Hollywood Playboy (Hollywood Royalty 1)

I ducked into the car. “Autumn is going to run a story about your phone being hacked,” Cassie says from beside me. “I’m trying to find out how they got the photo,” she says while she scrolls on her phone.

I walk into the house and go upstairs to my bedroom, then grab my cell phone and call my parents. He answers after the first ring. “Dad.”

“Son,” he says, his voice low, “how are you? Where are you? How is Jessica?”

“I’m fine. I’m home,” I say quietly. “I don’t know where she is.”

“What do you mean you don’t know where she is?” he hisses, and I sit on my bed defeated, defeated and broken. And alone.

“She left the minute the story came out,” I tell him, recalling everything, “then she was gone, and I don’t know where, Dad.”

“I’ll make a few calls,” he says, and I sigh. My father’s best friend is a private investigator, so if anyone can find her, it’s him. “Your mother has been crying all day long.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “Fuck, Dad, I didn’t protect her.” The pain in my chest is fierce. “I put her in that situation because I wanted to take a picture of her with me.”

“Son, they took a private moment and made it dirty,” he starts talking. “Don’t let them win.”

“What if she won’t talk to me?” The thought is unfathomable. “What if she wants nothing to do with me?”

“You made her fall in love with you once, you can do it again,” he says, and I can’t say anything over the lump in my throat. Was she in love with me? “I have faith in you.”

I nod even though he can’t see me. “Now, let me go call Donnie and see if he can do anything.”

“Okay. Tell Mom I love her,” I say, hanging up the phone. I look up when I hear a knock on the door. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to head out,” Cassie says, “unless you want me to stick around for a bit?” I shake my head at her. “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I don’t say anything when she leaves. I lie on the bed and try calling Jessica again and again and again. This time, a recording tells me her number isn’t in service. I close my eyes and hope that this nightmare is almost over, but it isn’t. Every day, it just gets worse and worse because they dig up everything that they can. The picture of the two of us is now plastered everywhere. On top of that, Donnie has no leads. Nothing. It’s like the whole universe is blocking me from finding her.

It’s been four days since my life crashed around me, literally. “How the fuck is this still going on?” I say, grabbing my glass of water and throwing it against the wall. “It’s been four fucking days.” This time, the headlines are saying that her paper fired her for breach of contract.

The table in the dining room is filled with Ryan, Cassie, Joseph, my new security detail, Edward, my agent, and Larry, my lawyer. The six of us are going over different strategies to get this over once and for all because I’m done just staying quiet.

“Nothing is going to happen if you tear this whole house down.” Cassie looks up from her notes. “All it does is give me more work.”

“You just need to,” Ryan starts, and I glare at him, “let it blow over.”

I put my hands on the table. “I’m fucking done letting shit blow over. Every day is another fucking story.”

“And every day, I’m filing a new suit,” Larry says. “Sometimes twice a day.” He takes off his glasses and looks at me. “These people are vultures. You take out one and five more pop up.” He looks around the table we’ve been sitting at for the past three hours. “The more you go after them, the more they come back, this time tenfold. I hate to say it, but Ryan is right.”

“There has to be something I can do to get them to stop running all these stories.” I sit down defeated in the dining room chair. “Anything.” I look around the table at everyone, seeing if they have any suggestions.

“You have a sex tape?” Edward asks. Everyone groans, but he holds up his hand. “What? It would get her off the covers of every rag in this town.”

“Yeah, and get her onto every paid porn movie site instead,” Larry reminds everyone.

“Maybe,” Ryan says, “maybe she’s loving this.” I whip my head toward him. “Maybe she’s staying silent because she’s working on a book deal. A tell all.”

“No way,” I say, shaking my head. “There is no way she would do that.”

“How do you know?” Edward asks, and Ryan and Larry lean back in their chair, waiting for me to say something.