Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5 (7 page)

“You really need to work on being more
friendly with people,” I sighed, knowing I was fighting a losing battle.

He put an arm around my shoulders. “Why?
The people I care about are fine with the way I am. I’m not really bothered by
what anyone else says. You put up with me. Why should I care about everybody
else?”

“But you’re overlooking the fact that I
have an amazing ability to accept some of your less endearing qualities,” I
said. “And even then, there are some days when you stretch even my almost
limitless patience.”

“And that’s what makes you special,”
Griffin grinned as he stood up.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to call Ramos, see if she needs
anything,” Griffin said as he pulled out his phone.

“Good idea,” I replied.

As he walked away my phone started ringing
and I checked the screen.

“Hi, Monique.”

“Ma petite, how are you today?”

“I’m fine, Monique. What’s the problem?”

“Why do you think there’s a problem?”

“Just a feeling.”

Monique was quiet for a moment. “I can’t
get anyone to do security with you.”

“Nobody?” I was dumbfounded. “You are
telling me that none of your big, strong and, to most other people, dangerous
security guys are willing to work with me.” Jorge had been only too pleased to
enlighten me to the fact that I had an unusual reputation at the agency, but I
hadn’t expected such a blanket refusal.

“Did they give any reasons?” I asked.

“I got lots of reasons,” Monique said
waspishly. “I’m just not sure that I believe many of them.”

Monique sounded annoyed. That did not bode
well. This was a woman who was calm in the face of everything. At worst I had
seen her slightly perturbed. I had never known her to be actually annoyed
before.

“I believe I may need to do some further
recruitment.”

A part of me wanted to laugh. “I think the
only way that is going to work is if the current security staff aren’t allowed
to speak to the new recruits. My understanding is that my reputation is pretty
well known.”

“Don’t worry, ma petite. I will find
someone who is not afraid of gossip and innuendo. My Reggie has offered to do
it if we cannot find anyone else.”

That was sweet. Unfortunately Reggie was
about half the size of Jorge. Despite the fact the man was lethal in the
courtroom, I wasn’t sure if he would be quite as effective in the security
field.

“I don’t want you to worry about it,
Monique. I am sure that Jorge and I can handle anything that happens.”

“I worry about you, Trudie,” Monique said
softly.

“I know. Everybody seems to worry about me
but I’m okay.” I hated that Monique was so concerned for me. “Jorge would never
let me get hurt. If something happens to me he loses half the stories that he
tells Linda.”

Jorge’s wife, Linda, was a US Marine who
was deployed overseas. I had been made aware that Jorge kept her entertained
with stories of my antics. I was pretty confident that having a front row seat
to those stories was the main reason he was so willing to work with me.

“Be careful, ma petite.”

“I always try to be,” I said quietly.

“I know,” she sighed.

After hanging up I turned and found Griffin
watching me with a concerned look on his face.

“Problems?” he asked.

I put a smile on my face. “Nothing I can’t
handle.”

“You sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” I could tell he was
worried so I tried changing the subject. “How’s Ramos?”

Griffin looked pained. “She doesn’t sound
like she’s doing so great.”

He looked lost as if he didn’t know how to
fix this for her. The fact he cared so much reminded me why I loved him.

“Do you want to go see how she’s doing?” I
asked.

“I can stay here with you if you have a
problem.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have a problem.
Monique’s having a little bit of fun with staffing at the moment but she’ll
work it out. She always does.”

“If you’re sure.”

I nodded. “At this moment Ramos needs you
far more than I do. I know she’s hurting.”

Griffin pulled me into his arms and kissed
me on the top of the head. “You’re amazing, you know that? Fletchall’s a jerk
but he was right about that.”

I looked up and kissed him softly. “I’ll
see you when you get back.”

He nodded and reluctantly let me go.
“Shouldn’t be too late.”

The apartment was quiet without Griffin in
it. I was becoming used to having his presence dominating the small space. A
knock on the door interrupted my silence. Opening it, I found Crystal and Edwin
with pizza boxes.

“We were wondering whether you would like
dinner with us.”

I eyed off the pizza. “I can see you put
effort into it.”

“Are you going to criticize or do you want
food?” Crystal queried. “At least we’re trying. We could have just turned up
and expected you to feed us.”

That was true, it had happened often enough
in the past.

Once settled at the table I turned to
Crystal. “How was your day with your mom?”

Crystal surprised me by smiling. “It went
really well. I met John.”

“What’s he like?” I asked.

“Picture the man that you would have
expected my mom to pick based on the last thirty years of her life,” Crystal
said.

“Okay.”

“Now imagine somebody who is the complete
opposite of that image. That is John.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Wait here a minute.”

I watched as Crystal raced out of my
apartment.

