Hollywood Triplets - Layla Valentine Page 0,45

the room to pick it up.

It wasn’t her.

He sighed, hitting the accept call button on the screen. Enough was enough.

“What, Jacob?” he demanded. “How many times are you going to call me?”

“Until you pick up,” Jacob snapped back.

Curt was startled. He wasn’t used to his manager snapping at him. People in the industry were almost always nice to him, and Jacob was usually downright deferential.

“You left everybody in the lurch,” Jacob said. “You were in the middle of shooting on location, and you just picked up and left.”

“I had something important to get home for,” Curt said, feeling rather sheepish. He knew that wasn’t a good enough excuse for the way he’d behaved.

“Do you realize other people were depending on you?” Jacob asked. “Your costars? The director? The entire production staff? They’re just waiting in Costa Rica to see if you’ll show. The director has been on the phone to me every day, trying to figure out what’s going on with you. You’re about to be fired.”

I’m about to be fired anyway.

“You’ve wasted tens of thousands of dollars,” Jacob said. “They’re trying to shoot what they can without you, but the whole schedule is thrown off. You need to get over here right now.”

“Why?”

“Because the director flew back to talk to you,” Jacob said. “And you’d better make it good, because you’re about to get canned.”

Curt swallowed. “I’ll be there,” he said.

He hung up and called James.

“What’s up, boss?” James asked. “I haven’t seen you since we flew home early. Are we going back to Costa Rica?”

Curt felt a pang of guilt. James was just one more person whose life had been jerked around by Curt’s selfish choices. Here he was, ready to drop everything and leave the country at a moment’s notice.

That’s no way for him to live.

He promised himself that he would work on figuring out a way to offer his assistant a better lifestyle. But right now, he needed a ride.

“I need you to pick me up and take me to the offices of Varner and Lennox,” he said.

“Going to see your agent?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Curt said.

“Sounds good. I’ll be there in ten.”

That was another good thing about James. He never asked too many questions. Curt could imagine there were some assistants who would have been excited by this turn of events, who would have wanted to know whether a visit to Varner and Lennox meant that Curt was taking a new job.

Which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Ten minutes didn’t leave him time for a shower, but he brewed himself a quick cup of coffee, hoping to sober up a bit. He poured it into a travel mug and changed out of his sweats into a button-down shirt and dress slacks. He ran a comb through his hair and a razor over his face.

He finished just in time to answer James’ buzz at the door.

James must have picked up on Curt’s mood, because he didn’t try to make conversation as they drove to Jacob’s office. In fact, he didn’t speak at all until they pulled up outside the main entrance.

“I’ll wait in the parking garage,” he said as Curt got out of the car.

Curt nodded. “Great, thanks. I’ll text you when I’m ready for you to bring the car around.”

He turned and faced the building. Whatever was awaiting him inside, he was sure it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

The door marked Jacob Lennox stood ajar. Inside, Curt’s agent was seated at his desk. One of the chairs opposite him was occupied by Dimitri Belov, the director of Curt’s current film. He had always been kind on set, but today he looked angry.

Curt supposed he couldn’t blame him.

Jacob pointed to the empty seat. “Sit down, Curt,” he said.

Curt took the seat.

“Thank you for coming on short notice,” Jacob said. He didn’t sound especially grateful.

“Thank you for bothering to show up at all,” Dimitri muttered.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. “I know we want to come to some sort of mutually beneficial resolution here,” he said. “Mr. Belov, you’re several weeks into your shoot, and it would cost you more money at this point to start over with a new actor than Curt’s stunt has set you back.”

“That’s true,” Dimitri admitted. “But can I really rely on him? What if he does something like this again?”

“He’s here to reassure you that he won’t,” Jacob said, giving Curt a hard stare. “Working with you is important to Curt, Mr. Belov. He understands the weight your name carries and the prestige that