hair, shaking it out as she looked at him and Michael wished she wouldn’t do that because she made it one of the sexiest actions he’d ever seen. And he still wanted her more than anyone could ever know. ‘What do you mean then?’
He looked down at the ground for a second, breathing out quickly as he looked back up at her almost impatient expression. ‘I’m not going to stand in your way. You and Dominic, you’re together, I get that now. And it was obvious that anything I did wasn’t going to prevent that from happening. So, I’m not going to stand in your way.’
She stared at him for a few seconds longer before pushing her dark glasses down over her eyes. ‘I’m glad to hear it. But what any of it had to do with you in the first place is still beyond me. I’ll see you on set.’
Michael watched her walk away, his heart breaking with every step she took because each step was a step nearer to a man who was now more involved with both of them than he needed to be. He’d made it a tougher fight to win, a harder game to call, but Michael was still confident that, although Dominic seemed to have won the battle, he would not win the war. Michael had that all-important Plan B, that idea to fall back on, he wasn’t stupid. He’d always known this might happen, he’d just hoped that it wouldn’t. But now he had to take a different tack, make India think he was okay with it all, that her being with his son didn’t bother him. But it did. It bothered him big time. It had bothered him before he’d found out who Dominic really was and it bothered him twice as much now he knew the truth. But he could deal with it because it wasn’t the end. In fact, in Michael’s eyes, it was only just beginning.
***
‘You have got to be kidding me, Charley!’ Kenny exclaimed, running a hand through his hair, staring at Charley because he couldn’t believe what she was asking him to do. It was like history repeating itself in some different yet uncannily similar kind of way. ‘Why the hell would you want to do this when Vince is taking care of everything?’
‘But he isn’t, is he, Kenny?’
‘He’s trying. What else do you expect him to do?’
Charley sat down on the edge of Kenny’s oversized cream sofa, wringing her hands together, staring straight ahead of her. ‘I know he’s trying, Kenny. But we’re dealing with Jimmy Cash here, and whatever Vince and our lawyers throw in his way he’s just going to ignore it, don’t you see that?’ She stood up again, facing Kenny head on, a determined look in her eyes that almost scared him. ‘You can’t deal with a man like Jimmy in the same way you’d deal with anyone else.’
‘And you think talking to him, just you and him, face to face, you think that’s gonna help, do you?’
‘It’s my only option.’
Kenny laughed, a cynical laugh, throwing his head back, turning and walking away from her but she followed him into the kitchen, determined that he was going to help her. Because he was the only one she could turn to. The only one who could help.
‘No, Charley. Your only option is to walk away and let Vince deal with this.’ He turned to face her. ‘You don’t go near him, do you hear me?’
‘Find out where he is for me, Kenny. Please.’
‘Oh no. No, Charley. No way! Jesus, Vince will fucking kill me if he even thinks I’m…’
‘Please, Kenny. Forget Vince, he doesn’t need to know, but I need to do this. I really need to do this.’
Kenny leant back against the kitchen counter, pushing his hand through his hair again, looking at the ceiling, sighing heavily. ‘Shit! Charley, I don’t know…’
‘Don’t make me beg, Kenny. Because I will, if I have to. And if you don’t help me then I’ll just find out where he is on my own.’
Kenny looked at her. ‘That’s tantamount to fucking blackmail. Throwing that at me really isn’t fair.’
And it really was like history repeating itself now as memories of Terry and what had happened when he’d taken things into his own hands flooded Kenny’s head. He really didn’t want to go back there, but he didn’t want to call her bluff either. Because he didn’t think she was kidding.