the next few days and then she and Lily could pack up and head to Vegas for some time with Vince. That thought alone would keep her going. Not long now and she could take a break from this place, because she obviously needed it.
Taking one last glance around the salon, finally satisfied that this sudden paranoia was nothing more than her tired mind playing tricks on her, she punched in the alarm code before letting herself out and double-locking the doors behind her. Another day was over. And she was one step closer to another dream. That’s all she should be focusing on. That’s all she needed to be thinking about. Because anything else she might be feeling really was just all in her imagination.
***
He threw his cigar down on the floor, standing on it with his boot, squashing it into the concrete as he watched her from across the street, his eyes never leaving her. She was still one hell of a good-looking woman, even if she had changed somewhat over the years. She was a mother now, a wife. A businesswoman, and who’d have thought? Charley Maine – an upstanding pillar of the Beverly Hills community. Did any of them know about her past? Did any of them know what she’d used to do before she’d turned into the perfect woman she was so obviously trying to be? Or did they just choose to ignore her past because of who she was connected to?
Pulling his hat down further over his eyes he stepped back into the shadows as she walked away from the salon, tossing her long dark hair back over her shoulder. But what if those connections were taken away from her? How would she cope then?
He smiled to himself before turning and walking away, reaching into his jacket pocket for another cigar. It was almost time. And he didn’t expect her, for one second, to be anywhere near prepared for what was about to happen.
CHAPTER 9
Kenny knew that everything Layla had said to him a few days ago had been right. Well, most of it anyway. She’d made him realise that there was a life for him out there, after India.
After India. He’d been living life after India for God knows how long now. He really had to learn to move on, and he was determined to do that, just, maybe not with Casey. He’d messed her about so much and he didn’t want to hurt her any more than he already had done. It wasn’t fair on her. But it wasn’t fair on him either, standing still like he was, clinging onto some vain hope that India would one day tell him that she should never have left him, because that was never going to happen. Not now. Because, from what he could gather, she was getting a lot of attention from Dominic MacDonald over there in Vegas. Someone he just couldn’t even begin to compete with.
He looked up as Layla sat down beside him, offering him a coffee which he gratefully accepted, and he needed it. It had been a long day on set and he could do with a caffeine kick.
‘JJ’s arriving back in L.A. today,’ she said, not looking at Kenny, but he looked at her.
‘I wasn’t aware he’d left. Where’s he been?’
This time she did look at him. ‘Didn’t you know? He’s been in Vegas. To see India.’
‘Not giving up without a fight then?’ Kenny sighed, knocking back a mouthful of thankfully strong coffee. Layla knew just how he liked it.
‘Seems not. Although, from what he’s told me, it’s a fight he’s all but conceded.’
Kenny looked at her again. ‘The divorce is finally happening then?’
‘That’s the way it seems to be heading, yeah.’
He watched as her expression changed, her eyes looking down as a sadness washed over her.
‘She told him it had nothing to do with Michael.’
Kenny sighed again, sitting back in his chair. Hearing that was a relief in one respect, but it must have been one hell of a kick in the teeth for JJ. She was still leaving him, even if there didn’t seem to be any valid reason why.
Everything had seemed so good between them at first, but beneath the surface it was quite obvious that India had never been able to love him the way she should have loved him. And that was sad – for both her and JJ.
Kenny looked over at Layla, who was still staring into her coffee, and suddenly he just