Breaking Hollywood (47 page)

‘I learned something tonight,’ he said.

For the first time ever, Hollie didn’t have a smart-arse retort, so he continued, incredibly calmly, sure of what he needed to say, even if he wasn’t sure how to say it.

‘When I kissed you at the ranch, it was spontaneous. In the moment. A reflex.’

Hollie nodded sadly. ‘I know.’

‘And I’m sorry. Impulse control has never been my strong point.’

‘I know that too. It’s OK, Zander – you don’t need to say it. It’s gone. I knew then what it meant, and I know now too.’

‘You don’t.’

‘What?’

He totally broke the moment by laughing. ‘Hollie, I swear you don’t know everything.’

‘I do,’ she retorted automatically.

‘I love you.’

‘I know that,’ she said, softer now, like a friend reassuring another.

‘No, Hollie . . .’ He was getting exasperated. ‘I actually love you.’

Their eyes were locked now, hers questioning, his hoping.

‘Zander, I can’t. I know you too well. This will pass, like everything else. Like the booze. Like the pills. Like Adrianna fricking Guilloti. We need to talk about her, by the way.
But that’s not the point. Things come and go with you, Zander. It’s your nature. It’s who you are. I can’t come and go.’ Her voice cracked. ‘I just
can’t.’

He reached over, put his hand on the side of her face, wiped away the tear that was falling there.

‘Hollie, tonight with Lex, I watched him suffer because he thought he could lose Cara and I realized the one person I couldn’t lose was you. It’s not a craving, or an
obsession, or the need for a fix. I just love you. And not as a friend. As you.’

He leaned forward, kissed her, and breathed again when he felt her arms go around his neck. Eventually, her mouth left his as she pulled him into an embrace.

‘Zander,’ she whispered in his ear.

‘What?’

‘I love you.’

‘You do?’ he teased.

‘I do. But if you fuck this up, I’ll kill you.’

A passing nurse couldn’t help glance at the couple on the chairs who were laughing and crying at the same time. He looked like that guy from the movies. Just another day in a hospital.

‘Listen, I want to go down and see Davie. Is that OK? I didn’t want to leave Lex before, so I haven’t looked in on him.’

Hollie stood up, reached for his hand. ‘Sure.’

The elevator had gone down three floors by the time she spoke. ‘I don’t know if I can do this strong, silent stuff all the time, Zander.’

‘Sorry. What do you want to talk about?’

‘Nothing. Tell me you love me again.’

‘I love you.’

‘Excellent,’ she quipped. ‘At least once an hour, please. You don’t have to say anything else. I’ll get by on that.’

They made their way down the corridor, their broad grins out of place in the tension-loaded atmosphere of a busy ward.

They didn’t care.

‘That’s Davie’s room,’ Hollie told him as they approached a door on the right. She let Zander go first, pausing to answer her cell phone. ‘Hey, Mike. Yeah,
he’s just here . . .’

Zander pushed open the door.

Hollie suddenly sounded agitated. ‘What? She didn’t? . . . What guy? . . . Mike, I’m not getting this. So who planted the bomb, then? . . . Zander, stop!’

Too late. He froze. Unable to comprehend what he was seeing in front of him.

A bed, a figure on it, Davie . . . Yeah, it was Davie. Standing over him, a cop, staring down, pushing down. Why the fuck was he doing that? A pillow. Over Davie’s face. Davie’s legs
kicking under the sheet, his body twisting, then slowing, then . . .

Zander was across the room in a split second. He threw himself over the bed, took the cop out in a flying tackle. Hollie screamed. Screamed. Screamed.

The two men hit the floor, Zander on top, wrestling, got to his knees. He was stronger, fitter. He was punching now, punching the cop’s face, pummelling it, the adrenalin calling the
shots.

Then he was being dragged, kicking, shouting, off a cop by two others.

And he had no idea what the fuck had just happened.

