Chapter 45
Luke
Bloody hell, they were fucked. By the looks of it, FadeToBlack had no intention of letting Divya and Luke go. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there was no trace of Leonardo in the villa. Where on earth was the actor?
“And then of course, I told him: ‘Leonardo, you need to come with me. I have a place in Mallorca which is divine!’ And we came here.” FadeToBlack extended his arms to encompass the grandiosity, and luxury, of the open-concept living room with a giant flat TV screen and a not necessarily elegant leather modular sofa.
The swimming pool, which was big enough for laps, could be seen through the French doors overlooking the back garden.
“But I’m so glad you guys are here, because Leonardo… how should I put it? He can be a lot!”
Luke squinted his eyes at FadeToBlack. The Londoner was still trying to decipher the situation and the threat level. Could it be that the man was completely unarmed and simply a bit—or a lot—obnoxious?
“I guess Meshflixx sent you,” FadeToBlack continued. “How much are they willing to pay?”
Luke blinked. “Pay?”
“In exchange for Leonardo.” The matter-of-factness in FadeToBlack’s words was difficult to digest. “I won’t accept less than twenty million.”
“Twenty million?” Divya’s voice was edged with incredulity. The amount also seemed outrageously high to Luke.
“Euros,” FadeToBlack said, seemingly unaware of how bizarre the whole scene was.
“How do we know Leonardo is all right?” Luke asked.
“Because I’m telling you that he is,” FadeToBlack said. “And you’ll see him when I get the twenty million. This is not how I wanted things to end up. But if he won’t work on my masterpiece, I’ll have to do with the money.”
Luke noticed Divya’s stare on his periphery. Even though he couldn’t look straight at her because he was focused on FadeToBlack, he understood the gesture. She also believed the guy was making the amount up as he spoke.
But there’d be time for analyzing the case afterward. Luke hoped Divya had also noticed the apparent lack of weapons on the captor. They should take the next opportunity to move on FadeToBlack.
“It took you guys long enough! I just imagined once I started posting as FadeToBlack you’d be all up in my DMs and we’d negotiate the amount of my compensation fee that way. But I like the old-school approach, I guess,” the kidnapper continued.
“Compensation fee?” Luke asked. So many things still made no sense.
But FadeToBlack didn’t have time to answer. A dark, small figure appeared surreptitiously behind him. Before Luke could even realize what was going on or who it was, the figure jumped on FadeToBlack and hit him on the back of his legs with what looked like a giant black sack.
“Ouch!” FadeToBlack screamed, falling to his knees on the floor.
“Sol, stop!” Luke told the small figure, before she’d hit the kidnapper a second time. Both he and Divya ran toward FadeToBlack and pinned him down.
“What’s going on?” FadeToBlack screamed, his right cheek plastered against the floor, as his whole body lay on the ground, with Luke grabbing one of his arms and pushing a knee against his back, and Divya immobilizing the other arm. “I thought this was a bidding negotiation!”
“Wait a second!” Sol dropped the weapon she’d used on FadeToBlack, which Luke recognized as one of her ridiculously too big bags, and she looked at the man on the floor. She focused on him. “Aren’t you Theo Summers?”
“Of course I am!” FadeToBlack continued screaming from the floor. “I demand to be released!”
Luke made out the sound of police sirens getting closer. He exhaled, relieved. But what the bloody hell was Sol doing there? She was supposed to call the police from inside the safety of their rental car, not to get inside the villa and start hitting people with a very heavy bag.
He was about to confront Sol about her presence in the villa, but there was something more urgent first. “We didn’t find Leonardo,” he said, frustration edging his voice. He was still kneeling on the floor to keep the kidnapper there.
Sol flicked one of her hands, dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. He’s outside and perfectly fine. He’s the one who called the cops, actually.”
“And what are you doing here?” Luke’s eyes scrutinized her. If Leonardo was okay, Luke could start scolding his lover for putting herself at risk.
“Saving you two obviously.” Sol pointed to the man on the floor and her extremely heavy bag. “You know who that is, right?”
