Filthy Beast(37)

I clench my jaw and watch the elevator finally come to a stop. The doors open and we stumble out into the hallway again.

“Which room is yours?” I ask her.

“Uh, I dunno,” she says. “Your room, baby.” She giggles at that.

I sigh and push her up against the wall. “Where’s your key?” I ask.

“Oh yeah, big boy, go ahead, take me.” She leans forward like she’s going to kiss me.

I duck down under it and open her purse. I root through it, ignoring the condom and cigarettes, and grab her cards. I find the key in the middle of a stack of credit cards and Target gift cards.

“Which room is yours?” I ask her again.

“Twenty twenty,” she says.

“Okay then.” I grab her and pull her along, supporting her weight the whole time. We get to the end of the hall and sure enough, there’s room 2020. I slide the card and the door unlocks.

Just as I get the door open, a man steps out from the shadows in the corner on the right. I didn’t notice him at first, because he was pressed back against the wall. He brings up a camera.

“Smile,” he says, and starts shooting.

“Motherfucker,” I growl, and let go of Holly. She stumbles and nearly falls. As I catch her, the guy takes a few more shots and starts running away.

“Piece of shit,” I call after him. “Fuck!”

He disappears around the corner.

“Who was that?” Holly asks. “He seemed nice.”

“Goddamnit,” I grumble. I get her door open and steer her inside. I snap on a light and ignore how fucking messy the place is. I get her across the room and into the bedroom before dropping her on the bed.

She hits it with a thump and groans. “You can do it, just be quiet,” she says to me.

I make a face. “Sleep tight,” I say, shaking my head. What a fucking mess. She’d let me fuck her right now, despite being goddamn wasted. I don’t know what happened in her life to get her like this, but here she is, blackout drunk and groaning.

I watch her for a second, but I’m pretty sure she’s already asleep, so I leave. I head back through her messy living room and out into the hall.

What a fucking wreck. Holly came on to me again and I’m sure she’ll be feeling this tomorrow. On top of that, some paparazzi fuckwit got some pictures of us together, and I’m sure that’s going to be on the front page of a bunch of shit in the morning.

I head back downstairs and get back to my room. Fortunately, there’s a bottle of whisky waiting for me on the ground.

I pick it up and head inside. I crack it open and pour a drink, but I don’t feel like getting wasted anymore.

I knock it back and try to forget just how fucking fucked I really am. Maybe Tara won’t see that picture. Maybe Holly will get over her childish insanity and start being professional to Tara again.

Maybe pigs will fly and my dick will jizz gold.

I shake my head and go to bed. I’ll deal with it in the morning.





18





Tara





I don’t know why I check the blogs, but I can’t help myself. As soon as I pull up Herez Pilton, a picture of Jackson supporting a clearly hammered Holly greets me like an atom bomb.

And to top it all off, the headline reads, “JACKSON AND HOLLY GET HAMMERED BEFORE HE HAMMERS HER.”

I groan and scroll through the article. It’s the usual crap, plus a few more pictures. Jackson is holding Holly up, outside of a hotel room, and she’s very drunk. I can’t tell if he’s drunk or not, or what they’re even doing together so late at night.

Jackson wouldn’t sleep with Holly like that, would he? I mean, he tells me that he’s not interested in her, but still. He clearly was with her last night when she was really drunk. The article says sex noises were heard from outside of her room, but I don’t know if these blogs just make shit up or whatever.

I close my laptop lid and roll over in bed. I don’t want to go back to fucking work today, not with all this shit hanging over my head, but I can’t skip out. I’m going to have to face it sooner or later.

I get up, get dressed, and get ready.

“Chin up, kid,” Laney says to me as I’m leaving for the day.

I pause at the door. “Still up or just getting up?”

She grins at me. “Still up.”

“Go to sleep.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” She salutes me as I leave.

The article with Jackson and Holly is all the rage on set today, which can’t be a big surprise to me. The crew loves to gossip about this sort of stuff, but I can’t let it get to me. We have some minor shots to do and fortunately Jackson isn’t in any of them. Holly is late to the set, so we go ahead and start doing some work with the extras and a few other minor characters.