I looked over at Edwin who was devouring
far more pizza than you would expect for a man who prided himself on his toned
physique.

“She seems excited.”

Edwin nodded, looking slightly worried.
“She is. I’m kind of a little surprised. Considering what she’d told me about
her mother, I figured she had given up on a normal mother-daughter
relationship. It looks like it was something that she really wanted. I’m trying
to keep an eye on things. I’m just worried that there is something else behind
this. Considering the stories that Crystal has told me, I’m having a little
trouble believing that the woman has made that much of a change in her life.
Crystal’s dad is a bit concerned as well.”

“How’s he coping with the whole thing?”

“You know George. Whatever makes his little
girl happy is fine with him. I can tell he’s a little worried though.” Edwin
looked around surreptitiously. “He’s having Roxy and John investigated. So far
they haven’t found anything but George doesn’t want to be taken by surprise.
Crystal doesn’t know.”

That was not good. “Crystal is going to
lose it if she finds out that her father is going behind her back.”

“That is why no one is going to tell her
about it.”

“Why did you tell me then? I don’t want to
be keeping anything from her.”

“Because he told me and I’m feeling guilty
that I haven’t told her so I need someone else to share in that guilt.” Edwin
did look torn.

“Well, thanks for that,” I grumbled.

Crystal walked back into the apartment with
her phone.

“I got some photos today of John and his
family. Seems I’m going to be getting a stepbrother and two stepsisters.”

She passed the phone to me and I started
scrolling through the photos. John and his family looked surprisingly normal.

“So, John lives in LA?” I asked.

Crystal nodded as she dug into a slice of
pizza. “He met Roxy on a holiday in Vegas a few months ago. Seems they’ve been
pretty inseparable since then. Love at first sight from what they’ve been
telling me.”

“Is your mom going to be moving here or
will John move to Vegas?”

“Roxy is going to be moving here. She said
that her husband and daughter live here so it is obviously the place that she
should be.”

I glanced at Edwin and I could see that my
concern was reflected in his eyes as well. Crystal seemed to be embracing the
change in her mother a lot more eagerly than either of us was expecting.

“You’re taking things slowly, aren’t you?”
I asked, hoping I wasn’t going to upset her.

Crystal stopped eating and stared at me.
“Of course I’m taking it slowly.” Her gaze softened as she looked between Edwin
and me, taking in our concerned expressions. “I’m not an idiot,” she said
softly. “I know the kind of woman Roxy is, I’m not going into this blindly.
I’ll be careful but it’s kind of nice to have a bit of a normal family for a
change.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m just worried about
you. You know me. I’m not fully comfortable with life unless I’m worrying about
somebody.”

Crystal chuckled. “That reminds me. My mom
wants you and Griffin at the wedding.”

I stopped the pizza heading for my mouth.
“Why? I don’t know the woman. Why on Earth would she want me at her wedding?”

“I think she felt bad for the way she spoke
to you today at the dress shop.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you not explain
to her the industry I work in? I have had far worse things said to me in my
lifetime. Come to think of it, some of those worse things came from you,” I
said, gesturing to Crystal.

“Ha ha. Very funny. I think she knows how
good a friend of mine that you are and she is trying to get on my good side.”

“Oh, so not a real invitation. It’s one of
those second thought invitations where there is some convoluted reasoning for
inviting someone to the wedding, usually when someone else has declined their
invite.”

Crystal looked at me sourly. “Stop over thinking
it. You and Griffin are invited. It will be a nice night out for you where you
are not working for a change.”

Crystal was right. Most of my social
outings were to do with work. This meant they involved trying to prevent
celebrities from doing something extraordinarily stupid that could end up in
the media within minutes. Not always a fun job. In fact, not ever a fun job.

I shrugged. “Sure. I’ll need to check with
Griffin but I don’t think he’ll be back at work by then, so we should both be
free.”

“Is Griffin taking a holiday?” Edwin asked
curiously.

I shook my head. “He’s been kind of
suspended.”

Crystal stopped eating. “How do you get
‘kind of’ suspended?”

“Seems Griffin and his lieutenant aren’t
seeing eye to eye on the investigation into Ramos’s girlfriend’s death. Griffin
dealt with it in his usual subtle way so he’s been forced to take some overdue
leave.

“He really doesn’t have people skills, does
he?” said Edwin.

I shook my head. “Not even close. I’d hate
to see him in a job where he actually has to think of the most diplomatic way
to phrase something before he starts speaking.”

“How long is this forced holiday going to
be for?” asked Edwin.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Hopefully not
too long. I don’t think that Griffin would be very good with too much time on
his hands. I hate to think what kind of trouble he could get himself into.”

