Love & Loyalty Read Online Free PDF Page B

hearing a squeak. “Ed accepted their deal.”
    “No shit!” Terry looked shocked. “You let him?”
    “What was I going to do?” Jim swallowed the information about Ed's health. “They were like, all sincere and nice, and you know who the actress was? Daisy Baylor.”
    Terry almost swallowed his tongue. “Holy crap, Jim. Daisy Baylor?” His pale skin pinkened. “She's totally on my list.”
    “List?”
    “You know, the list you have of the people your wife or husband would let you sleep with if you got the chance—no penalties.”
    “Straight people are crazy.”

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    Tere Michaels

    “Is she as hot in person as she was in The Betrayed Night? Because she was…” Terry's voice trailed off. “Seriously.” Jim tried to remember that one. He thought it was the one where she was naked a lot and cried.
    “She looks like a normal person until you remember normal people aren't that perfect.” Jim shook his head. “The screenwriter guy is apparently some childhood friend of hers, and they're making this movie for like…Sundance or something.” Jim shrugged. He'd rather watch the Military or History Channel.
    “Artsy, I guess. I gotta read the script—make sure they don't shit on you and me and Heather and Nick.”
    Terry's jaw actually dropped. “We're going to be in it?
    “I guess characters who're supposed to be us. You'll probably get some paperwork at some point, asking permission.”
    “Will Daisy Baylor deliver the paperwork?”
    “I'm calling Mimi, you perv.”

    * * * * *
It was after lunchtime before Jim remembered the package at the front desk. He and Terry finished some meatloaf specials over at the corner diner, and he stopped on his way back upstairs to ask Sergeant Filipano for his box.
    They bullshitted about the retirement festivities tomorrow, people they knew, and then Jim was hoisting a mildly heavy rectangle in his hands. As he stepped into the elevator, he realized the return address was Hollywood.
    Were legal papers this heavy?
    At his desk he took a pocketknife to the cardboard and flipped the cover off; it wasn't legal papers.
    It was coffee and fancy cookies, plus some books on Washington State history. A gray envelope sat on top, and Jim opened the flap. The folded paper inside smelled girly sweet, but the writing was masculine.

    Love & Loyalty
    29

    Detective Shea,
    Daisy and I just wanted to say thank you for your help.
    As we told you and Mr. Kelly, we have the best possible intentions for this project. We're looking forward to working with you.
    Best,
    Griffin Drake

    Jim poked through the package. It was…thoughtful. Put together as opposed to ordered off a Web site. Neatly packed in the box by an assistant, no less, but still—Jim was mildly impressed.
    Then he went back to remembering not to trust these people.

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    Tere Michaels

    Chapter Five

    Griffin Drake and his MacBook were the best of friends, more intimate than lovers. He slept with it. He cared for it with specially made cleaning cloths and cans of air to keep it dust free. Plants and fish had died under his watch with alarming regularity, but the computer—the computer was tended like a child.
    Now, in the middle of devoting all his time to the Ed Kelly script, Griffin was toting the laptop around his West Hollywood neighborhood. To the park for a few hours, to the coffee store for lunch and a few hours more, mainlining coffee and unsuccessfully resisting the freshly baked macaroons. To the front steps of his condo, where he again opened the blank document and stared.
    Nothing. Not a goddamn word. He couldn't even come up with a title beyond “The Ed Kelly Script.”
    So he scored the coup of the year in terms of subject and then forgot how to write. Maybe there was a script in that. A black comedy, clearly.
    Utterly defeated, Griffin fiddled around in his pocket and got out his keys, juggling the precious laptop. It wasn't her fault how badly he sucked as a writer. Really.
    For twelve years he'd been one