When it came to a halt and the dust settled, they watched the newcomer climb out of the car. Mirren shielded her eyes from the sun as she walked to greet the new arrival.

  She hadn’t been sure about this at first, but Logan had told her how important it was to him and she didn’t have the heart to refuse him. He needed this, needed some balance to counteract the darkness in which he’d been living. And if her boy needed that, she wasn’t going to be the one who stood in his way. The only condition had been that the Marilyn situation wasn’t mentioned, that the reason they were here would be described as a holiday.

  Mirren held out her hand, making a concerted effort to be as welcoming as possible. It was the least she could do for Logan.

  ‘Hi, I’m Mirren. Logan’s mum.’

  A hand met hers; a smile mirrored her own.

  ‘So pleased to meet you. I’m Lauren. Logan’s girlfriend.’

  48

  ZANDER

  ‘Better Man’ – Paolo Nutini

  The early morning sun was beating down on the back of his head. Had been that way for a while, but he wasn’t ready to move. Since they’d arrived yesterday he’d craved this – just being out here alone. Maybe solitude was his new addiction. No one else around. No noise. Just him.

  And he felt… Nothing. Just nothing.

  Numb.

  ‘You OK there?’ He looked round to see that Cara was only a few feet away, heading towards him. She climbed up beside him, sitting on the top spar of the wooden fence that surrounded the paddock. In the middle distance, four horses, three of them grazing peacefully, the other one standing to the side, looking out to the other field.

  ‘I’m—’ He stopped. What was he? Good? The usual flippant answer?

  Why? What was the point?

  She watched him. ‘You don’t know, do you?’ she told him calmly.

  There was a tenderness in her voice, a care. This wasn’t a Hollywood conversation. An all-is-fine-an’-yeah-I’m-great. Or a therapist conversation in which they looked for clichés of desperation so that they could spout some psychobabble tosh.

  She was listening. Watching.

  ‘I don’t,’ he admitted. ‘I have no idea.’ He shrugged it off, embarrassed. ‘Look, I’m sorry. It’s just been a crazy time. Got a lot on my mind.’

  ‘You know what, it’s OK to tell yourself that if you want to,’ she said.

  His eyes narrowed. ‘And what if I don’t?’ he answered, suddenly weary.

  She let that hang there for a moment and he didn’t rush to explain. Opening up wasn’t what he did, especially to a stranger, a beautiful woman he’d known for five minutes.

  Yet she had a serenity, a calm that made him want to tell her everything. This wasn’t a flirtation or a physical attraction. It was something else, something he’d never felt before.

  Neither spoke, both looking out at the horses in the morning sun, their breathing strangely synchronized.

  ‘I see you,’ she said softly.

  His eyes went to the horse that was alone, limping now along the perimeter fence. ‘Am I that one?’ he asked, the words catching in his throat. ‘The broken one?’

  Her black hair barely moved as she gently shook her head. ‘No, Zander. You’re that one over there.’ He followed her eyes off into the distance, where a solitary Mustang he hadn’t noticed before, stood, his graceful silhouette dark against the sun. ‘You’re lost,’ she said quietly.

  ‘So what do I do? How do I find my way?’

  Why was he asking her? She didn’t know him. Knew nothing about where he’d come from.

  ‘You have to find a home. Not a house, a home. A place to belong. A place of love. And then you can start building a life – one that is for you, not anyone else. One that makes you whole. It’s not about career, or fame, or any of that other stuff. It’s about you. It’s your choices.’

  He thought about what she said. What was it about her? What was it about this place? He wanted to hold this, grasp on to this moment of pure peace. It was so far away from the noise of his usual life: the addictions, the issues at work, the dangers and the threats. And Adrianna. So far away from Adrianna. He hadn’t heard from her at all. Not a word. The air hostess allegations hadn’t been made public yet, so it wasn’t down to that – it could only be because she didn’t care. And now, being here, he wasn’t sure that he did either. What they had wasn’t real. It was a movie. A fairy tale. A lyric in a song. But it wasn’t real. And he had a feeling that the woman standing next to him now only dealt in reality.

