Chapter 12
Sebastian
The Twist
Six months prior
“Show me how badly you want the movie.”
I tapped my fingers on my knees, beginning my pitch.
“Well, Simon Says has always made money. I’d like to bring it back but give it an upgrade.
Better writers, larger budget. Bigger kills, bigger thrills.
All of it. We toss out the last few movies’ lore and go back to basics, but with a modern look. ”
“I see. And how are you getting the funding?” A slow grin spread across the producer’s lips, stretching his loose skin.
He watched me from across the hotel room, his lips curled in a smug smile, happy that I’d been reduced to begging.
I pressed my lips together tightly, looking down at my hands and clenching them.
Looking back up, I exhaled then stood and removed my shirt.
“I don’t know, how am I, Thornton?”
He ran his tongue across his lips, and I shuddered.
“Good boy.” Thornton turned and poured himself another drink, then reached for a second glass, filling one for me.
Pulling a small prescription bottle out of his robe pocket, he shook it like a rattle then opened it, pulling out one small pill.
“I just need something to help me get started.” He laughed as he took the medication with his drink.
Setting the bottle down beside the whiskey, he grabbed my glass and walked over to me, staring me down.
Pushing the glass against my lips, it was clear I didn’t have a choice but to drink.
I took it from him and swallowed hard. This man had a lot of pull in the industry.
This wasn’t our first meeting in a hotel like this.
I could take him if I wanted to. And, Thornton did like being man-handled a little—but if I fought back, he’d tell everyone.
Every person who I spent time with to get what I wanted would stop calling me.
No, they’d start calling each other, canceling auditions, publicity tours, contracts.
I could stand up right now and leave this room with no violence at all, and I’d never work again.
With that knowledge, I brought the drink to my lips and sipped the whiskey slowly.
He ran his eyes up and down my body. “Relax, take off your shoes, stay awhile.”
This part never got easier.
Once we got going, I could turn my mind off and just—thrust. But the lead-up was always torture.
How badly did I want this movie made?
Very.
I didn’t care what they wrote. I just wanted to step back into the franchise that had started my career. With a big budget, we could do Simon Says justice and make so much money, and I could become a household name.
I leaned down and unlaced my boots, kicking them off.
The moment my feet were free, Thornton dropped to his knees, reaching for me.
I froze as he took my foot, lifted it to his face, and inhaled deeply.
I bit back a grimace. I put the thoughts of what I was about to do out of my mind.
Once I slid the condom on, I could close my eyes and pretend I was elsewhere.
This is just work, Sebastian. Clock in and clock out.
Heather’s words echoed in my brain, taking me back to the first time she sent me into a hotel suite with a producer.
Fucking agents, man.
“Do you have something for me?” I asked, brushing him off.
With an exaggerated sigh, he stood and went to a desk, raising a manila folder.
Standing, I grinned and gave him a wink. “Good boy. Let’s see that contract.”
He had another drink, and then we sat down at the table. I scanned it quickly. Nothing was really needed from me. We just needed his signature to green-light it. Once he signed, everything would get going. Thornton was one of the head producers for the studio. Whatever he said went.
“This looks great.” I pushed the contract over to him.
He barely glanced at the paper as he quickly signed. He was too distracted by my exposed abdomen to care. For a moment, I felt a little pride in myself. I’d just gotten a fifty-million-dollar movie budget green-lit. Who knew my cock was worth that much?
“Should we drink to this?” I pushed back my chair and stood, hurrying to the bar. I wasn’t mentally ready for this. I wasn’t attracted to Thornton. He wasn’t necessarily my type. I was drawn to people my own age.
Maybe I should have taken one of his little blue pills.
“Sure. Pour me another, will you?”
Turning my back to him, I prepared our drinks, filling my glass with ice.
“I was honestly a little shocked you wanted to reboot the series. We’d been trying to squash it ever since Lita Reyes fucked things up for everyone.”
I froze, my hand on the whiskey bottle.
“What do you mean? She killed herself.”
I repeated the lie I’d heard for the last five years. Lita Reyes—dead by suicide on the set of her own movie.
I’d seen her body swinging from the rafters that morning. Death by hanging could not have produced the buckets of blood pooling underneath her.
“We paid a pretty penny to make sure that’s what was reported.”
My mind went blank.
I’d known. There was no way she could have stabbed and gutted herself like that. But to hear the confession from someone’s lips? My hand, still on the bottle, shook with rage.