Walking into the mansion the next day, I
was not surprised to find that things were exactly the same as they had been
before the discovery of Jolena’s body. For some reason I always had the feeling
that the world should stop when someone dies, but it never does. As usual, the
guys in the band were still in bed. First thing in the morning it was always
the staff who were around, ensuring everything was going to run smoothly during
the day. I had received a phone call the night before letting me know that
there was going to be a meeting first thing in the morning. It looked like
management wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page. I went looking
for Jorge. No matter how early I arrived at work, he was always there earlier.
When I found Jorge in the living room I was surprised to find him talking to
Griffin. I hadn’t heard from Griffin since receiving a text the night before,
letting me know that he wasn’t going to be able to come over to my place and he
would be crashing at his home for a change.

“Detective Griffin, I wasn’t expecting to
see you back at work so soon.”

Griffin grinned nervously. Jorge looked
pained. That combination of expressions did not bode well.

“What’s going on?” I asked cautiously.

“I’m not here for work,” said Griffin, “at
least not police work.”

Jorge cleared his throat. “Detective
Griffin has been hired by Monique to act as security for the band.”

“Really?”

Griffin smiled widely. “It’ll be great. You
and I can work together. I’ve got to check in with management to go through my
duties but I’ll see you after.”

He gave me a quick kiss and left me
standing in the middle of the living room, struggling to deal with what had
just happened.

“You need to breathe,” Jorge said, waving a
hand in front of my face. “Seriously, Trudie. Just take one breath.”

I dropped down on the couch and put my head
between my knees, trying to reestablish control over my lungs. I turned my head
and looked at Jorge who had squatted down next to me.

“This is not good, this is so not good.”

Jorge awkwardly patted me on the knee. “It
isn’t that bad. Monique would never have put him into this job if she didn’t
think he could cope with it.”

“It isn’t that,” I moaned. “I can’t work
with Griffin, we can’t work together. We have very defined boundaries in our
relationship. I bought one of those flat pack desks for my apartment one
weekend and we tried to put it together. Seven hours it took us and in the end
we were only able to do it when he went out for a walk before we killed each
other. In the twenty minutes he was gone I managed to assemble it. We can’t
even cook a meal together. He cooks it or I cook it. We don’t do it together.”

Jorge looked stunned. “Why can’t you cook a
meal together?”

“Because he cuts the vegetables the wrong
shape and I refuse to follow a recipe,” I said, glaring at him. I knew full
well how I sounded.

Jorge sat back on his heels. “I think I’m
seeing a bit of your crazy side,” he said.

“Yes you are and it is a side of myself
that I usually keep hidden from the people I work with. Griffin is the only one
who gets to see my crazy side. If he’s here then that brings my crazy side into
the workplace. I can’t have that happening. What on Earth was Monique
thinking?”

Jorge shrugged, trying to look
understanding. Of course that was ruined by the fact that I could see he wanted
to burst out laughing at my predicament. “Maybe she was desperate. She couldn’t
find anyone else.”

“But she should know not to do something
like this to me. If she didn’t think it was going to be a problem she would
have called me. She knew how bad an idea this was. That’s why she didn’t say
anything.” I could feel myself getting angry.

“You know, we’ve all been thinking that
you’re the saint for putting up with Griffin. I’m kind of reevaluating my
opinion of him,” Jorge said, smiling widely.

“That’s just great,” I grumbled.

“Maybe you should speak to Monique
directly,” Jorge said quietly, obviously trying desperately to remove himself
from the equation.

I pulled my phone out of my bag while
wondering how I was going to tell the woman I admired most in the world that
she had just made the worst decision ever.

I didn’t have to wait long for her to
answer.

“Trudie, ma petite, what can I do for you
this beautiful morning?”

Oh, she knew I was not going to be happy
with this. That was just too cheery a greeting to be genuine.

“Did you want to explain to me why Griffin
now has a job working security with Jorge?” I asked, deciding that small talk
was beyond what I was capable of today.

“I was having some trouble filling the
second security spot and I became aware that Detective Griffin was available
for a short-term security position.”

I wasn’t even going to bother asking how Monique
had learned that Griffin had been suspended. She seemed to know what was
happening in this town before the rest of the world did.

“How were you even able to get him
permission to work here? His lieutenant would have a fit if he knew he was
here.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a problem. Lieutenant
Ellis was surprisingly accommodating and gave permission immediately,” Monique
said airily.

I hung my head. Of course he did. Silly me,
I should have known that hoping for a man with the ability to say no to Monique
was more than the universe was willing to give me.

“And management here, how did they react to
the news that their new security guy was a cop?”

“A lot of security people these days are
serving police officers. It is common for them to take second jobs. Policing is
not exactly a highly paid profession.”

I waited, wondering what else she had to
say.