‘Creep’ – Radiohead

Payback.

Retribution.

Justice.

He took her away. My Lauren. My love. My soulmate.

She was everything.

We’d made promises that we’d be together.

Davie Johnston made her a star. Took her into his galaxy and out of mine. He stole her.

And then she didn’t want me.

My Lauren didn’t want me.

Mine.

She was mine.

He took her.

So he had to pay.

‘Starting Over’ – John Lennon

Every seat around the kitchen table at the Callaghans’ ranch was taken: on one side, Davie and Sarah, Zander and Hollie, Lou and Mike Feechan; on the other side, Mirren,
Brad Bernson, Lex and Cara.

Sarah held a huge mug of coffee in both hands. ‘How’s Logan doing?’ she asked Mirren.

‘Great. He’s back on tour. Europe. I think he’s in Rome today.’

‘And Lauren?’ Hollie asked.

‘She’s with him. Poor girl. That’s a whole lot of baggage to deal with.’

The others fell silent until Davie turned to face Mike Feechan.

‘What’s happening with the case, Mike?’

‘That’s why Brad and I came up to see you folks today. We wanted to give you an update. Gary Bitner confessed to everything that happened to you, Davie. As you know, he was a cop,
had been Lauren Finney’s boyfriend for six years before she went on
American Stars
.

When she left him, it triggered some kind of psychosis. He stalked both her and Davie. The house fire, the shots, the first attack outside the studio – all him. He also planted the bomb in
the car, but that didn’t work out so well. He took a decommissioned device from evidence storage, got some ex-con he’d arrested on arson charges to rebuild it. It failed to detonate the
way he planned. Fired backwards, ripped the metal off the trunk and the front of Lex and Cara’s car. Sorry.’

Cara dismissed it with a wave of her hand, the other hand automatically going to the dressing that was attached to the front of her neck. ‘It’s fine. I’m here. I’ll get
over it.’

The others had no doubt she would.

‘Carlton Farnsworth and his bodyguard were arrested this morning. Raymo Cash rolled on him. Zander, we don’t have all the answers on that yet, but it looks like it was set up to
discredit you.’

‘I think he needed Zander out of Adrianna’s life,’ Hollie offered. ‘They were a weird, messed-up couple. She’d had flings before, but I think this time he thought
he could lose her to Zander. Thought he couldn’t match him.’

‘He clearly didn’t know me well,’ Zander said, injecting some self-deprecation into the mix.

‘And Marilyn?’ Mirren asked. ‘Why was she there? If she didn’t plant the bomb, what was she doing there?’

‘We searched her hotel room. She had pictures of you, hundreds of them, Logan too. She’d clearly been outside your house, your office. The bag she was carrying that night? After the
blast, it ended up being confetti, all over the street. We think it was a manuscript. Impossible to tell, but she had piles of notes in her room too. In her suitcase, we found a contract and looked
into it. She had a book deal. Seven figures.
Me, My Daughter, Murder
was the title. That’s all I can tell you.’

‘That’s it,’ Mirren said sadly. ‘She wanted us to know. She wanted to see all our faces when we found out what she was up to.’ Mirren emitted a hollow laugh.
‘She’d have loved that. Could never resist an opportunity to cause pain.’

Brad handed over a briefcase that had been sitting at his feet.

‘It’s all here. Everything. Laptop. Notes. No one else has seen it or has a copy.’

Mirren took it. Glanced at Davie, Zander, Sarah, then smiled.

The two investigators took it as their cue to leave.

‘If there’s anything else we can do, you know where we are.’

‘Thanks, gents,’ Davie said, grinning. ‘But I think we’re done.’

Epilogue

‘Yours’ – Ella Henderson

The sun was setting on the beach outside Mirren’s home as she stared out over the sands.

Zander appeared beside her and handed her a glass of wine. ‘You OK?’

‘I am,’ she smiled. And she was. She really was.