  ‘I met someone else like you once.’ Her smile was wide, warm.

  ‘What happened to him?’

  ‘I married him,’ she said, her eyes full of love. ‘And he found a balance. Found a way to make his life work.’

  He paused, thinking. He didn’t want this to end. This was what life was about. Peace. Quiet. The only other time he felt like this was when he was out in the middle of the ocean, nothing else for miles, just him and his board.

  Now he’d found that on land. And he’d found someone who understood that. In his life, he didn’t think he’d met anyone with the peace and wisdom of Cara Callaghan.

  ‘I don’t ever want to leave here,’ he told her honestly.

  ‘I get that, but you have things to do, things that you need to fix. Running away won’t do it, but you don’t need me to tell you this. You don’t need me to fix you. You just need to find your way back.’

  She leaned over, hugged him. ‘Come back anytime. Lex and I will always be here for you. When you’re ready to heal, we’re here.’

  Jumping down, she squinted against the sun, staring at the horse in the distance. ‘Slow and steady. Your friend over there needs that too. Slow and steady.’

  She headed back inside, and as if the lame horse saw that he’d been left alone, she slowly walked over to him and stood silently beside him. He wasn’t sure how much later it was when Hollie appeared from the same direction.

  ‘Thought I’d better come rescue you. You’ve been stroking this horse for the last hour,’ Hollie pointed out.

  She looked less stressed up here too, even if she hadn’t quite got with the whole ‘At one with nature’ thing – as evidenced by the fact that she still had a cell phone in one hand and an iPad in the other. However, she’d made a concession to the casual environment by pulling her hair into a ponytail and donning a pair of denim cut-offs and a pale blue vest – not an outfit she’d generally wear in the city because, in her words, she was a size fourteen in a sea of size zeros. Zander had no idea why she cared about that shit, but apparently she did.

  ‘She doesn’t seem to be complaining. She’s lame. Just needs a bit of love.’ he said, patting the neck of the mare beside him.

  ‘So you don’t want to talk business?’ Hollie asked him.

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Not even if I told you that the LA Headline are still stalling the flight attendant story?’

  Zander shifted his gaze from the horse to Hollie. ‘How come?’

  ‘I think Lou pulled a couple of strings. The Headline belongs to the same publisher as the Hollywood Post. She just pointed out that she had it on impeccable authority that the story was false and that the Headline would lose credibility if they ran it and it was then disproved. Not that they had any credibility in the first place,’ she muttered, her disdain obvious.

  ‘Cool.’

  ‘Cool? Is that it? Zander, this buys time to find out what’s going on, and it stops your name from being trashed all over town.’

  ‘Cool.’

  ‘Aaaaaargh, you are the most annoying man I have ever met. Seriously. You know, you can be a complete dick. Complete. Matt Damon does not do this. If Matt Damon was the victim of a smear campaign, he’d fight back. Stand his ground.’

  She punched his upper arm, clearly determined to evoke a reaction.

  ‘It’s not all about you, you know? I’ve pulled you out of gutters and strippers’ beds, I’ve bailed you out of jail, I’ve worked with you for ten years, and I’ve put up with an unholy amount of shit that would have driven a saint to suffocate you in your sleep. You’re a nightmare, Zander Leith. A frigging, full-scale, hot-mess, total nightmare.’ He could feel her breath in his face as she squared up to him, bold, fearless, furious.

  ‘And if you’re not going to go to bat for yourself, I’ve no fricking idea why I’m bothering. Aaaargh! What? Why are you doing that?’ she demanded.

  ‘Doing what?’

  ‘Staring like—’

  He stopped her when he leaned down, and slowly, gently, brought his free hand up to the side of her neck and lowered his face to hers, stopping just a heartbeat away from her lips.

  ‘I want to kiss you. Is that OK?’ he murmured, his voice thick with emotion that had come out of nowhere.

  ‘No!’ she pushed him back. ‘Don’t you dare. Don’t do that, Zander.’ Her voice wasn’t angry. It was something else.

  Something he wasn’t understanding. What just happened had taken him completely by surprise. It wasn’t planned. And hell, she wasn’t happy.