“What are you saying, Thornton?”
“I don’t know exactly. I’m drunk. I shouldn’t be. Those pills don’t do great with whiskey.” He chuckled.
My gaze drifted to the prescription he’d left on the table, just inches from my hand.
“You killed Lita. What did she do? She was—” I stopped, grabbing the bottle. My breathing grew labored as I did my best to quietly unscrew the cap and dump a few of them into my hand.
“She was a cunt!” he shouted as I set five pills on the counter and crushed a new glass on top of them, turning them into powder. “She always had an opinion on something and could never let bygones be bygones. We couldn’t take it anymore.”
Putting his glass under the lip of the counter, I quickly brushed the blue powder into his drink and swirled the glass enough to mix it in.
“We?” I asked, turning back to him.
“My friends. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I guess thinking about that fucking franchise brings out bad memories. She’s dead and buried, and that’s where she’ll stay.” He took his drink from me, and we toasted.
I sipped my drink slowly and watched as he downed his quickly, all in one go. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
The clock had officially started.
He set the glass down and sighed. “Well, I’m not entirely there yet, but I don’t need to be. The contract’s signed—take your pants off and put your cock in my mouth.” His words slurred together.
Biting my upper lip, I hesitantly stripped down to just my boxers and socks. My cock was devoid of any blood or emotion. Thornton did nothing for me.
Suddenly, a phone began to ring near the bed. The producer swore, stood, and went to the end table.
“It’s Glenn, my son. I have to take this,” he muttered as he grabbed his phone and went into the other room. Relief washed over me, and I dropped into the chair at the table.
What the fuck had I done?
Once those pills hit his system, his heart was going to fucking explode.
He deserved it, though. I didn’t feel any guilt about his impending demise. Just... slight panic.
While he was gone, I hurried to the bathroom and grabbed a hand towel to wipe down everything I’d touched.
I cleaned up the pill residue and hand-washed the glasses I’d drunk from.
He’d been gone for quite a while, giving me time to do it all.
I kept glancing at my watch, knowing that with each minute, he was closer to death.
After half an hour, I felt confident that I wasn’t going to be forced into sex tonight. I put my clothes back on and waited. A few minutes later, he appeared, tossing his phone onto the bed.
“Sorry about that. My son is slowly starting to take over things for me, and he’s an idiot.” He slid off his robe, revealing an unimpressively sized but girthy cock.
Holy fuck.
I stared at his swollen dick in shock. Suddenly, I feared for this man’s life. Why was it so... purple?
“Why’d you put your clothes back on?” He scowled and reached for his dick. “Let’s do this.”
I shook my head, the shock wearing off and being replaced with rage once more.
“We’re not doing anything, asshole.”
“What do you mean? I signed your stupid contract.” He came toward me, but I sidestepped him.
“You killed Lita Reyes. She was like a mother to me. I don’t care what she did to you. She didn’t deserve that.”
His eyes bulged. “This is about that bitch? Jesus Christ, Sebastian, get a grip. You think she’s the first person this industry has had to take care of? She was going to ruin us.”
“I have a feeling you all deserved it. Who is us? How many of you were part of this?”
Sweat lined his brow, and his face was flushed. His breathing grew labored, and he sat down on the bed, clutching his purple dick.
“Like I’d tell you.” He snickered through his heavy breaths. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is you took five too many of those precious little pills of yours. You’re dying, Thornton. In just a few minutes, I’ll be leaving, and you’ll be found in a few days, naked and holding your tiny cock for dear life.”
“What?” His eyes were struggling to stay open as he fought to breathe. “Why?”
“Lita.”
Turning, I went to the table, grabbing the contract. In a few days, I’d mail it anonymously to his office. It would get lost in a sea of paperwork for a bit as people figured everything out, but once they saw the contract had been green-lit, we’d be off to the races.
Simon Says was back.
I slid the contract into my jacket and returned to Thornton, who’d dropped down onto the floor, continuing to clutch himself.
“Now, before you go, want to tell me how many of you took part in her murder?”
I crouched down and waited for him to open his eyes one last time. When he did, he gasped.
“Six.”
Six. Six men took the life of a woman I held near and dear.
Not only was she the only woman who’d ever treated me kindly, she was the mother of the girl that got away.
Lita didn’t deserve to go out the way she did, and Evie didn’t deserve to lose her mom.
I nodded and patted his shoulder, leaving him with some final words.
“One down. Five more to go.”