CHAPTER ONE
Dakota Rain took a good hard look in
the bathroom mirror and inventoried the assets.
Piercing blue eyes? Check.
Sexy
stubble? Check.
Sun-streaked blond hair? Check.
Movie-star smile?
Uh-oh.
In the doorway, his assistant rolled
her eyes and hit speed dial. “Emily Fazzone here,” she said. “Mr. Rain needs to
see Dr. Spade this morning. Another cap.” She listened a moment, then snorted a
laugh. “You’re telling me. Might as well cap them all and be done with it.”
In the mirror Dakota gave her his
hit man squint. “No extra caps.”
“Weenie,” she said, pocketing her
phone. “You don’t have time today, anyway. Spade’s squeezing you in, as usual.
Then you’re due at the studio at eleven for the voice-over. It’ll be tight, so
step on it.”
Deliberately, Dakota turned to his
reflection again. Tilted his head. Pulled at his cheeks like he was
contemplating a shave.
Emily did another eye roll.
Muttering something that might have been either “Get to work” or “What a jerk,”
she disappeared into his closet, emerging a minute later with jeans, T-shirt,
and boxer briefs. She stacked them on the granite vanity, then pulled out her
phone again and scrolled through the calendar.
“You’ve got a twelve o’clock with
Peter at his office about the Levi’s endorsement, then a one-thirty fitting for
your tux. Mercer’s coming here at two-thirty to talk about security for the
wedding . . .”
Dakota tuned her out. His schedule
didn’t worry him. Emily would get him where he needed to be. If he ran a little
late and a few people had to cool their heels, well, they were used to dealing
with movie stars. Hell, they’d be disappointed if he behaved like regular folk.
Taking his sweet time, he shucked
yesterday’s briefs and meandered naked to the shower without thinking twice. He
knew Emily wouldn’t bat an eye. After ten years nursing him through injuries
and illness, puking and pain, she’d seen all there was to see. Broad shoulders?
Tight buns? She was immune.
And besides, she was gay.
Jacking the water temp to scalding,
he stuck his head under the spray, wincing when it found the goose egg on the
back of his skull. He measured it with his fingers, two inches around.
The same right hook that chipped his
tooth had bounced his head off a concrete wall.
Emily rapped on the glass. He rubbed
a clear spot in the steam and gave her the hard eye for pestering him in the
shower.
She was immune to that too. “I asked
you if we’re looking at a lawsuit.”
“Damn straight.” He was all
indignation. “We’re suing The Combat Zone. Tubby busted my tooth and gave me a
concussion to boot.”
She sighed. “I meant, are we getting sued? Tubby’s a good bouncer.
If he popped you, you gave him a reason.”
Dakota put a world of aggrievement
into his Western drawl. “Why do you always take everybody else’s side? You
weren’t there. You don’t know what happened.”
“Sure I do. It’s October, isn’t it?
The month you start howling at the moon and throwing punches at bystanders.
It’s an annual event. The lawyers are on standby. I just want to know if I
should call them.”
He did the snarl that sent villains
and virgins running for their mamas. Emily folded her arms.
He stuck his head out the door.
“Feel that.” He pointed at the lump.
She jabbed it.
“Ow! Damn it, Em, you’re mean as a
snake.” He shut off the water, dripped his way across the bathroom, and twisted
around in front of the mirror, trying to see the back of his head.
“Was Montana with you?”
“No.” Little brother’s clubbing days
were over. Montana spent his evenings with his fiancée now.
“Witnesses?”
“Plenty.”
“Paparazzi?”
“Are you kidding?” He was always
tripping over those leeches. October usually ended with one of them on the
ground, Dakota punching the snot out of him while the rest of the bloodsuckers
streamed it live.
Em dragged her phone out again. “Hi,
Peter. Yeah, Dakota got into it with Tubby last night. Just a broken tooth and
a knot on his thick skull. But the press was there, so expect pictures. Okay,
later.”
Dakota gave up on the lump. His hair
was too thick.
And too damn long, an inch past his
chin for the Western he’d start filming next month. Seemed like a lot of
trouble for what amounted to another shoot-’em-up just like the last one, and
the one before that. This time there’d be horses instead of hot rods, and six-guns
instead of Uzis. But no real surprises, just lots of dead bodies.
Em handed him a towel. “Car?”
He glanced out the window. No
surprises there either. Another sunny day in L.A. “Porsche. The black one.”
She walked out of the bathroom,
tapping her phone. “Tony, bring the black Porsche around, will you? And drop
the top.”
