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

“You know that you are very easy to talk to?”
    “I’ve been told that often,” I said wryly.
    “I don’t think you realize what a gift that
is,” he said reflectively. He looked out across the lake again. “What are you
doing down here anyway, Trudie?”
    I motioned towards Travis and Griffin who
were standing a relatively respectful distance behind us. “We have new security
people and we were just going over the issues from the last couple of days.”
    Vale frowned. “Isn’t that your boyfriend?”
he asked, with a slightly accusing tone.
    “Yes, he is. He was available for security
work and my boss thought he would be helpful.”
    Vale looked skeptical. I wasn’t going to
argue with him. I still had my doubts about this arrangement. Now that I’d had
Travis thrown into the mix, I was just going to keep my head down until this
entire job was finished.
    Vale grabbed my elbow and pulled me aside
to where he thought that the two men wouldn’t be able to hear us. I didn’t have
the heart to tell him I knew for a fact that Griffin had the hearing of a bat.
    “I don’t think that is entirely
appropriate,” Vale said quietly.
    I looked down pointedly at the way Vale was
still gripping my elbow.
    “Sorry,” he muttered as he let go.
    “It’s all been approved by management.” I
was a little confused by the annoyance I could see on Vale’s face.
    “I think I need to have a little talk to
them about that.”
    I stayed silent. I didn’t really see Vale’s
reasoned argument beating Monique’s powers of persuasion but I wasn’t going to
try to stop him.
    Vale smiled at me as if trying to hide his
annoyance. “I’m really glad you came back,” he said, before turning and walking
away.
    I watched him worriedly as he walked
towards the mansion. I kept watching him as I heard Griffin and Travis step up
behind me.
    “He likes you,” Griffin said accusingly.
    I tried to control my impatience before turning
to face the two of them.
    “Of course he likes me. Unlike you, I’m a
very likable person.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    I took a deep breath. “I know that you have
this belief that just because you find me irresistible that every other man in
the world must feel the same way. Here’s a newsflash for you. They don’t. Vale
is just being nice to me. New concept amongst my clients but the law of
averages said I had to hit one sooner or later.”
    “Griffin’s right,” Travis decided to
interfere. “I think he does like you.”
    I turned around to face the newest attack.
“You might want to think on what you just said. I never thought that I would
hear you say the words ‘Griffin is right’ without you choking on it or at least
a threat of imminent death.”
    Travis grimaced. “I know. Believe me they
were just as unpleasant for me to say as they were for you to hear. Doesn’t
stop them from being the truth.”
    I shrugged, giving up. One thing I had
learned very quickly about the people I seemed to attract into my life, they
were not easily swayed when they had an opinion.
    “This was where I found Buddy. I was
talking to Crystal on the phone when I spotted him.”
    “Why were you talking to Crystal?” Travis
asked curiously.
    “We were discussing how ridiculous my life
had become when I was required to spend my working hours hunting down a goat
who, as we’ve already seen, does not like me.”
    “Okay.” Travis drawled, attempting to be
understanding.
    “I got off the phone with Crystal and I was
trying to reason with Buddy.”
    “We’re still talking about the goat?”
Travis queried.
    “Yes, we are still talking about the goat.
I was not going to be able to drag him all the way back to his pen on my own so
I was trying to discuss the matter calmly with him. He wasn’t exactly
responding to my reasoned arguments and I looked out over the lake because I
was feeling a little frustrated with the situation.” I paused for a moment as I
remembered that morning. “I saw some