local A-list crowd but she was not a media darling. Now she was more popular than the most famous actress under contract in their TV Network. Gossipmongers were hot on her trail everywhere she went. She tried to look incognito by wearing unflattering, manly clothes with hoods and baseball caps, but to no avail. She was always found out. She seemed to have turned into a scrumptious T-bone and the dogs can sniff her location anywhere. The paparazzi radar could indeed rival a military network.

Worse, the western paparazzi seemed to have a conduit to the local rags. They seemed to be sharing info. Her girl pals would call her every now and then to inform her of the latest news about her. She went to Greenbelt one time and a footage of her was taken inspecting a bag. My goodness, she was being taped without her knowing it! She went out to dine with her friends, Yva Laxamana and Vianna Madrid and Perez Hilton brandished her pictures eating a mouthful of pasta in his blog! Who was supplying him the pictures? Her countrymen were selling her out!

“I thought you’ve broken up with him? Why are they still talking about you?” her mother asked.

“Mom, they don’t really know that Dare and already broke up.”

“What?! Then tell them! Clarify it once and for all that you’re no longer together so they’d stop following you!”

She bit her lower lip in anxiety.

Maybe her mother was right. Maybe she should set the record straight once and for all.

“Friends?!” Dare stood up, totally peeved at what he just watched on E! News.

Kelsey looked quite amused. “Come on, I have to give it to her. She creatively broke up with you in public. Unlike your past breakups that left so much blood and gore for me to clean up, this one’s pretty neat and tidy and even sweet.”

“By denying everything and calling us special friends who got caught up in the Cannes magic?  What am I, a bloody weekend fling? She is pregnant with my child for pete’s sake! And I don’t do friendships with women, everyone knows that.”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” she replied cheekily.

“Are we fucking?”

She rolled her eyes. “Touche. But hey, I like how she worded it.
What happens in Cannes,
gets canned in Cannes
. She’s so witty and clever, my girl! I think, I’m gonna ask People to use that as the cover headline for their Cannes Special Report issue. After all, your little special friendship that got outed on the red steps of the
Grand Théâtre Lumière
was the highlight of the festival.”

He shook his head. “You never miss any opportunity to make money, do you?”

Kelsey looked at him without guilt. “Me? Never. That’s what you pay me for.”

“Contact immigration. We’re flying to the Philippines.”

Kelsey grinned. “Thank God you said that! I couldn’t leave you in the middle of all this mess to see Drew and Des—”

“Why? What happened?”

“Desiree gave birth to a baby girl!”

“Oh wow, extend my congratulations to them.”

“And early next year, Celine will give birth to your baby, too! ”

The very thought made his heart soar. He grinned, feeling twenty feet tall. “Yeah.”

“Oh, I will go talk to immigration now!” Kelsey said excitedly.

There was a rapid knocking on the door.

“Come in!” he shouted, irritated at the intrusion.

Cruz came into the study. “You gotta see this.”

When his bodyguard used that exact sentence, it was always bad news.

“Who?”

“We’re not sure yet, Dare. Our guy who’s been tailing Morgan in Texas took a leak and when he came back on his watch, Morg’s been shot in his house while eating in the kitchen. He’s definitely dead,” Agent Worthington said. “His body hasn’t been discovered yet as we speak.”

“Shit... What do we do?” Dare sat on a sofa, chilled to the bone.

Morgan was dead.

“In an hour, call his cellphone. When he doesn’t answer, call his land line and when he doesn’t answer, leave a  message, like ‘Call me back ASAP’ or something. We’ll let a few hours pass and then you call him again. Then you call Uly and ask him to tell Morg to call you because Morg can’t be reached on his phones. Uly’s in Texas now. They’d find the body soon.”

He felt abject sadness despite the fact that Morgan was suspected as a major player in the plot to kill him. It seemed unreal. He had known Morgan for some time, had been working with him for years and they made good business together. How could this be happening?

After an hour, the Feds set up the call for him. Morgan didn’t pick up, of course. He left a message on his answering machine. Later, he called Uly and told him that Morgan can’t be contacted. Uly was very formal as he spoke, devoid of his usual jovial air but he promised to contact Morgan for him.

He said his thanks to Uly and hung up.

“What now?”

“We wait for the police to find the body,” said Worthington. “We need info from Forensics.”

Wait. Great. Just what he needed in the middle of his screwed up love life. But thank God he had a love life despite it being a bloody mess. He would have been on it two weeks ago if not for this stupid case.

The Feds had discreetly parked a surveillance van in his compound and set camp in his den. They’d been on his case for days now, monitoring his and their suspects’ movements.