Chapter Six
After passing off one of the last digital cameras to Thomas, who was perched at the top of the ladder, Antonio turned to look to where Brooklyn was sitting in the shade. She’d had some rough days, five to be exact, since their meeting on the set with Michael. She’d managed to get the nude scene removed from the movie. Not with any help from Michael, of course. No, she’d gone over his head to the executives of the studio. They’d hauled Michael into their offices and set him straight. He had not been a very happy camper but had gone along.
Then she’d gotten the latest set of scenes for her to memorize lines for. The dick was still pushing her buttons, and hard. Antonio still shook his head at the antics of only the day before. Stefan and Thomas had to grab her before she’d wrapped her hands around his smug little throat. It had put a serious scare into Michael, but she still had to go over his head to get the crap he continued to throw at her out of the movie.
“I think we’re done here,” Thomas said from up on the ladder. “I’ll go check on the others to see where they are, and then we can get Owen online with us to see if it’s all working as it’s supposed to.”
Nodding, Antonio took the tools the other man passed down and tucked them away in the toolkit while Thomas descended the ladder. “I’m going to go check on her.”
Thomas wiped a hand across his forehead. “She’s feeling the pressure from Michael on all this crap he keeps throwing at her. I feel for her, who wouldn’t, when dealing with that prick or his little minion assistants. Don’t forget we’re doing the barbecue for dinner tonight.”
Actually, Antonio had forgotten that in his worry for Brooklyn. “Right. Hopefully, Dion remembers to grab some of Gareth’s sauce before getting his ass over here.”
“If not, we ship him out. Not like he can’t get there and back again in a couple of minutes,” Thomas said with a grin. After patting Antonio on the back, the other man grabbed the ladder and headed off around the house to where Stefan and Lincoln were working.
Antonio blew out a breath and made his way over to Brooklyn. Easing into the chair at her side, he didn’t say anything. He knew better than to interrupt her when she was reading lines. She would eventually pull herself up and out of the scene to notice he was there. For him being close to her was enough right then.
He felt her hand touch his and wasn’t surprised that she was still concentrating on her script. It seemed she just needed to feel him to reassure herself he was here. Finally, however, she did speak.
“Did you guys finish all that you needed to?” She looked up at him. “I swear he’s making this more and more complicated because he’s angry with me. These lines are in Latin, idiot.” She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “It will make no sense to the overall story, but whatever.” He heard her unspoken words—at least she wasn’t naked. She was still furious over that attempt, and if he was honest so were he and Stefan.
“Once Stefan and Lincoln finish up with their part, we are officially done. We’ll get our tech guy on the line to make sure everything is functioning correctly, and make adjustments as he requires. After that, he’ll walk us all through the tech side of things at this end, and we’ll go live. We got only the very best equipment out there, so the house and grounds are fully secure. No more wondering who the crackling garble at the front gate might be. We have video and amazing quality audio out there. Plus, all the cameras on the property are day- and night-vision equipped with a few in strategic places also being infrared. The house is wired to the max, and with all the yard work we’ve done the last few days nothing is sneaking on this property larger than an ant without us knowing about it when it’s up and running.”
“You guys have done some amazing work. Thank you, by the way. I do hope that you are billing me, right? For everything that you guys have done. Well, charging Dion at least.” There was a twinkle in her eyes as she spoke. “Because he can so afford it. Raid his coffers, charge him double, and he’ll still pay it. Give the money to charity if you feel like it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. Shaking his head Antonio squeezed her fingers lightly. “We’ll figure out the billing later, and we will send it to him. He paid for your place to be done, and rather well, I have to say. He even tipped us.” Dionysus might be a flake from time to time, but the guy really did love Brooklyn and went out of his way to try to make her life as easy as he could without breaking the rule of no interference.
“I’m glad. He really is great,” she told him with that half-smile she had. “I hope that he doesn’t disappear from my life once I’m where you guys live. I’ve become very attached to him, and I’m afraid that I would be sad if he walked out of my life and never came back into it.”
“He won’t,” he assured her. They couldn’t seem to keep the gods from popping in and out of their lives as it was. “While they aren’t always around on a day to day basis, the gods do show up for meals on occasion, or to just be pests. We have a relatively open-door policy with them. They aren’t permitted to pop in anywhere but the main floor of the house. Everything else is completely off limits unless they get there by using their own two feet.”