  ‘I’m not some chick for you to play with. If you’re going to be an asshole, go do that to someone else.’

  She turned on her heel and stormed off, leaving him with a suffocating wave of that feeling. The one he’d had many times before, right after he’d fucked up and right before he’d discovered the price he was going to pay for it.

  49

  SARAH

  ‘Run The World (Girls)’ – Beyoncé

  Sarah sat in one of the study areas, a gorgeous, rustic room, with three overstuffed sofas set out round a huge brick fireplace. The walls were lined with old books, the floor made of stone, with a large rug in the centre.

  It was cosy, comfortable, a perfect escape, but most importantly, it was the only room in the house with a TV. It was all very well this home-on-the-ranch stuff, but she still needed to work. This wasn’t an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Davie, Mirren and Zander could afford to take time out, rest up, but she still had rent to pay at the end of the month, and no, she wasn’t letting Davie cover it.

  Thus, here she was, sitting in the study, her laptop connected to the TV screen in front of her so that she had a better view of the videos and images she needed to scrutinize as part of her research. Today, she was on the ‘Celebrity Feuds’ chapter. Chelsea Handler, Katy Perry, Mel Gibson and Miley Cyrus weren’t coming out of it well.

  Footsteps interrupted her flow of thought. ‘Save me. Save me from these guys and horses,’ Hollie begged as she came into the room and flopped, lengthwise, on the couch, before putting a pillow over her face.

  Sarah laughed and waited for the barrier to come back down. After a few seconds, Hollie removed it, but not before thudding it off her head a few times.

  ‘Why? Why do we have these egotistical, famous, nightmare men in our lives? Why?’

  Sarah shook her head, chuckling. ‘I fell in love with mine. I have no idea what your excuse is.’

  ‘I needed a job and I thought he was hot,’ came the reply. ‘What can I say? I was young, poor; I needed the money…’ The two of them were laughing now. Sarah had only met Hollie a couple of times before they’d come up here, but she could see now that they had a lot in common. Both organizers, both logical thinkers, both smart, both utterly infuriated by A-list stars who were a long way from any of the above.

  Her attention was broken by a new face at the door.

  ‘Do you mind if I join you?’ Lauren asked, her expression so warm and sweet that no one could possibly refuse. She came in and sat on the free couch, directly across from Hollie.

  ‘Sorry,’ Hollie said. ‘I’m just having a moan.’

  ‘Ah, I like moans. What’s the subject?’

  ‘Having to deal on a daily basis with famous men.’

  Lauren let out a delighted giggle. ‘Oh, I’m in on this one, sister. Where shall we start?’

  Hollie knew that Lauren wasn’t aware of the situation with Marilyn, so she kept it general. ‘How about with the fact that they don’t take enough care of their own safety?’

  ‘Ah, that’s not just famous guys. My ex-boyfriend was a cop. Which is ironic because he was completely crazy. Loved the whole danger stuff – the fast cars, the fights, the threats.’

  ‘Why did you split up?’ Sarah asked, her journalistic side getting the better of her.

  ‘It was just too hard. We’d been together since I was sixteen, so all my adult life so far. After the show gave me this career, I had no time to keep a relationship going and he wanted more. Still does. Even after all this time he’s relentless and refusing to accept it’s over. Still wants me to go back to my old life with him. That’s why it works with Logan. He knows what the business is like so there’s no demands, just support.’

  ‘And I don’t suppose it hurts that he’s pretty easy on the eye,’ Hollie teased.

  Lauren was about to answer when Hollie’s phone buzzed and she groaned when she checked the screen. ‘You have got to be shitting me.’

  ‘What’s up?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘It’s a Google alert. Apparently Adrianna Guilloti has just announced a new celebrity endorsement, Charles Power,’ she said, naming a famously handsome fifty-something actor who was still churning out great movies, a couple of them co-starring Mercedes Dance. There had been a whiff of a scandal a few years before when his wife had cited Mercedes in a petition for divorce, but they’d reunited and the rumours had gone away. Charles Power hadn’t acted with her since and Hollywood’s short memories had fully rehabilitated his reputation.

