news van’s windshield at nearly a hundred miles an hour. The bullet between his eyes showed he had been dead long before he’d hit the ground.
Amid the fear and confusion, the premiere had been abandoned. Anchors had reported from Vegas, but it was a solemn account they’d delivered, not the star-studded story of just a few hours before. Police and paramedics were called. The area sealed. Several fragile guests had needed counselling. News of the event was broadcast across the planet: this movie, its stars and the Orient Hotel became household names overnight.
The time had come to turn the page. Organisers of tonight’s event knew it was the first step of a long journey: it wasn’t just insiders who needed affirmation that the untouchable glamour of this world still existed–it was the public, too.
Chloe looked adoringly at the man as he embraced her. They laughed together for the cameras, their foreheads touching, bulbs flashing all around. She leaned back in his arms, delightedly sliding into a series of rehearsed poses.
Chloe French and Cole Steel had been dating for just six weeks. Two months after Vegas they had begun filming together on Cole’s new action picture and romance had–to their surprise, so the story went–blossomed. According to the papers, Cole’s marriage had been rapidly falling apart, understandably so, and Chloe, sweet English girl with a heart of gold, had become a shoulder to cry on. Out of respect to Lana they’d waited until the divorce papers had come through before going public with the relationship. In the press Cole referred to the period as ‘without doubt the most difficult time of my life’.
For him, she was a heavenly proposition. Young, beautiful and at just the right level to take the contract as bait. Just the previous week he had confessed his eternal devotion on a popular TV chat show, reciting an ode he had penned for Chloe entitled ‘At My Weakest, You Were There’. The performance had gone on to smash viewer ratings on YouTube.
For her, it was the ultimate Hollywood goal. It didn’t get better than being Cole Steel’s wife. Marriage, security, a family, it was all she had ever wanted. Real life didn’t work that way, there were too many unknowns, too many people you couldn’t trust. Cole’s way was reliable, an offer of safety she had long been craving. And despite the no-sex clause, which of course he had to put in as a formality, she was looking forward to getting to grips with the Hollywood crown jewels. How hard could it be to go to bed with Cole Steel every night? Not very. Despite the age gap, he was still every woman’s fantasy.
But all that would come. Cole was a true gentleman, practised in the art of chivalry. For weeks they had been dating and he still hadn’t tried to get her into bed. It made a refreshing change. Chloe had no doubt he was waiting for their wedding night and, boy, did she plan to give him a night he would remember.
Cole, too, was living the publicity dream. After Lana lost the baby his critics backed off, accepting that even celebrities were vulnerable to tragedy. To all intents and purposes, the trauma of Lana’s ordeal had sadly brought their marriage to a close. The shock of her appalling attack by a crazed stalker and the circumstances under which her child had died would change her for ever: Cole was the desperate, loving husband who tried to make it work; Lana the woman who could never find a way back. It was heartbreaking. Cole had been waiting all his life for the right woman with whom to have children and, just as he had found her, the privilege had been snatched away. Choking back tears, he hoped that one day he and Chloe could share that joy.
He cared for Lana, in his way. He was sorry she had lost her baby, and for the terror and grief she must have endured that night. Nobody should have to go through that.
And in the aftermath of the tragedy, he had decided not to pursue his plans for Parker Troy. The guy had committed a crime against him, but he had lost a child as well as Lana. Now that Cole had Chloe and, despite the odds, things had worked out favourably, he decided to exercise a little charity. Whatever the papers might say, he did have a heart.
But fortunately for Chloe, his charity ended there. She’d had her share