Authors: Michelle Betham
‘Are we talking about Dominic MacDonald here?’
Kenny’s voice broke into those thoughts and she stared at him, unable to get the words together to say anything, so she was grateful for her phone ringing and a much-needed diversion from a conversation she didn’t really want to get into.
Even though she knew she was going to have to, at some point.
She couldn’t avoid it forever, Kenny wouldn’t let her.
Not now.
Looking down at the caller ID she smiled – Dominic.
She couldn’t even remember giving him her number but she must have done, and she surprised herself with how happy she felt at the fact he was calling her.
A dangerous sign maybe, but she was beginning to think Dominic might be just what she needed right now.
An all-important distraction.
‘Someone you’re keen to talk to?’ Kenny asked, letting go of her hand, not missing the look on her face – a look he’d seen so many times before.
A look that signalled she’d found that distraction, that someone new.
Someone that was going to take up all her time and use up all her energy.
Someone that meant that
he
was going to miss her more than he already did.
And once again Kenny just wished that, if she really
did
want a distraction, then why couldn’t she just choose him?
India
looked up, putting the phone to her ear, that smile still on her face but she said nothing, just turned and walked away from him.
Leaving Kenny with that all-too-familiar feeling of dread.
***
‘Hey!
Everything okay?’ India asked, sitting down on the edge of the huge turquoise-blue swimming pool they were filming around, watching as the crew set up for the next shot.
‘Everything’s fine.’
Dominic’s soft voice came clear down the line and
India
couldn’t seem to wipe the smile from her face.
‘I just wanted to hear you… I wanted… What the hell.
I’m here, okay?’
‘Here?
In
L.A.
?’
India
wrinkled her nose in confusion.
What was he doing in
L.A.
?
Wasn’t he needed in Vegas?
‘Yeah.
Here, in
L.A.
They’re shooting scenes with Reece for the next couple of days so I’m surplus to requirements, and I hate hanging around.
Hate being at a loose end.
Boredom kills me.’
‘You’re telling me that a man your age was bored?
In Vegas?
With free time on your hands?’
She heard him laugh, a deep throaty laugh that reminded her so much of JJ.
And how much she’d loved
his
laugh.
How much she’d loved
him,
and look where they were now.
‘Well,
you
weren’t in Vegas so, yeah.
I was bored.’
She was smiling again, a ridiculous fluttering feeling going on in her chest – this was crazy!
She wasn’t fifteen, and she should really know better.
Especially after everything she’d been through in the past, the mistakes she’d made because of feelings like this.
But there was something about Dominic MacDonald – something that made her want to get to know him better.
She was drawn to him in some strange way, there was some kind of a connection there, she felt it.
She couldn’t say what it was; she couldn’t explain
why
she felt it, she just did.
And anyway, surely now she
knew
the pitfalls of jumping into relationships so quickly, didn’t she?
Especially when she was on this almost permanent rebound from Michael.
So, she could avoid them happening all over again, couldn’t she?
God knows she could do with a bit of fun.
Nothing serious, that wasn’t on her agenda for the foreseeable future.
But fun?
Yeah.
She could do with a bit of that.
‘So, where are you?’ she asked, her eyes fixed on Kenny as he talked to Black Rock Diamond’s front man Mark Cassidy across the other side of the pool.
She hadn’t missed Dominic as such since she’d left for her short stay in L.A., but now she knew he was here she suddenly just wanted to see him.
Something had happened back in Vegas – that kiss, it was the beginning of something she couldn’t ignore, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
Even though she knew she should.
‘I’m on the Strip.
At the
Sunset
Tower
, do you know it?’
‘Yeah, I know it.
Me and Kenny have stayed there quite a few times.’
‘I thought, maybe, we could meet.
Later.
I mean, I know you want to see your daughter, and…’
‘Ellie’s here.’
India
dipped her fingertips in the cool water of the pool, idly moving her hand backwards and forwards, watching the ripples it created as though they were the most fascinating sight in the world.
‘Emma – her nanny – she’s brought her here to the shoot…’
She suddenly sat up straight, pulling her hand out of the water.
‘Does Michael know you’re here?’
‘He’s my director,
India
, not my security guard.
He told me I wasn’t needed for a couple of days but I have absolutely no idea if he’s aware I’m in
L.A.
’
He’d be aware.
India
had no doubt about that.
It was Michael’s job to be aware of the movements of any man that came near her, she knew that only too well.
‘So, he actually
told
you you weren’t needed for a couple of days?’
She pulled herself up from the cool concrete and started walking back to the shade of the table she’d been sitting at.
‘Yeah… What’s the problem,
India
?’
