Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5 by Leonie Gant Page B

don’t
change.”
    “Sometimes they do, Crystal, if they are
motivated enough. I’m not saying you have to believe her. I’m not even saying
that you have to have anything more to do with her after today. All I’m
suggesting is that you listen to what she has to say. Give her today, and
tomorrow morning make a decision as to whether you still want her in your life.
Even if today is a massive disaster and you end up never wanting to see her
again, how is that any different from the way you felt yesterday morning? You
are not going to lose anything. You’ll still have your dad, you’ll still have
Edwin and you’ll still have me. Hell, I’ll even throw in Griffin if it’ll make
you happy.”
    “Oh, because that’s just a dream come
true,” Crystal said sarcastically.
    “We’re in a highly emotional moment so I’m
going to ignore that comment about the love of my life,” I said wryly.
    Crystal giggled. “Okay, you’re right. You
should go. It was probably a bit of a coward move to bring you along.”
    “I would never say that.” I pulled her
close to give her a hug.
    “You realize we’re hugging and I’m half
naked,” Crystal said.
    “We’re not telling Edwin about that
either.”

Chapter Ten
    I was surprised to find Ramos waiting at my
apartment.
    “Liza, are you okay?”
    I immediately cursed myself for the stupid
question. Of course she wasn’t okay.
    “I need to talk to you, Trudie.”
    “Uh, sure, whatever you want.” I clumsily
unlocked my door. “Come on in.” I motioned her into my apartment. “Can I get
you a coffee, something to eat?”
    “How long did you know?” Ramos asked
suddenly.
    “Know what?”
    “How long did you know that Jolena was
cheating on me?”
    I clasped my hands together. “I didn’t know
who she was until we met at the barbecue.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “What was I going to say?” I hoped she
would understand. “I didn’t know how to approach the situation and it wasn’t
the place to say it.”
    Ramos turned away from me. “I knew there
was something wrong with you at the barbecue. You were acting strange, even by
your standards.” She turned back to me. “I want you to tell me everything that
happened.”
    I really didn’t want to do that.
    “Are you sure? Maybe you should just leave
this to Fletchall and Pickett. I gave them the information. They are the ones
who are following it up.”
    “Everything, Trudie.”
    I swallowed nervously. “The guys in the
band are currently working on a new album so they are pretty much cloistered
away during the day. There are a minimal number of staff on site, mostly just
to keep things ticking along smoothly. We make sure the guys get what they want
so nothing interrupts the creative process. At nights they sometimes have
parties. Most of the attendees at these parties are female, a lot of them are
models. The stereotype of rock stars hooking up with models is pretty
accurate.” I grimaced as I belatedly remembered that Jolena had been a model.
    “Go on,” Ramos waved her hand.
    “On those nights when the band is partying,
the women compete with each other to spend some time with the guys. There’s a
hierarchy. As you would expect, the lead singer is at the top of that
hierarchy. Ash’s tastes sometimes run a little wild. My role at these parties
is to make sure things don’t get too out of hand. That night Ash had two women
with him. I heard some screaming and I followed Jorge into the room. We found
Ash sitting back while these two women were fighting each other. Jolena was
doing some damage to the other girl. Jorge tried to separate them and found it
really tough. Some of the other guys came in to find out what was happening and
eventually we got everything calmed down. The other girl was a bit messed up.
She had definitely come off second best in the fight. Jolena was told to leave
and that she would never be welcomed back. It was the only time I had ever seen
her there. When I saw her at