“We’ve already got a security team looking at this.”Andie’s voice was calm and level.“It’s a precaution.I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, and we won’t let anything happen to you.Rav will pass on this latest delivery, and they’ll see what they can do with it.Someone is trying to unsettle you.To throw you off your game.Don’t allow that to happen.”
“Let us take care of this,” Rav said, seeming to grow in confidence.“You need to focus on what you’ve got to do and let me worry about whatever dipshit is sending this stuff.We’ll find them and warn them off.”
“He’s right,” Andie said.“You were brilliant last week and you’re going to blow people’s minds when this play opens.Don’t let a minor distraction get in the way of that.All celebrities get sent shit like this—you know that.It’s nothing.Some sad little reject trying to make themselves feel important.That can only happen if you allow it.”
Hudson took a long slow breath.He knew what they were up to.They were more concerned with their own agenda of getting the play on than they were about him, but beneath it all, he agreed with them.He’d flown all this way because he wanted this role.The play was launching with a four-week run in Blyham, but all indications were that it would open in the West End next year if it went down well here.He couldn’t lose sight of that goal.
“You shouldn’t have kept this from me,” he said.“I want to know if there are any further developments.If they find who is sending them, or if the content gets worse.”
“For sure,” Rav said.He waved the pile of mail.“I’ll get on it now.”
Andie gave a wide smile.“Excellent.Now, let’s not waste any more time, eh?”She reached over and ran her fingers across Hudson’s face.“The ’tache is fabulous, by the way.It looks so sexy on you.”
She hefted her enormous handbag onto the table and began pulling out scripts, pens, and a packet of cigarettes.
Hudson couldn’t stay mad, despite himself.It was time to focus.Even still, it would be a while before he could shake the sense of unease those images and messages had aroused.
Chapter Two
Well Packaged Bad News
“I can’t believe she said that.”
“Yep.”Hudson nodded.“Apparently my moustache is more important than my well-being.”
Julian King chuckled.“I’m glad I only have to wear the fake one.It does look great on you, though.You should take the compliment.”
In the last week, Hudson and Julian had become good friends.The closest he’d come to anyone in the production so far.Julian was playing the role of an interfering tourist, while also understudying Hudson in the lead part.He was around six or seven years younger than Hudson, and British, but they’d been surprised to discover they had so much in common, bonding over their mutual appreciation of movies, music and books, as well as their understanding of the play.
Rehearsals had gone on until well after six.Afterwards, Hudson and Julian had crossed the river to The Blue Pearl, a cool bar they had discovered the week before that specialised in good food and live entertainment.They were currently in between sets of a young singer and guitarist, who played a handful of his own songs.
Rav had taken away the photos that had come in the mail, so Hudson had to show Julian examples from the movie on his phone.
“You look so young,” Julian said, checking out the gallery of stills fromRed Hills Massacre.
“Twenty-one, maybe twenty-two.I don’t remember exactly when we shot it.I had to go back for reshoots after the main production wrapped because my original death scene was too violent and intense.”
“I don’t think I’ve even seen it.I’m not big on horror films.My God, that mask is creepy as hell,” he said as he swiped to an image of the killer.
“You’re not missing much with this one.I wish I’d never done the fucking thing.I was a last-minute replacement for someone who dropped out, the lucky bastard.That film has brought me nothing but bad luck.”
“How come?”
He groaned.“Long, long story.Let’s not go into it now.I need to keep my head straight for the play.”
“You looked good, though,” Julian said, handing back the phone.“You still do, but you were a real hottie in those days.If I had pics of me looking so good in my undies, I’d be posting them everywhere.I’d probably use them as my profile picture now.”
Hudson grimaced.“I attracted all the wrong kinds of attention for it.”The fact that some loser was still fixated on the image of him from twenty years ago proved that nothing much had changed.Sure, he had looked great at the time, but it was a simple fact of having to.There’d been no such thing as a normal body type in the industry when he started.If young actors had wanted to secure any type of work, they’d needed a certain look—ripped abs, bulging biceps and huge pecs.Hudson had achieved that physique with extreme diets, obsession, exercise regimes and steroids.Totally unhealthy.
He still worked out and ate reasonably well now, but it was all about maintaining good health rather than trying to look hot.
The Blue Pearl seemed busy for a Monday evening.He guessed that the live music was a big draw.He checked out the posters that were dotted about the place and noted they had two or three different acts on each night, catering to all genres, even more so at the weekend.When the play opened, he wouldn’t have a lot of time to socialise, but he could already see himself enjoying his Sunday afternoons off in this place.
“How are things with Manuella?”he asked.
Julian gave a sheepish grin.Manuella, a stunning Spanish model, was making her theatre debut inDarkest Blue.She was bright and intelligent, but deeply insecure about her performance.It had been obvious from the moment they had met in rehearsals last week that Manuella and Julian couldn’t keep their eyes off each other.“She’s going to call me later, so we can go over a scene together.”
“That’s progress.”Hudson found it kind of sweet that they had not torn each other’s clothes off at the first opportunity and appeared to be enjoying some kind of old-fashioned courtship.He hoped it worked out for them.
