Not Wanted in Hollywood (12 page)

Actually it was less of a pleasure and more
of a terrifyingly traumatic experience which involved me being
kidnapped and helping him find a priceless heirloom that had been
stolen by an ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately that chance kidnapping
seemed to have spawned, in Dominic’s mind anyway, some kind of
weird relationship.

“
I think I’d
better find out what he’s doing here,” I said as I started to walk
away.

Travis grabbed my arm. “Are you nuts?” he
said forcefully. “Do you have any idea who that man is?”

“Rich, bad guy who doesn’t seem to believe
the laws of this country apply to him. On the radar of most of the
law enforcement agencies in this country. The second he sits down
and speaks to me, Griffin gets a heads up and I get in trouble.
Does that pretty much cover it?”

Travis was
giving me that look of his again. The one where he can’t believe
that one person is able to get themselves into such messed up
situations. As I started to walk towards Dominic, he started to
follow me. I turned around and put my hand onto the middle of his
chest to stop him.

“
No,” I
said.

“
What?” he
replied, looking at me innocently.

“I don’t have any choice dealing with
Dominic. He knows me and I can pretty much guarantee that even if I
didn’t go and talk to him, in a very short period of time that
colleague of his would be coming over here to invite me to join
him. You on the other hand can stand here and stay blissfully under
his radar. Believe me, if I had a choice I would much rather be you
than me.”

Travis glared
at me incredulously. “You cannot think for a moment that I am going
to let you just walk up to Dominic Caldwell and sit down with
him.”

There it was again. I loved how the men in my
life kept tossing out that word ‘let’ as if they actually had any
say at all.

“
You are
going to stay here and watch over the proceedings with that glare
that you obviously enjoy throwing around. I can handle Dominic, but
if you come over with me you will just make the situation
unnecessarily difficult.”

Travis stared at me and for a moment I was
worried that he really wasn’t going to listen to me and would start
something with Dominic. If I thought Griffin was annoyed with me
now, that would be nothing if a brawl started in a strip club
between Travis and Dominic because of me. I really didn’t need that
kind of grief.

I could see
the moment that Travis relented. “I am not taking my eyes off you
for a moment,” he growled. “You are not to go anywhere with the man
at all. That is the only way that you are going to get me to stay
here and not come over there with you.”

I let out the
breath that I was holding. I liked that plan, I loved that plan.
There is no way that I would willingly go anywhere with Dominic
Caldwell. That being said the man had kidnapped me, twice, so I
knew he was not above trying to drag me out of here if he thought
he needed to. Having Travis watching proceedings and ensuring that
didn’t happen gave me a little bit of confidence as I walked up to
Dominic’s booth, which I usually didn’t have when dealing with
him.

“
Good evening
Trudie, you’re looking lovely tonight,” Dominic boomed as I came up
to him.

This was just
one of the myriad of reasons why I didn’t trust this man. He was
able to make that statement without one ounce of sarcasm. Looking
over at his colleague I could see the disbelief on his face. I knew
perfectly well what I looked like. I had so much makeup caked over
one side of my face that I was going to need a trowel to take it
off. Anyone with two functioning eyes would be able to see the lie
in Dominic’s
statement
, but he gave every
indication that he completely believed what he just said. No wonder
the man was so rich. He could sell anything to anybody.

“Why are you here?” I asked, knowing that the
chances of me getting an honest answer were very slim, but feeling
the need to ask anyway.

“
I had
business dealings with Mr Pollard. We were close to finalizing a
deal on this land. I am hoping to continue those discussions with
the bereaved widow. Please join me.” Dominic waved his hand to
where his colleague was sitting. I raised an eyebrow and almost
laughed at the put out expression on the man’s face. I didn’t feel
any sympathy for anyone Dominic described as one of his colleagues.
I didn’t have the best history with Dominic’s colleagues who most
law abiding people had other terms for. I had terms for them too,
most of my terms couldn’t be used in polite company
though.

I took the vacated seat and settled in for
Dominic’s own brand of fiction.

“
So did you
want to explain why you are really here?” I asked Dominic, keeping
an eye on his colleague and the fact Travis was watching the
exchange with an avid amount of interest.

Dominic sighed and that sigh more than
anything else encouraged me to believe that I may be getting, if
not an honest answer, at least one which had a few shards of truth
in it. “Despite the fact that your ability to consistently end up
in the wrong place at the wrong time is highly entertaining,
today’s episode has given me some cause for concern. I am looking
into my interests here anyway so I just felt that it would behoove
me to keep an eye on you as well.”

Lucky me. There were moments in my life when
I felt an overwhelming urge to run and hide. Lately most of those
moments had involved this man and today was no different. Dominic
put out a hand to push back my hair which had fallen forward and
was covering my cheek.

“
I am very
unhappy that this happened to you,” he said and I could hear the
ominous tone threaded through that statement.

I really
hoped that Griffin found whoever did this first, because I didn’t
think my assailant would enjoy whatever was being promised in
Dominic’s eyes. I pulled back from the man, not for the first time
cursing the way he had ended up in my life. Travis had started
moving towards us, obviously unhappy with the fact that Dominic had
got a bit too close for his liking. I stood up quickly.

“
Don’t do
anything that’s going to get you arrested,” I warned.

Dominic burst out laughing and even flustered
as I was I could see the irony in that statement.

“
Thank you,”
he said smiling. “There are not many people in this world who would
make that statement to me without it being a joke.”

I quickly walked away, intercepting Travis
and putting my hand on his chest to stop his approach.

“
Please don’t
get involved,” I said.

Travis looked down at me. “Someday you are
really going to need to tell me why you are on touching and
laughing terms with Dominic Caldwell. You do realize that all of
that comes under risky behavior.”