“You called him something familiar,” Divya said, also kneeling on the floor beside the kidnapper.
“Theo Summers, the showrunner of the television series that Leonardo was supposed to do next but didn’t because of the scheduling conflict,” Sol explained, and even though Luke was still mad at her for being there, he was also grateful.
Not only had she been able to recognize someone who for him and Divya was only a name, Sol was reminding them who Theo Summers was.
Luke still glared at Sol. They would talk later about her little incursion inside the villa.
“The scheduling conflict was such an excuse!” Theo Summers screamed again from the floor. “I just wanted to have some time with Leonardo and properly woo him to do my show, get his undivided attention. But he’s such a high-maintenance brat!”
Luke couldn’t quite believe his ears.
“A brat?” the detective asked.
“He’s driven me nuts! First he demanded to get all his cosmetic products from the theater.
I offered to buy him new stuff but of course he said no: some of his toiletries were rare and difficult to source—others simply crazily prized.
Does he really need a $1,500 moisturizer cream!
” Did Theo want the detectives to feel bad for him?
Or was he simply venting—and warning them about how messy kidnapping could get?
“I should have thought this thing through better! After the cosmetics demands, Leonardo requested to get his clothes from the hotel room, and I had to go there unnoticed and bring all his stuff. There were three suitcases full to the brim! Who needs so much crap? I left some garments in the room so that it wouldn’t be so noticeable, and he never let me hear the end of it.
Apparently those were his favorite sweats that I left behind! ”
Luke, Divya, and Sol exchanged a look. It was decided that they would remain silent and let the “long-suffering” showrunner continue with his sharing of information and of hurt feelings.
“He’s spent all these days lounging by the pool and working on his tan, reading the most outrageously commercial books, doing yogalates, swimming, and making demands about the food—apparently he is on some sort of macro-targeted whole food diet.
I swear if I see another grilled chicken breast I’m gonna puke!
So much chicken!” Summers continued. “He refused to engage every time I brought up Bibliophilia. He keeps saying my show is boring! Boring! Can you freaking believe it?”
Luke could. Even though Jasper Fairbanks had told him what that show was about that same day, Luke couldn’t recall it.
And it wasn’t because he hadn’t listened.
No. He’d listened. The show simply wasn’t memorable.
No wonder Leonardo no longer wanted to do it and no wonder he didn’t want to work with Theo Summers. Kidnapping ways aside, he was a whiner.
“I’ve tried everything!” Summers continued. “We even went out the other night, to try and see if I could get Leonardo lubricated and he’d accept to do my show. But the guy doesn’t even drink that much, I swear he’s a fucking health nut!”
“We heard you had a nice chat in the cab coming back here,” Luke asked.
“We did,” Summers whimpered. “But we were talking about the show he’s set on doing with the ultimate nepo baby—Jasper Fairbanks.
He starts chatting about the trashy Single Dad Situation and he gets all animated.
That’s a dramedy! I’m offering him the pain and suffering—but also the awards recognition—that comes with a very serious drama!
Yet he ignored me and only engaged to talk about the other show.
I tried telling him the internet was starting to speculate about him being missing—and possibly bailing on Fairbanks.
He was unflappable, had the audacity to say this whole thing would probably help Fairbanks’s show! Nonsense!”
“I shouldn’t be so sure,” Sol said. The bite in her tone was unmissable: she was annoyed by Theo Summers.
“We just took Leonardo from your very boring, but oppressive hold. Come Monday, he’ll be in London.
Tan, handsome as ever, and ready to play a defining role written for him by Jasper Fairbanks.
Of course there’ll be articles written about it, I’ll make sure to write about him too.
I’ll be very surprised if this kidnapping of yours doesn’t bring lots of attention and free promotion to Fairbanks’s show. ”
By the noise coming from Summer’s mouth, Luke wasn’t sure if the showrunner was crying or simply screaming. It didn’t matter. That was when the police came inside the villa, ready to take Leonardo Pascual’s kidnapper in for questioning.