“I did tell you that I was having trouble
filling the position. When Detective Griffin contacted me and suggested that he
work as a secondary security person, it just seemed to be the perfect answer to
our little dilemma.”

It was far from perfect but I had a feeling
that I had been played.

“I have impressed on Griffin that both he
and Jorge are answerable to you. If you are really unhappy with the situation I
will fire him for you if you want.”

I could hear the query in Monique’s voice
as if she was curious how I was going to react to that offer. I will admit that
there was a small part of me that was tempted to remove this situation before
it became a major problem. But that wasn’t the kind of person that I was.

I sighed heavily. “No, I’ll deal with it.”

“Of course you will, ma petite. I have
complete confidence in you.”

I wish I did because I had a feeling this
was not a situation that was going to end well.

I turned off my phone and glared at Jorge
for no reason other than that he was there.

“So, we’re a happy threesome, are we?” he
said.

“Yes we are,” I replied through gritted
teeth, “and could you please not refer to us as a threesome. This situation is
difficult enough without you throwing that word into the mix.”

Jorge grimaced. “I see your point.”

I was still wondering how the best way to
deal with the situation was when Griffin walked confidently back into the room.

Jorge muttered out an excuse and beat a
hasty retreat.

“So,” Griffin drawled, “have you spoken to
Monique yet to find out whether this is all some horrible mistake?”

“Yes, I have and I don’t know why you’re
doing this but for some reason she is supporting you.”

“I’m not trying to make your life difficult,”
Griffin said softly.

“And yet you’re doing a great job of it,” I
said. I took in a deep breath. “No, wait. I shouldn’t have said that. I’ve just
been blindsided and I’m not dealing with it well.”

“I know, probably the reason I was too
chicken to tell you last night. I heard you on the phone to Monique and knew she
was having trouble getting security for this job. I called her and offered to take
the position.”

“How did you convince Monique to give you
this job?” I asked suspiciously.

Griffin gave me a boyish grin. “I charmed
her,” he said confidently.

“Oh, honey,” I said. “I know you remember.
Charm is not one of your strengths.”

Griffin’s face fell at my frank assessment
of his personality. I wasn’t worried. I was being honest and it only took Griffin
a second’s contemplation before he realized it.

“Why else would she have given me the job?”
he asked.

I wasn’t sure but I had my suspicions.
Monique wasn’t overly fond of Griffin and had made her quiet opposition to our
relationship quite obvious. I wouldn’t put it past her to be putting a little
pressure on the relationship, just to see how it reacted. I could see I needed
to have a word with my boss regarding boundaries at some point.

“Are you here to investigate Jolena’s
death?” I asked.

Griffin shook his head. “No, I am under
strict orders not to do any investigating. Fletchall and Pickett are doing that
and there is no way I want to interfere. It’s more important to me that the
case be handled strictly according to the law. When they find whoever did this
I do not want anything getting in the way of a clean conviction.”

And that was what made Griffin a good cop.

“Then why are you here?” I asked.

“Monique really wanted backup for Jorge.
She’s worried about you. Jorge’s worried about you. Everyone’s worried about
you. Most of the time I can’t protect you because we are living such separate
lives. For this one moment I can make sure that you are safe. That means more
to me than my career, more than finding Jolena’s killer, more than anything.”

The cold lump of nerves in my stomach
melted at his words.

“Okay.” I took in a deep breath. “We can do
this. We just need to respect each other. You need to remember that this is my
career and that we work as a team, but I get final say.”

Griffin nodded, not what I would call
enthusiastically but I was willing to take what I could get.

“Do you want a coffee?” I asked.

Griffin nodded again, obviously unwilling
to say anything else while I was in my current mood. I led him to the kitchen
and wanted to cry when I found Buddy chewing on a wooden bar stool with great
relish.

Griffin peered over my shoulder at the
scene in front of us.

“Trudie, why is there a goat in the
kitchen?” Griffin asked.

“I really don’t think you want to know,” I
said.

“Is there something happening here that I
need to report to someone?”

I snorted. “Believe me, that goat is
treated better than I am.”

Griffin fixed me with that stare of his.
“Honey, I know how some of your clients treat you. That statement does not fill
me with confidence.”

Buddy chose that moment to look up and
bleat at me balefully.

“He doesn’t seem to like you,” Griffin
contributed unhelpfully.

“I already worked that out,” I grumbled as
I dropped my purse on the bench. “I’m going to need some help with this.”

Griffin looked at me doubtfully. “I’m not
sure this comes under security.”

“You know, I never get this sort of lip
from Jorge.” Luckily for me, Jorge wasn’t around to point out the obvious
inaccuracy of that statement. “He knows not to question me when I tell him that
wrestling a goat into a pen comes under our list of duties,” I said sourly.

Griffin raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you
say, boss.”