  ‘Isn’t that Zander’s role?’ Sarah asked. ‘So, what, has he been cut?’

  Hollie swung round to a sitting position and picked up her iPad, but Sarah’s fingers were already flying across her own keyboard.

  ‘There’s a video of the press conference on the Guilloti website,’ she said, as she clicked through to it and then pressed ‘play’.

  ‘Son of a bitch,’ Hollie exhaled, as Adrianna Guilloti stood on the steps outside her HQ on Fifth Avenue, her husband on one side of her, Charles Power on the other, a crowd of suits in the background.

  Flashbulbs were going off as she stepped forward to the press podium that had been set up for the announcement.

  Hollie, Sarah and Lauren watched, transfixed. ‘Wow, she is one beautiful lady,’ Lauren observed.

  ‘Yep, for a total bitch,’ Hollie retorted.

  Ouch. There was obviously history there and the journalist in Sarah was desperate to ask. She made a mental note to save that one for later, and a physical note on the pad beside her to consider a chapter on celebrity endorsements.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m delighted to announce that the new face of Adrianna Guilloti menswear is the incredibly dashing Charles Power.’

  The applause melted into a flurry of questions from the press. ‘Adrianna, can you tell us why you have replaced Zander Leith?’

  ‘Has your company cut ties with him?’

  ‘Can you tell us why?’

  Sarah realised that Hollie was holding her breath.

  On screen, Adrianna appeared utterly unflustered and answered smoothly. ‘I’m afraid Mr Leith’s schedule no longer allows him to represent our brand, and we felt that the strength, exquisite attraction and – all pun intended – power of Guilloti made us the perfect match for Charles Power.’

  Hollie let out a strangled moan. ‘Lauren, your cop ex-boyfriend might have to lock me up, because I want to kill her. I do.’

  Sarah wasn’t paying attention, still mesmerized by the screen. Money. Elitism. Glamour. It was all wrapped up right there. Fashion. Another chapter in the book.

  The camera panned back as Adrianna took another question and Sarah’s hand snapped the ‘pause’ button.

  ‘Hey, I know that guy,’ she said, pointing to one of the faces in the crowd. Her frown had commandeered her facial muscles. ‘Who is he?’

  ‘That’s Adrianna Guilloti’s husband,’ Hollie answered.

  Sarah shook her head. ‘No, not him. The guy standing at the back, over at the edge of the screen. How do I know him?’ she mused. ‘Or am I going crazy? He just looks so… familiar.’

  Hollie and Lauren studied the face she was pointing at, before Lauren shrugged and Hollie said, ‘No idea. Never seen him before.’

  ‘Must be mistaken,’ Sarah decided. She wound it back, checked again. Definitely something familiar, but nothing more than that.

  Obviously she was so wound up about the Marilyn situation that she was imagining things.

  How crazy was that?

  50

  Tempting.

  So very tempting.

  The change of plan, the new location, the surroundings, the other people.

  I thought about changing my own plans, bringing forward the inevitable.

  Tempting.

  But no.

  I’ve waited so long for this and I won’t be rushed. Too much planning, too many hours, too risky to change because of a trifling matter like opportunity.

  After all, wasn’t that what changed the course of everything in the first place?

  Opportunity.

  And I’ll take mine when the time is right, when I’m ready. I will watch it, savour every second.

  I won’t be controlled by other people.

  Because I’m the one who will control them.

  And I’ll make them weep. Make them suffer.

  I’m going to rip out their hearts.

  And then I’ll laugh while they bleed.

  51

  DAVIE

  ‘Slippery People’ – Talking Heads

  ‘Thanks for coming up here, Mark,’ Davie shook his Head of Security’s hand, then turned to the man next to him and shook his hand too. ‘Brad, pleased to meet you – Mirren has told me good things about you and I’m grateful that you joined forces with my guy here.’ Formalities over, Davie gestured to them to take a seat at the long white wooden table in the kitchen. Both in dark suits, the two of them looked exactly like the ex-cops they were.