Chapter 10 - Dirty Politicians and Unexpected Offers

A Few Days Later

Max’s POV

‘I DIDN’T KILL HER!’ I screamed, banging my closed fist on the table, a loud bang echoing through the small room.

‘We know that you killed her,’ the man said strongly, pointing to the files in front of him, laid out on the steel table.

‘No, it’s not possible!’

The blonde woman standing on the other side of the interview room just laughed at my words.

‘My partner and I’ she said, motioning towards the attractive hark haired man sitting at the table then to herself, ‘Have found not only your fingerprints at the scene, but we found the medical files’

‘What files?’ I asked and the man pulled out a form.

‘She was pregnant.’

‘What?’ I asked, disbelief in my face.

‘That’s why you killed her, wasn’t it?’ The woman accused, leaning down towards me as she spoke, ‘Because she was carrying your child, and you couldn’t let her have your love child’

‘No, that didn’t happen, that child is not mine.’

‘She was going to expose your cheating ways wasn’t she? Come out to the public and say the baby was yours?’ The man said and I jumped up from the table, pacing around the room.

‘I didn’t cheat on my wife.’

‘A big shot Politian like you, a scandal like this would have ruined your career, your future.’

‘I didn’t kill that woman!’

‘Then why do we have your finger prints in her apartment?’

‘Ok,’ I sighed, ‘I slept with her, but I would never kill the girl’ I told them, sitting back down.

‘No, she was going to expose you, and I get it,’ the man said, ‘you had to shut her up, she needed to stop, she was going to have your child.’

‘SHE WAS GOING TO RUIN EVERTHING!’ I yelled, ‘My marriage, my career!’

I put my head in my hands, ‘I had to,’ I cried and the man closed the folder walking silently out of the room.

‘CUT!’ The director yelled and the lights suddenly became brighter, the people around the set all started talking and going over details.

I was playing a Politian whose assistant is murdered in her home, and it is discovered that I killed her after she became pregnant and threatened to tell my wife. The man and woman acting alongside me were the protagonists of the show, they played two married detectives who solve crime and raise their children, trying to keep the balance of family and work life. Cameron Hex played the male detective and Kelly Fox played the other detective on the long running show, ‘Murder and Marriage’.

When I had told Ryan that I was working with Cameron Hex he had told me that they were friends, and that they had been quite close up until the time he started dating Claudia. Ryan painted him as a kind man who had a passion for acting, but was also quite level headed and mature for his age. He was twenty-four but he played a twenty-eight year old in the show.

I got up from that uncomfortable seat and the actress playing the woman detective came over to me.

‘Good job today Max’, she smiled.

‘Thank-you Kelly, it is a real pleasure to be able to work with you and Cameron.’

‘Pleasures all ours Max,’ Cameron appeared beside me and patted my arm, ‘By the way, I am going to be at the ‘Bombs’ premiere, I’m looking forward to it.’

My new movie ‘Bombs’ was set to come out in just less than a month, I was excited for it’s release. The movie had taken six months to shoot, and just over three of them were spent on location around the country, meaning that Ryan and I were apart for a long time. I had hated it, but Ryan always supported me and I was so glad that I did take the opportunity to do the film, since it was so popular, even before its release.

‘That’s awesome, I will see you there,’ I smiled and Cameron shook my hand.

‘I have to go meet my boyfriend for dinner, so I have to go,’ he smiled at me before giving Kelly a kiss on the cheek and walking off the set.

‘I hope to work with you again Max, it was heaps of fun,’ Kelly gave me a light hug before walking off.

I looked down at my outfit, I was wearing a suit they had picked out for me, but it was quite uncomfortable, so I was looking forward to changing. I was headed to grab my things when the director came over to me.

‘Max!’

‘Oh Hey,’ I smiled at the man, a little bit intimidated, he was a fantastic director.

‘Good job today, you really are a great actor, I’m impressed.’

Steven Mathers was a pretty big director in Hollywood and to hear him say that was amazing to say the least.

‘That means a lot Sir.’

‘Don’t ‘Sir’ me’ he laughed, ‘Call me Steve.’

‘Ok Steve.’

‘Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have a new project coming up for a television series that I think you would be perfect for,'

‘Wow, Sir-Steve, that sounds amazing.'

‘I will give the details to your manager and I will be in touch, your manager is Aria Reid right? Patricia and Marks girl?’

Steven had been in the film and television industry for well over forty years, so it was no surprise that he was familiar with Aria and her parents.

‘That’s the one.’

‘I’ll be in touch Max,’ he gave me a smile and I made my way over to my trailer to collect my stuff.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

I was about to leave the studio lot when I realised that set wasn’t too far from Ryan’s apartment. I knew that he had a concert tomorrow night, but I thought that he would be free tonight.

I was halfway there when the phone rang on the seat beside me and I quickly put it on speaker.

‘Hello?’

‘Max honey! How was filming?’ Aria asked me, but I knew that she would have an ulterior motive for calling me, she always did.

‘It was great, what’s up?’