“Believe me when I say that none of it is
invited.”

“
Then that is
worse,” said Travis. “I don’t think that you understand exactly who
that man is.”

“
Believe me I
do,” I said. I was very much aware of the kind of man that Dominic
was. Unfortunately I didn’t seem to be able to shake him. The door
to the club opened and I dropped my head.

“
Excuse
me
,” I said and headed to
the bar.

“
Crystal,” I
said patiently. “Why have you dragged your husband into a strip
club?”

“
Well.
” Crystal was giving herself
whiplash as her head twisted, trying to take in all the sights
around her. “You’ve been telling me about your work here and it
sounded so exciting that I thought it would be great to see what
you’ve been doing.

“
Kind of like
bring your crazy friend to work day,” I said.

“
But better,”
Crystal said. “Do they serve food here?”

I shuddered.
“I really would not suggest ordering food here,” I said. “See the
hand sanitizing lotion that seems to be dotted all around the bar.
There’s a reason there is so much of it around the place. If you’re
hungry, go home and have something to eat. There’s less chance of
you ending up getting your stomach pumped.”

Crystal smiled, that irrepressible look on
her face showed me that she was determined that nothing was going
to interfere with her need to take care of me. I gave up and turned
to Edwin.

“I am so sorry you got dragged here.”

Edwin shrugged. “There are worse things I
could be doing tonight.”

I wasn’t so sure.

Crystal pulled my hair back and looked
critically at my cheek. “I hope Griffin is going to do something
about this.”

I pulled my hair back and let it fall
forward, covering as much of my cheek as I possibly could. “How did
you know?”

“
Sean,” said
Edwin sympathetically.

Of course. I hadn’t even thought to try to
stifle Sean’s willingness to share news with just about everyone.
In fact I was kind of surprised that Miss Betsy wasn’t here.

“
Miss Betsy
would have been here, but she had a meeting with some of the
members of her gardening club tonight,” Crystal said as if reading
my mind.

I had to admit, I was kind of relieved. Miss
Betsy was my landlady but in a previous life had been a stuntwoman
during Hollywood’s less than stellar workplace safety era. Lovely
woman, but you never knew how she would react to anything.

“
Please tell
me Sean hasn’t told anyone else,” I moaned.

Edwin pointed behind me. “I have a feeling
your boss knows.”

I froze. Not
Monique. Of course, she knew where I was working but I don’t think
I could handle the sight of my boss, Monique Petit, the epitome of
classical style and grace, standing in the middle of Hammy’s
Gentleman’s Club. I turned around and let out the breath that I had
been holding. Oh thank goodness. It was Jorge. Jorge was one of the
security people who work for Monique. He and I were regularly found
working with each other. According to Jorge that’s because, thanks
to my habit of finding dead bodies, the other security guys on
staff were a little frightened to work with me. Just in case I have
some weird voodoo killing power that nobody has picked up on yet.
Of course, according to him, he is just so brave that he is willing
to face death with me at any time.

I frowned as I noticed the woman sitting with
him.

“
Excuse me,”
I said to Crystal and Edwin as I walked over to Jorge at the table
he was sitting at.

“
What are you
doing here Jorge?” I
asked
, although I
had a pretty good idea.

“
I just
thought I’d have a look at the show,” Jorge said, trying
desperately not to look at me directly.

“
With your
wife,” I said as I looked over at the woman sitting next to
him.

“How did you know she was my wife?” he asked
curiously.

“
Because I
know you Jorge and I know how devoted you are to her. No way would
you be coming to a strip club with some random woman.”

The woman laughed and held out a hand. “I’m
Linda” she said.

I took it and
shook it firmly. “Hi Linda, I’m Trudie. I work with your husband
and I’m guessing I’m the reason you got dragged here tonight. I am
so sorry.” I seemed to be apologizing to everyone this
evening.

I turned to Jorge. “Your wife is home from
being deployed overseas. Why did you take a job tonight?”

Jorge looked confused.

“I know Monique would have told you not to
say anything but let me take a guess. My little run in with whoever
hit me has got Monique concerned for my safety. I have no idea how
she found out about it but that’s Monique, she knows everything.
She contacted you and asked you to work here tonight and keep an
eye on me. How am I going so far?”

“
Pretty much
totally right,” Jorge mumbled. “Linda wasn’t supposed to come in
until tomorrow, so I figured there was no problem with me working
tonight.”

“But I got in early to surprise him.” Linda
took up the story. “He was going to cancel but he’s been keeping me
entertained with stories about what you’ve been doing so I thought
this was the perfect chance for me to see the great Trudie Eyre in
action.”

I turned to Jorge. “What exactly have you
been telling your wife about me?” I asked.

“
Nothing that
wasn’t completely
true
,” said
Jorge.

“
Strangely
enough, that doesn’t comfort me,” I said. “You know I’ll be fine if
you want to get going.”

Both Jorge and Linda shook their heads, their
eyes trained on the bruise on my cheek.

I tried again. “I’d rather you two spent
tonight anywhere but at a strip club.”

Linda
laughed. “I’m an MP with the US Marine Corps. Believe me, I’ve seen
the inside of my share of strip clubs. I’m not going to be shocked
by anything I see in here.”

I was shocked on a regular basis and I had
been in this building solidly for the last two weeks. I took that
fact as a good thing.

I looked up and groaned.

“
What’s
wrong?” asked Jorge, as both he and Linda went on alert.

“
Nothing that
I can’t deal with,” I said. “Please excuse me.”

I walked over to the entrance of the club
where Griffin’s father was standing, looking far more uncomfortable
than I expected an ex-cop to look.

“Do I even need to ask Lee?”