“Well, good. I’m glad that I won’t have to get rid of him. It really would have bothered me a great deal not to be able to do little silly things with him like go shopping or to the spa. Now we get to be a foursome when we go to those places. I get the two of you, and he gets to watch over all of us. The man has fabulous taste in clothing.”
For a moment, he figured she was joking, and then quickly realized she wasn’t. She actually wanted them to go shopping with her, and Dionysus. Ah, hell. Not that he said anything of that nature. “Sounds like something we could do from time to time,” he settled on instead. Stefan was going to kill him. The other man hated shopping, and Antonio knew it. Stefan only ever went for items for his baking, and even then it was a chore. On the other hand, maybe he’d stand back and watch Stefan try to squirm out of something Brooklyn wanted to do. Now that sounded like some mighty fun entertainment.
“It’s even better with him because we typically get the stores all to ourselves. He arranges for us to go in at night or early morning to do our shopping.” Brooklyn grinned. He could tell how happy she was at the prospect of shopping with them. “For now, can you please help me with these lines? Will you read Kurt’s lines?”
“I can try. My Latin is pretty damn rusty, though.” Letting her hand go, he shuffled his chair in closer to hers so he could see the script she held. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressed a kiss to her temple, and breathed her in. “Show me where we’re going from, sweetheart, and I shall do my best. But one comment about my reading abilities, and lack of emotion, and I’m tossing you in the pool. I always hated having to read out loud as a kid.” He’d had a horrible stutter when he was younger. It had taken a long time for him to get it under control enough that it very rarely made an appearance anymore. Extreme exhaustion or stress could bring it back, but it was pretty rare in recent months.
“Thank you for helping me. I won’t turn down any help at all.” She pointed to the place in the script where she needed to start and nodded. “Okay, ready?” She needed to get these lines down so that Michael couldn’t have a fit and find something new to delay the inevitable, her leaving.
Giving her another squeeze, he nodded, reading the section in his head quickly before he read it out loud. She gave her reply while he read his next few lines. They went back and forth for a time before she stopped to scribble in a note. When she finished, she had them start back a little way and continue on. Antonio had to hand it to her, the woman was good. Even in a reading she was smooth, natural-sounding, and had genuine emotion in her words to suit the scene. He was thankful his slightly rusty Latin skills weren’t holding her back.
Once they got to the end of the scene, Brooklyn grinned and looked at Antonio and bumped her shoulder to his. “I think I’ve got it. Thank you, so much. Your help was invaluable. I hate cold reading or reading the lines for the first time right before shooting, but there isn’t much I can do about it now, can I?”
“Unfortunately, you’re in a bit of a pickle with this jackass. I really hope he tries something that provides the perfect excuse to break his smug face. Why don’t we run through it once more, and then we can grab some drinks before we get the grill heating up?”
“That sounds perfect.” She turned her pages back and took a breath. “Okay, from the start once more.” He could tell that she was ready to get this over and done with. She was as angry as he was with all of the changes that were made on the fly.
The second read-through was much faster, and she seemed more at ease with the words. Everything flowed off her tongue in a way that had Antonio fantasizing about other things. He nearly got caught twice despite his best efforts not to go there. He managed to cover it up, or so he hoped, enough she didn’t question it.
After shutting the script, she tossed it onto the table and leaned into him. “You are amazing,” he said. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he gave her a squeeze. “You’re going to nail this and make him realize that you are definitely the bigger person. Definitely more of a professional.”
Brooklyn smiled up at him and then leaned back once more against him. “Thank you. I hope that you’re right. I want that smug son of a biscuit to know what he’s lost in me. But you.” She once more pulled back to look up at Antonio. “You were fabulous. Seriously, you could have a career in a minute here in Hollywood.”
All he could do was pull a face at the thought. “Thank you, but hell no. I prefer having a little more reality in my life. Everything here is too fake. From the people to the personalities, to the shows they put on for the everyday folks on the street. It’s all one big lie in this town. I’m not saying there aren’t some good, honest folks here. I’m quite sure there are. But the fakes outweigh the real ones a little too heavily for my taste.”