Two figures approached the back of the house from the sands, both tall, both broad, only their colouring different. Logan’s white-blond hair a complete contrast to Mark Bock’s dark
hair and skin.

He hadn’t been happy that she’d moved to Lomax – came to remonstrate with her, rant, rave. They’d stayed in bed for three days. A month later, he’d just about
forgiven her.

‘OK, get the party started – I’m here!’ Lou bellowed from the doorway, before battling through the room saying hello to everyone as she passed.

‘Davie Johnston, you owe me a huge favour!’ she shouted.

‘Oh crap, what’s happened?’ Davie groaned.

‘Carmella Cass. She’s eloped with some guy she met in rehab. Says he’s the love of her life. Used to be in some band – not sure which one, but apparently they’re in
the rock-and-roll hall of fame. Anyway, I’ve sent a camera crew to Vegas. We’ll use the footage on our website and in the paper, but you can have it afterwards for the show.’

‘Lou Cole, I love you,’ he grinned.

‘It’s understandable, honey,’ came the reply.

‘So where’s Jack?’ Zander asked Mirren, taking the volume down a couple of notches.

‘He’s in India. Left last week. He’s gone to find himself. Apparently Mercedes Dance is there helping with the search. I can feel another show coming on.’

‘For Christ’s sake, don’t tell Davie,’ Zander joked.

‘OK, people, hate to be the organizer here, but it’s time. Can we all move outside?’

‘Ready?’ Zander asked.

‘Ready,’ Mirren replied.

They all moved out, gathered down at the water’s edge in a semicircle. Mirren in the middle, Zander and Hollie standing nearby.

Mirren took a deep breath. She could do this. She could.

‘Thank you all for coming tonight,’ she said. ‘As you know, this is the most special place in the world to me . . . and to Zander.’

Tears sprang to the eyes of several of the people around her.

Mirren smiled and lifted her chin. Now wasn’t the time for looking back. Today was about looking forward.

‘And as you also know, I’m new to this, so please bear with me.’

Mirren pulled out a sheet of paper from the pocket of her white trousers. ‘Zander, Hollie . . .’ She reached for them, gently pulled them towards her so they were facing each
other.

‘Zander Leith, with the powers invested in me by an ordination website . . .’

Laughter.

‘Do you take Hollie Callan to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold her, to love her, adore her and be faithful to her always?’

‘
Always
,’ Hollie repeated for emphasis.

‘I do,’ Zander said, laughing.

‘And, Hollie Callan, do you take Zander Leith as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love, to cherish, to keep on the straight and narrow and out of trouble . . .
always?’

‘Yes. Yes, I fricking do.’

‘Then I now pronounce you man and wife.’

And the applause thundered on.

With all my love and thanks to . . .

Brianna, Isabel and the star in our family, Elaine.

Jim, Hollie, Euan, the King and Ross Clans and all the most wonderful friends.

From Shari

To John, Callan, Brad & Gemma – thanks, love and everything, always.

And to the family and friends who share our lives, I heart you. I do.

When a budding radio DJ, and actor, met a young nightclub manager in Glasgow in the 1980s, little did they know that over twenty-five years and thousands of miles later they
would still be friends.

Los Angeles-based Ross King is a four-time News Emmy Award-winning TV and radio host, actor, producer, writer and performer. King has starred in London’s West End, appeared in over ten
movies and hosted TV shows in the UK, Europe, US and Australia. He has also presented countless radio shows and has his own Sunday newspaper column.

UK-based Shari Low has published fifteen novels, including those penned under her pseudonyms, Ronni Cooper and Millie Conway. She is the writer of a newspaper column renowned for its biting
humour and straight-talking opinions. Shari has written for television and is a regular radio contributor.

Visit Ross’s website at www.rossking.com

Visit Shari’s website at www.sharilow.com

Taking Hollywood

Breaking Hollywood

First published 2015 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com