Page 28 of The Devil of Hollywood

“Fuck you. You’re not taking Marian anywhere.”

Doors from multiple rooms opened, and tactically dressed men moved in, all pointing weapons at me. The taller man in the dark suit came up from behind, leveling a gun even with my forehead as he walked around to face me. With every step he took, the circle of men got closer.

“Very interesting… You’re not the woman’s guard. We killed him yesterday. You’re not Bastian.” The man in the suit’s head cocked to the side. The British accent had my heart racing. “Yet…here you are, a stranger to me, trying to escape to save her.” He paused. “Or are you kidnapping her? Who are you?”

“I work for Bastian⁠—”

“Lie.” The man in the black gear stepped forward, jerking his gun up to emphasize the truth. “You’re not one of Allard’s men. Who are you?”

“Who the fuck are both of you?”

The man in the black gear glanced toward the man in the suit. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s kill him and leave.”

I gripped tighter to Marian, taking a step back, only to feel a muzzle pushing into the back of my head. I should have kept more men with me until I was out of the hotel. Susan was meant to do that, but she wasn’t here. That had to mean they shot her. Was she okay? Dead? I wasn’t sure, but with all Bastian’s guards, we needed those taken care of so I could get out and we could get to Bastian. It didn’t look like it was going in our favor.

“Last chance. Answer the question. Who are you?” The man in the suit opened the jacket, holstering his gun.

“Last time,” I repeated. “Fuck all of you.”

There was a pause, followed by soft laughter.

“Brave. I like that. You’re not like Bastian at all.” He shrugged, looking over to the man who seemed to be in charge of the ones circling us. “He’s got a mouth, but he’s not a threat. Maybe he’ll make my day and prove me wrong. We’ll see.” He stepped closer. “She seems important to you, one way or another. I hope you come for her. I really hope you do.” He gave a small gesture with his finger. Immediately, I noticed a dark ring, but I couldn’t see the sigil before light wavered from the cracking explosion to my head. My knees buckled, and I could feel myself going down as multiple hands grabbed onto me, pulling me this way and that. Sound was gone. Even my sense of feeling had vanished. What I held to was the blurry colors of Marian being ripped from my arms. I was going down… down into the darkness… and they had her. They were taking Marian.

“Drayton. Drayton.”

A groan left me, and light pushed through as I tried to open my eyes. My lids lifted only to lower through the heaviness. It was Marian and memories of her being taken that had them shooting up and me trying to fly forward. The pain that registered in my head immediately had me reaching up as I swayed.

“Whoa. It’s me. It’s Quinton. It’s okay. We’re back at the hotel room.”

I looked around, taking in the dim room. My head shook in rejection to where I was.

“Marian.” My throat was dry as I struggled to sit. “I need to find Marian.”

“What the hell happened, Dray? When you didn’t radio in that you were on the road, I went for you. I knew something was wrong. We… We couldn’t get to Bastian. As soon as your name was announced over the loudspeaker, he didn’t race inside like we thought he would.”

“What?” Nothing made sense. “Where did he go?”

“I think they were already in the process of rushing him out. Something happened. One minute we’re waiting for the signal, the next, he was surrounded. Our guys tried picking his guards off, but they escaped. They got him out before we could even make it to the garage to follow. Men stayed behind. They held us off. We couldn’t even get close. He’s gone. They left the hotel. Who were those men that took Marian? Were they connected to Bastian? We watched surveillance, but it had no sound.”

My lids shut as I fell back to the pillow. I felt sick. My head was killing me.

“I think they’re from London. At least the one in the suit was. The accent—” I stopped, forcing my lids open. “The one in the black gear had to have worked for Bastian. He knew I wasn’t one of the guards like I pretended to be. God dammit. Bastian is somehow involved in this. He has to be. It’s like… they almost expected it to be him whisking Marian away. Why?”

“I don’t know, Dray, but Penny’s gone too.” Quinton’s hard look cut through me. “They took her when she left the signing. They were ready. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.”

“No. Not for either of us. They either knew of our plan, or they had the same damn one. Those men were waiting. They were ready. Fuck. I have to get out of here. We need to find her. We need as much footage as we can obtain. There are cameras everywhere. If we hurry, we might be able to track them.”

“The men called me a few hours ago. Elec is already on it. He has the footage we erased from the system, and he’s using his position as Main Master of Garden of the Gods to figure it out. He said he’d reach out to his connections. You’ve been out for quite a while.”

I sat up, pausing. I could still smell the scent of the mask on my skin. It was a reminder that had I not been wearing it, they could have very well killed me. They assumed I wasn’t a risk. They had no idea how wrong they were. “The man in the suit… he challenged me.”

“What do you mean?”

I rubbed against my eyes. “He made a comment. He didn’t think I was a threat. It’s the reason I was only hit on the back of the head. The thing is, he said he wanted me to prove him wrong. He wants me to come after Marian. I don’t think he believes I will. He’s about to find out what a grave mistake he just made.” My brow drew in as my head lowered through thoughts. Through different paths I could take. “Where’s my phone? I need to call Elec and see if he’s found out anything.”

Quinn pulled it from his pocket, handing it over. I hit the number, bringing it to my ear as I once again closed myself off from the light the best that I could.

“I was wondering when you would wake up. That looked like a hard hit. From what I saw from the video, you probably have a pretty good concussion. How do you feel?”