Page 61 of Hollywood Games
The table erupted. Fiona shrieked and Morag kept saying ‘No!’ over and over again. Jamie slapped the table and looked at Sam with glee as she remained firmly in denial.
‘What?’ Sam asked again. ‘Barbara as in Rory’smum? Sexual as insexysexual?’ Zoe nodded. ‘But how can you be sure?’
Zoe looked at her friend. ‘I was in the corridor at four a.m. after the earth meal, and saw her coming out of his room. He was naked and they kissed. It’s definitely sexy sexual.’
By now Fiona and Jamie were crying with laughter and even Morag was struggling to keep a straight face. Sam sat back in shock.
Jamie clapped her on the back. ‘Well then, no reason to do the gig tonight is there? I’ll ring Clive and cancel it now,’ he said with a grin.
Sam turned to him. ‘Over your dead body, Jamie. We’re doing the gig and that’s that,’ she said, her eyes flashing.
‘Thank goodness that’s not in the papers,’ said Morag. ‘They all seem to think Kirsten is carrying on with Rory.’
Zoe huffed. ‘By the time I’m finished with her, she’ll wish she’d never been born.’
‘What?’ asked Fiona, as all ears pricked up again.
Zoe looked down at the table, fiddling with her knife. ‘Last night either she or Vlad told Shauna to tell Rory I was coming back to the castle. So, he stayed and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, he woke up to find Kirsten in bed with him.’
‘Noooooooooooo!’ shrieked Fiona, Sam and Morag in unison.
‘That’s priceless! I’d pay good money to be woken up like that,’ guffawed Jamie.
‘Son!’ chided Morag, slapping him around the back of the head. ‘That’s enough.’
‘What did Rory do?’ asked Fiona.
‘He leapt backwards out of bed and into the side table. He’s got a black eye and a massive cut above his eyebrow. He came to the cabin in the middle of the night covered in blood, looking like he’d been mugged. It was awful.’
‘Is he all right?’ asked Sam.
Zoe nodded. ‘I think so. He had an army first aid kit in the truck, so he gave himself some stitches, then sealed the rest up with Steri-Strips.’
‘Bugger me, he’s bloody Rambo.’ Jamie whistled.
Rory satin his truck in the back courtyard, waiting for Charlie. He saw him exiting the castle with Shauna, patting her on the shoulder, Bandit by their side. Rory got out and Shauna burst into tears.
‘My lord, I’ve done something terrible,’ she cried. ‘Yesterday, His Holiness told me to tell you Zoe was coming back, but it wasn’t true. I lied to you and I’m so sorry.’
Rory gave her a hug. ‘It’s okay, Shauna. You weren’t to know.’
Shauna sobbed into his shirt. ‘Did she do that to your face?’
‘It was an accident. It looks worse than it is.’ He passed her a handkerchief.
She blew her nose. ‘I want you to know I’m not working for her any more. As soon as this job is done, I’m quitting. I’m going to look after Valentina instead.’
Rory smiled. ‘Sounds like a good move to me.’
Ten minutes later,Rory and Charlie were on the road to Inverness. Charlie told him how after Brad and Barbara had left, he went back upstairs to pay Vlad a visit. He turfed out two women, put them in a taxi, then returned to Vlad’s room, taking his man bag off him and removing the rest of his drugs. He said he hadn’t seen him that morning so presumed he was licking his wounds and hiding from Kirsten.
Rory was glad to have Charlie around. He was someone from his old life. A world of black and white, not shady greys where you woke in the middle of the night to find a crazy Hollywood starlet in your bed dressed up as your girlfriend.
Within the hour the two men were in the largest hardware shop in Inverness, pushing trolleys filled with wires, pipes, fertiliser, cables, and electronics.
‘Who said shopping couldn’t be fun?’ said Charlie. ‘This is better than Knightsbridge with the oligarchs and sheikhs.’
‘You going back to that? When this all ends?’
