Page 61 of Playboy Billionaire

“Hell no, now I understand why you hate men! Makes me want to kill someone!”

Penelope had to laugh at the vision of her sweet-natured friend killing someone.

“Thank you,” Dolly said.

Surprised, Penelope put a hand to her throat, “Thankme? For what?”

“For honoring me with your trust.”

Penelope threw her arms around Dolly and hugged her tight, “You are such a dear friend. It’s only because you made it feel safe that I was finally able to open up.”

They’d been enjoying unseasonably warm temperatures for early October, allowing them to take advantage of their heated pool, even after the sun went down. “Let’s get in our suits and float around for a bit.”

Penelope’s phone pinged, signaling another text message.

“Griffin?”

Penelope nodded. She silenced her phone and put it back in her bag.

“Don’t do this Pen.”

“I can’t talk to him about it right now.”

“I think you need to talk to him. He’s crazy about you Penny, and I’ve never seen you this gaga over a guy. Don’t shut him out.”

At Penelope’s warning glare, Dolly held her hands up. “Okay, I’ll drop it for now. Go put on your suit.”

“Okay. And thanks for understanding.”

“I didn’t say I understood. Griffin is a good guy. Even if you can’t talk to him about this yet, don’t shut him out from the rest of your life. You know what? To hell with wine…it’s a tequila kind of night my friend.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

28

Griffin wanted to punch something. Why wasn’t she returning his texts or phone calls? What bullshit was this? They’d both let their guard down over the weekend and it had exceeded every expectation he’d had. She’d been open, funny, sensual, uninhibited, free, what the hell had changed from the time he’d dropped her off until now?

Less than twenty-four hours ago they’d made love and now he’d been summarily dismissed. He knew it was late, but what the hell, he was going to get to the bottom of this. Grabbing his car keys, he headed out the door.

He put in a call to Kyle en route to Penelope’s. “Hey big brother, any bites on the investigation?”

“Jack Feldner is still in town. It appears that he hooked up with a local woman and is crashing at her house. She waitresses at a bar in town, which I assume is how they met.”

“I was hoping he’d catch the first flight back to LA, but apparently no such luck.”

“How far do you want to take this?” Kyle asked.

“I’m not sure. Does he have a record?”

“None on file. He’s either never been caught or hasn’t been formally charged with anything. He was let go from another film project he worked on several years ago, but no reason was given. You’ve got to be damn careful about what information is divulged these days. People can sue for anything.”

“Let’s give it a couple more days, keep our eyes on him and see if he does anything suspicious. Maybe it wasn’t even him that sent the rag.”

“Yes, it’s all conjecture at this point.”

“What about the rest of the crew, any red flags?”

“None so far. I’ll keep you posted. One interesting sidebar, not pertaining to any of this just some trivia, you know the guy that threw himself into the presidential race, Graham Warren? His nephew Ben is working on your film. Small world.”

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