Goosing the gas, Dakota squirted
between a glossy Lexus and a pimped-out Civic, then shot through a yellow light
and squealed a hard right into the In-N-Out Burger, braking at the drive-thru.
“Gimme a three-by-three, fries, and
a chocolate shake, will ya, darlin’?” He glanced at Em. “The usual?”
She nodded, phone to her ear.
“Throw in a grilled cheese for the
meat-hater. And an extra straw.” He pulled forward behind a yellow Hummer.
Still talking, Em opened her iPad,
fiddled around, then held it up for him to see. Pictures of his go-round with
Tubby.
He shrugged like it didn’t bother
him, but it did. Oh, he didn’t care if people knew he’d had his ass handed to
him. That was inevitable; nobody beat Tubby.
What pissed him off were the damn
paparazzi.
Everyone—Peter, Em, even
Montana—told him the media was a fact of celebrity life. A necessary evil. And
maybe that was true.
But he’d never forgive them for
Charlie. For driving a good man to suicide, then tearing at his remains like
the flesh-eating vultures they were.
And it wasn’t only the paparazzi
who’d made money and careers off Charlie’s life and death. “Legitimate”
journalists waded in too, exploiting his best friend’s disintegration, never
letting humanity get in the way of a good story.
The day they spread Charlie’s corpse
across the front page, Dakota swore off “news” forever. No papers, no
magazines, no CNN. Never again in this life.
Pulling up to the window, he set
aside his resentment and laid a practiced smile on the redhead inside. “Hey,
Sandy-girl. What’s shakin’?”
“Hey, Kota.” Her Jersey accent
spread his nickname like butter. “I like the hair.”
“You can have it when I cut it off.”
He tipped her fifty bucks and she blew him a kiss.
Peeling out of the lot, he handed
off the bag to Em. She was still uh-huhing into her phone, so he plucked it
from her hand.
“Hey! That was Peter.”
“We just saw him twenty minutes
ago.” He rattled the bag.
“Honest to God.” She unwrapped his
burger and spread a napkin on his lap. Then she stuck both straws in the shake,
took a long pull, and passed it over, half turning in her seat to eyeball him.
“So what happened last night?”
He sucked down two inches of shake,
then tucked it between his thighs. “Some asshole was hassling this girl.
Feeling her up.” Manhandling the poor kid. Pinning her to the wall and rubbing
all over her.
“Tell me you didn’t hit him.”
“I was about to.” And wouldn’t it
have felt great to lay that pretty boy out? “I pulled him off her. Then Tubby
waded in and spoiled my fun.”
“And the October madness begins.” Em
tipped back her head and stared up at blue sky. “Why, oh why, couldn’t Montana
get married in September? Or November?”
“Why does he have to get married at
all?” It made no sense. Montana—or Tana, as he was known to family, friends,
and his legions of Twitter followers—had the world by the balls. Women loved
him. Hollywood loved him. The critics loved him. He was the indie darling,
offered one challenging, nuanced role after another, while Kota got stuck
blowing up cities and machine-gunning armies single-handedly.
Sure, Kota made bigger box office.
But Tana had the talent in the family.
“Sasha’s a great girl,” Em pointed
out.
“Yeah, she’s a peach. But peaches
grow on trees in California. Why settle for one when you can have the orchard?”
Em punched his shoulder. “That’s for
peaches everywhere, especially California.”
Kota grinned and passed her the
shake. “Call Mercer, will you, and tell him we’re running behind. I don’t want
him getting pissed at us.”
“Pfft. You never worry about anybody
else’s feelings.”
“Because they can’t kill us just by
looking at us.”
“See? You’re scared of him too.” She
crossed her arms. “I wish you hadn’t hired him.”
“So you’ve said about a million
times. But Tana put me in charge of security, and Mercer’s the best.” His guys
were ex-Rangers and Navy SEALs. “He says he’ll keep the press out, and I
believe him.”
“Well good luck with that. They
always manage to sneak somebody inside.”
“Not this time,” Kota vowed. A beach
wedding might be a security nightmare—not to mention just plain pointless,
since everyone was zipped into tents and couldn’t see the water anyway—but
Mercer had it covered. Airtight perimeter, no-fly zone. Saturday’s guests and
employees would be bussed in from a remote parking lot and wanded before
admittance. Anyone caught with a recording device would be summarily
executed—er, ejected.
Kota gave a grim smile. “Believe me,
Em, Mercer’s got it locked down. Not a single, slimy, sleazy reporter is
getting into that wedding.”