“That’s why I’m ready to get out of this town. I know most people would kill for my career, but I’m ready to simply leave it behind. I want to be where I know who my friends are. I want to be where I am aware that if someone tells me that they love me it’s truth and not some act to try to get further in their careers or something. I want reality, not make-believe.”
“Well, you will definitely get the truth in high doses with us around. We occasionally can’t say everything about what we’re tasked to do, but we also won’t ever lie about it. It’s the same with everyone else at the Farm. Something you will discover yourself when you are ready.” He gave her one more kiss to her forehead, taking a moment to breathe in her heady scent before he drew back. “Now I’m going to go grab us some drinks. Then we better light the grill, and maybe check to see if the others have finished or require medical attention.”
“What would they need care for?” Her confusion was evident.
“Sit, relax, and get into your happy place. I’ll get drinks and take a peek out front to ensure no one’s done damage with any of the power tools.”
“Okay.” She did as he told her to, however, something that had him grinning. He liked that she took direction easily. “Then I’ll just wait here until you come back. I might read through the script again to make sure nothing else has changed that I wasn’t made aware of.”
“Sounds like an excellent plan. Try not to get too pissy if he did alter something. You know now that we can get it fixed.” Brushing a hand through her hair, he left her sitting in the shade to go inside the house. After collecting some juice, he checked on the other guys through a window. He had to shake his head when he found them all lounging around chatting with Dionysus, who seemed to have remembered to make a pitstop at the Farm for the sauce. With the knowledge all was right in the world for the moment he went out to check on Brooklyn.
When he walked back to Brooklyn, he could see she was angry as she flipped the pages. “That ass.” She didn’t look up, just read. “I might not have to be nude, but he has the male lead nude and not only that, has me going down in front of him on my knees as if I’m giving him head. Jesus, this bastard is trying to turn this into the next adult film, or as close to it as he can get. What a butt.”
Antonio settled in next to her and set the glasses of juice on the table. “Make the call,” he told her. “The studio won’t stand for him turning this into a porno. They already approved a script, and changes like this go against what they agreed to. Maybe suggest they have someone overseeing everything until this is completed. Seems to me that Michael needs to be put on a leash, and now, before he pulls something that gets everyone into trouble.”
“I think so as well, which is awful. The man is honestly brilliant. I never dreamed that something like this could ever happen. He’s one of the best of all of the directors that are out there. He knows where things need to be on set, he knows how people need to react and is brilliant. However, this is ridiculous.” She took the phone and made the call to the executives.
Holding her hand, he pressed a kiss to her fingers and then held it against his cheek while she spoke. The others wandered out of the house, so Antonio put a finger to his lips to tell them to keep it down. When Brooklyn got good and angry Dionysus stepped in to take the phone from her. Being as he was her manager, the god made sure to tell the execs how displeased he was with things.
How Dionysus even knew what was going on was something to find out later. At the moment, Antonio was only glad he was dealing with the execs instead of a visibly upset Brooklyn. Thomas and Lincoln stayed over by the grill getting things set up and turned on. Stefan joined them at the table and took her other hand while they listened to Dionysus say his piece in biting tones.
Finally, he hung up. “Fucking idiots,” he muttered. “They’ll be putting someone in place starting tomorrow to ensure that any changes are routed through their offices before going out to the actors. Anything not approved is not filmed, so if we don’t see their three signatures on the scripts, it’s fraudulent.”
“What did you say to get them to agree to that much oversight?” Stefan asked.
“I told them flat out that the way Michael was going he was going to be in breach of contract with my client sooner than later. And if that occurred I would soon own a particular studio, and certain executives would be on the street corners begging for change once I got through with them in Hollywood. I even pointed out that they’d be lucky if they could manage that by the time I was through with them.”
Brooklyn smiled up at Dion and laughed. “I never would want to be on your bad side. Even before I knew what you were I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side, but right now? Wow. Seriously you are terrifying, and it’s awesome. Thank you, cuz.” She bowed her head in respect for him. “I appreciate everything that you do and have ever done for me. Thank you. So much, thank you.”
“You know I’d do anything for you, Brook. I meant that, baby girl. Now,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Enough worry for tonight. We have meat to grill, and food to eat. Let’s get this shindig going because if her stomach gets any louder, the neighbors will be calling in noise complaints.”