‘Well, you know how everyone thinks you’re dating Alisa?’

I had a bad feeling about this. ‘Yeah, and I told you to get rid of it.’

‘Well, it seems that everyone loves her, and after that photo of you two in the alley, everyone just adores you two. They are saying you’re the next Ryan Connors and Claudia Grey, and you know how famous that couple is and-’

‘Aria. I am not dating that woman.’

There were many reasons for that, the main one being that my boyfriend has now nicknamed her ‘The Devils Russian Counterpart’ and ‘Sparkly Slut’ which I assumed was a reference to her dress, but I didn’t want to indulge him too much so I neglected to ask.

‘But Max!’

‘Aria, come on, I don’t want to date her.’

‘You haven’t had a girlfriend in like a year Max, and she’s perfect.’

‘I am happy being single,’ I told her, turning into the back parking lot of Ryan’s apartment building.

‘You mean sleeping with random girls and never actually caring about them enough to date them for real?’

‘That’s a bit harsh Aria,’ I told her, parking the car.

‘Is it Max? When I first met you, you wouldn’t have done this on your worst day. Now, you treat women like they are disposable.’

‘Aria-’ I tried to explain, but what would I say? ‘I’m in a serious relationship that I’ve been keeping from you for over a year?’ Sure, that would go down well. Note the sarcasm.

‘No Max, I’m serious. I know that you have had dramas with the whole image and reputation thing, but still,’ she sounded frustrated with me and I wished that I could explain.

‘I’m not sleeping around Aria.’

‘Look Max, I have to go. Call me later,’ she hung up then.

I hated lying to my best friend, and she was right, I never treated women like that, and it does feel wrong when I take random girls on dates and then drop them home at the end of the night for me never to call them again.

I understand her view, she only saw that I was never home and I never dated the same woman in a row, but she missed so much. She missed that I only did that because I could never even consider dating someone when I was so in love with Ryan, that when I was with them I felt like I was cheating on the person I love so much that even the idea of betraying their trust makes me feel like I took a bullet to the heart.

Maybe I should tell her about Ryan?

No, he would never go for it.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

I walked up to his apartment door and pulled out the key. I was hoping to surprise him, and maybe if he wasn’t home I could order some food and we could have a dinner date when he got there.

I opened the door and walked in. Ryan’s apartment was quite small for someone with his amount of money, he was never a big spender. It was two bedrooms with two bathrooms. The front door connected with the large open floor planned kitchen and living room. The apartment did have a large tinted window which took up most of the left side of the apartment wall giving him an amazing view, being on the tenth floor. The window also protected his privacy as you couldn’t see anything inside from outside. His apartment was mainly white and blue, with the white walls and floors, the blue sofa he loved so much standing out with a blue coffee table next to it.

Ryan had a strange sense of style sometimes, but I loved it.

I especially loved the random framed photo of an elephant that sat on the kitchen wall, and the equally as random painting of bacon next to it. That very random kitchen wall always reminded me that I had someone really special, because not only was he some crazy person who liked weird art, but he was so unlike anyone I had met in my life.

I past the living room, seeing no sign of Ryan on his favourite blue couch and was going to continue to check the bedroom but before I even made it past the kitchen I was hit in the back of the head.

The pain radiated through my head and neck and I stumbled, but thanks to my pretty good body strength and balance the hit didn’t take me down as much as I am sure my attacker intended.

I turned around, my hand rubbing the back of my head that hurt like crazy as I looked into the eyes of my attacker, noticing the baseball bat in his hand.

‘WHAT THE FUCK DUDE!’ I yelled at him, and his eyes widened and he pulled the bat up, ready to strike again, but he just held it there waiting for me to do something.

The guy before me was of medium height, his blonde hair fell just above his ears and framed his face. He had pale skin with medium blue eyes. He was sporting some muscles, but I was taller and stronger, I knew I could take him if I had to. I wanted to hit that pale face, just because of the pain I was feeling in my head, but I was more worried about what this intruder had done to Ryan.

Did he take him? Was Ryan tied up somewhere in the apartment? Was he hurt!?

I would have no mercy on this guy if Ryan was hurt.

I took a threatening step towards him and he took a hesitant step back.

‘Where is Ryan?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, obviously lying.

‘You tell me right now where he is, or I swear to god I will punch you so hard you will fly through that window and land ten floors down.’

The guy looked terrified and he should be, I was going to kill him if he had touched a hair on Ryan’s head.

‘He isn’t here.’

‘Then where did you take him!? And you better not lie to me!’ He looked confused for a moment.

‘What?’

‘WHERE IS RYAN?!’

Suddenly the front door opened and Ryan walked in, dropping the paper bags in his hands at the sight of me and this guy, food spilled out over the floor, vegetables rolling towards us.

‘What the fuck is going on!’ Ryan yelled running towards us, but I ran to him, my hand out, stopping him from getting anywhere near this monster.

‘Ryan!’ the blonde guy yelled, and suddenly I was hit again in the head, this time everything went black and I tried to reach out for Ryan, but my hand dropped as I fell to the floor.