Page 21 of The Devil of Hollywood

I glanced behind me, seeing my fiancé following behind, talking to his two guards. I felt sick. My brain was melting with the events from the last few hours. I pushed the button for the elevator, pulling my phone from my purse.

“Who are you calling?”

“Elliot,” I whispered to Penny, keeping my voice just as soft as hers. “Something isn’t right. He’s never left me before if he could help it. Never for this long. What sort of emergency meeting takes hours? He should have called me or been back by now.”

Penny swallowed hard, worry shadowing in as she shrugged. We both grew quiet as Bastian walked up.

“Who are you calling?”

I glanced up as ringing echoed in my ear.

“Elliot. With Drayton in town, I want my guard close.”

Bastian’s face hardened as he grabbed my phone and hung it up.

“An emergency arose. Elliot had to leave. Something came up and he was needed back in London. It’s the reason I was trying to find you. He was worried, but I told him to go. I’m more than capable of looking after you on your trip. After all, we’ll be married soon. It’s not like you’d need him after that anyway.”

Words wouldn’t come. Even the need to get on the elevator wasn’t there as I took in the man who suddenly seemed to dictate my life. He seemed like… a stranger.

“Letting Elliot leave was not your decision.” I snatched my phone back, standing straighter. “He should have called me, not you. He is my guard. Nothing is more important to him than me. I am his priority. I am the emergency, not someone on the phone.” I hit Elliot’s number again, slamming my hand into the edge of the elevator door as it began to close. It opened back up, and Penny and I headed inside. I spun to point towards Bastian as he took a step closer. “Not you. You can wait for the next one. Dismissing my guard? You can’t be serious. We’re not married yet, and if you think this is how it will go, you’ve got another thing coming. I work solo, as a team, or not at all. No one controls me. You may want to rethink your choice in who you’re going to marry. I’m sure rethinking mine.”

“Marian.”

All I could do was glare at Bastian as the doors began to close. He didn’t push forward and come inside. Maybe he could see I was at the end of my rope. Had Drayton really shown up and done those things? Kiss me? Claim me? I thought he hated me. I never imagined he’d try to see me again. Well, I had hoped, but I pushed that fantasy away a long time ago. After I heard about his destruction, I thought he blamed and despised me. But he didn’t. At least, it hadn’t appeared that way.

“Talk to me. You’re crying again. What happened with Drayton? You said he didn’t rape you. That’s a big claim, Marian. Are people under the impression that he did? Bastian sure was.”

I sniffled, cursing myself for the tears that didn’t want to stop. Everything was spinning around me: Drayton, a marriage I felt I had no choice but to go through with… my guilt. I had to get control over these emotions.

“It’s complicated. My parents. My mother.” I took a shuddering breath. “She never liked Drayton. She hated him, to be honest. I always assumed it was because his family was higher ranked than ours. You know how that goes.”

Penny nodded, twisting her mouth. She wasn’t from the states, but it wasn’t any different with elites in London.

“Anyway, I found out years later, it wasn’t my father she wanted to marry. It was Drayton’s dad. He didn’t want my mom. I guess you could say he was one of the lucky ones who wasn’t influenced by her psychological brainwashing mumbo-jumbo crap. But that wasn’t all. Her father forbade the match. My father was the better choice at the time with our own businesses.”

“Wait. Brainwashing?”

“Charm.” I rolled my eyes.

“She held it against the Penningtons. All of them. And there’s a lot. Drayton’s father had five brothers. Each of them had close to half a dozen kids, if not more. Anyway, when she found out I was seeing Drayton behind her back, she lost it. Of all times to catch us, it happened to be the first night we…” I shrugged, “you know. Security alerted her to our guest house. Luckily, she didn’t check the footage until hours later, but she became unglued. Especially when she discovered the bottle of Scotch left out on the bar. I had a few sips of alcohol to calm myself. I asked for the drink, just to be clear, and Drayton made me a glass. Truthfully, I wasn’t even buzzed. I told my mother that during the hours we argued. Anyway, Drayton had been long gone at that point, but something happened after I went to bed. Within an hour or two, she was dragging me and my father over to the Penningtons. It was the middle of the night. My mother…” I stopped talking as the elevator door opened, only to continue as we headed out onto my floor. “I felt something stab into my arm as I started to wake up. I barely remember the ride there. Then, yelling. So much yelling and finger-pointing. I don’t even know who was talking or what was really said. It was all so fuzzy. I wasn’t right for almost two days.”

“Like a shot? You think your mom drugged you? That is horrifying. Would she do that?”

I wiped a tear. “You clearly don’t know my mother. She’s the biggest monster I know. She’d do it if it fit her agenda. And at the time, it had. She ruined Drayton’s future. She put a dark cloud over his entire family.” My head shook as I pulled out the key card. “She caused a war in our circle, not that I was there to witness it. Drayton took it hard. I guess he started drinking a lot. That resulted in a few accidents. The last one, he ended up hurting a lot of people. His cousin died, and a few others were injured.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah.” I pushed open the door. “He lost his status as heir after that. It wasn’t long before they gave him a new title.”

“What was that?”

We walked into the room, and I shut the door, locking it.

“Drayton is now Mr. Sinn. Also known as The Devil of Hollywood. He runs the celebrities there. He can make them famous or break their careers. Most don’t know the position is connected to the elites, but it is. It’s been around for as long as Hollywood, and now it belongs to Drayton. It’s supposed to be a punishment for whatever elite takes over the job, but you can say he’s taken to it with… enthusiasm. I mean, when you’re as good looking as Drayton, why not? Who doesn’t want to be surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world?”

Penny collapsed to the edge of her bed, worry but intrigue masking her.

“I’m not sure it means so much to him, Marian. He clearly loves you. He made sure everyone there knew it. He was kissing you. Holding you. But it was more than that. The look in his eyes. It wasn’t… right. It was a little scary. I don’t know much about love, but I’ve seen that look before. The intensity. He didn’t like Bastian. He sure as hell didn’t want you to go back to him.”