Taming Hollywood's Baddest Boy - Max Monroe Page 0,84
hard time with the budget,” I state firmly. “I know you have a tendency to do shit like that halfway through production.”
William chuckles. “You leave Hollywood for eight years, and you come back with demands?”
“I’ve been gone for eight years, and my agent has still never run out of jobs and scripts to send me.” Seeing as I hardly kept in touch with my agent while I was gone, I might be stretching the truth a bit, but you have to be willing to play hardball with men like William Capo. “And everyone loves a comeback. Especially when that comeback is the bad boy of Hollywood.”
William stares at me for a long moment.
“You’re sure you’re ready for this?”
“Yes.”
“No bullshit? No fucking around? No leaving sets and not coming back?”
“I’m all in.”
“Who is your agent?”
“Adele Lang.”
“And Heidi Morris? Is she still your manager?”
“Fuck no. I left that evil piranha over ten years ago.”
When my sister and I started to make it really big, our mom stopped being our manager and hired Heidi Morris, otherwise known as the woman without a soul. She is all of the money-hungry, evil, conniving things I refuse to be around.
Two years before I left this town, I fired everyone on my team—manager, agent, publicist, every-fucking-one, and Heidi Morris was first on that list.
Sadly, though, I hired a new team that was the opposite of the old.
Instead of being on my ass every second of every day, they let me do whatever the hell I wanted. It was a recipe for disaster for a guy who was already on a downward spiral.
Thankfully, Adele Lang ended up being the one person I could trust, and that’s why she’s still technically my agent, even while I was off the grid in Alaska.
“Then who is your manager?”
“Adele Lang is playing both roles. She’s been in the business practically longer than I’ve been alive. She is about the only person I trust wholeheartedly.”
“What about a publicist?”
“I’m not currently working with anyone.” I shake my head. “But if it makes you feel any better, I know the studio has plenty of publicists to offer me guidance.”
He quirks a brow. “And what will you do with that guidance?”
“You have my word that I will follow it. I’m not the loose-cannon asshole I once was.”
He stays quiet for another long moment, turning in his chair and looking out the window. And I just sit there, patiently. My cards are out on the table, and it’s up to him to decide.
He turns back around to meet my eyes, searching my face before he eventually gives me his decision. “Okay,” he says and sets both elbows on top of his desk. “Let’s get Serena Koontz on the line and get the ball rolling. I want production to start on this movie in a month.”
“Yeah? You’re on board with me playing the lead?”
He nods. “Congrats, Luca Weaver. You are officially Finn Slate. Don’t make me fucking regret this.”
I’m certain this is the first time I’ve ever truly felt excited about a movie.
But I am—especially the love story I’m hoping to get to play out behind the scenes.
And now it looks like I need to do the one thing I thought I would never do—get myself settled in LA again.
Billie
This shit is no emoji; this shit is real. Four weeks ago, I found out Luca Weaver was coming to LA. He wanted to do Espionage and, of course, Serena Koontz was more than on board with him playing the lead.
Two days after that, I found out Capo Brothers Studios was also on board with him doing the movie, and things would be moving quickly from here on out.
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of getting everything and everyone ready to start production.
And somehow, I’ve managed to avoid Luca for the past month.
Whenever I knew he was at Serena’s offices, I found other jobs that took me elsewhere. Even when she needed us to get in contact with his agent, I let Charles take the reins, and I ran errands I would’ve fought hard to dodge mere months ago.
You name it, and I’m avoiding it if Luca Weaver is involved.
But today, there is no evading.
This is the first day the cast will be doing a table read of the script, and I am stuck here, at the studio, in the same freaking building as him.
Everyone takes their seats at the long table in the center of the room, and my eyes have laser beam focus, spotting him