She sat down, shielding her eyes from the sun as she looked over towards Kenny who was indicating to her to come over.
‘There isn’t one.’
Whether that was the truth or not she didn’t know, and she obviously didn’t have the time to explain anything to Dominic.
Not when she didn’t really know what was going on herself.
‘Look, I should be finished here around eight, so, I’ll meet you at the hotel?
In the bar?’
‘I’ll get the beers in, huh?’
She leant back in her chair and smiled, laughing quietly.
‘You know me so well.’
***
It was Dominic’s intention, to know her well.
To know everything about her, to make sure he had everything he needed before he moved on to his endgame.
But even
he
had to admit that it was harder than he’d ever imagined it would be, playing this game.
It had started out as nothing more than him wanting to prove something to Michael Walsh; to show him that he couldn’t control everything, that he wasn’t the only man who could make
India
love him, and that plan was going just the way Dominic had wanted it to.
And soon it would be time for him to reveal exactly why he’d been playing this game – and why he had anything to prove to Michael Walsh at all, because he had reasons.
Oh, he had reasons.
But what Dominic hadn’t really planned for – and this was a speed bump he really didn’t need – were the feelings he was starting to experience.
They’d been there, in the background, for a while but he’d tried to shake them off, tried to forget they were there because acknowledging their presence represented a weakness, and he didn’t need that.
There wasn’t time for that.
But they were getting stronger, they were gathering speed, and it was getting harder to ignore them.
Had following her to
L.A.
been the best move?
Probably not.
But that one kiss, just touching her like that, it had set something going – a trail of events that was to lead to a revelation that India couldn’t even begin to imagine.
CHAPTER 14
Jimmy Cash had contacts in Vegas, and plenty of them.
He had places to stay that meant he could keep well out of Charley’s way, yet still make sure he kept track of her every move.
She didn’t need to know he was here just yet.
No, she could have a couple of days with her family, he wasn’t that much of a heartless bastard.
But after that, he had work to do.
She’d destroyed him, taken away years of his life by making sure he’d stayed behind bars.
But even before that she’d all but humiliated him, and because of that, because of what she’d done, there’d been no way of avoiding innocent victims.
It had just been a shame that that victim had had to be India Walsh’s brother.
Charley should have been a lot more careful about who she got involved with.
When all was said and done, everything was her fault.
And she still needed to pay.
Jimmy Cash didn’t forgive easily, and he certainly never forgot.
And Charley
Maine
was about to realise that.
***
Michael had known exactly where Dominic would go the second he’d told him he wasn’t needed on set for a few days.
It had taken some juggling of the schedule to make sure he had the same time off as
India
, because that had never been the original intention.
But Michael was running this show, it was
his
movie and he could do what the hell he liked – and he needed to know.
He needed to know if his suspicions were true.
He needed to know if something
was
going on between
India
and her co-star.
Was Dominic MacDonald the reason she wasn’t coming back to him?
Had he taken his eye off the ball for one second too long and let another, younger man come in and take over?
Sure, he’d seen that kiss they’d shared in the hotel’s Terrace Restaurant the morning she’d left for
L.A.
Who hadn’t?
One kiss and the gossip was rife already – Dominic MacDonald had done it again.
Another movie, another leading lady.
But this time the movie was Michael Walsh’s, and the leading lady was his ex-wife.
And whatever was going on – and there had to be something, why else had he jumped straight on a plane back to
L.A.
? – Michael was determined it wouldn’t last.
He walked over to the window of his villa and looked outside, the burning sun of a new Vegas day already casting its glow across the small splash pool in his private yard.
He had a busy day ahead.
A movie to shoot, his seven-year-old son to keep an eye on whilst his mom and Bobby were back in L.A. – and a visit from a man who’d told him he had information on Dominic MacDonald that Michael really needed to hear.
But, for a man who was usually prepared for anything, even Michael couldn’t have been prepared for just what it was he was about to find out.
***
India
threw the paper down in front of Dominic and slid onto the stool next to him at the bar, ordering herself a champagne cocktail.
She was in the mood for a little more than beer tonight.
Dominic picked up the paper and looked at the image of him kissing
India
, there in The Terrace Restaurant of The Amber Palace.
Such a brief, fleeting kiss in reality but quite obviously a kiss that had carried quite a lot of impact.
Just the way Dominic had intended it to.
‘Don’t tell me you didn’t think this would happen,’ Dominic smiled, turning round on his stool, taking in the extraordinarily beautiful woman by his side.
‘Of course I knew it would happen.
Just hanging around with you was going to cause the rumour-mill to kick into action.
Especially with
your
reputation.’