Dangerous Games (2 page)

To all my dedicated fans, friends and family, this one is for you.

I couldn’t have done this without Ana and Dokeshi Designs so I thank them both for their hard work and the long hours they put up with me. <3

I hope readers enjoy this novel, and take something away from it more than great sex scenes and a hot book boyfriend.

The parable of this story is be careful what you wish for . . . you might get it all and more even though you never truly wanted it to begin with. Honor thy mother and father—they may be a pain in the ass but they are the only ones you’ll ever have and once they are gone, they can’t be replaced. <3

“Gasoline” – Halsey

“Diet Mountain Dew” – Lana Del Rey

“Player” – Tinashe feat. Chris Brown

“Drunk” – Zayn

“Swimming Pools (Drank)” – Kendrick Lamar

“Champagne Problems” – Nick Jonas

“All Hands On Deck” – Tinashe

“Unkiss Me” – Maroon 5

“Rehab” – Rihanna

“Heal” – Ellie Goulding

“6 Underground (Remix)” – Sneaker Pimps

“The Man” – Ed Sheeran

“Needed Me” – Rihanna

“Waiting For You” – Demi Lovato feat. Sirah

“Haunting” – Halsey

“Thousand Miles” – Tove Lo

“Chainsaw” – Nick Jonas

“Around U” – Ellie Goulding

“Yes” – Demi Lovato

Listen to the Spotify
Dangerous Games Playlist
!

“B
eep, beep, beep, beep…”

The whirring of the machines continued to aid the ghost of a woman I had once known to be so vibrant and full of a lust for life had started to drive me crazy hours ago but I continued to stay. This was my punishment and like bitter medicine, I would swallow it all, every last drop.

My hair was thrown into a messy bun and every time I thought I would be all right to get up and walk out, the tears would come and there would be a deluge of them, threatening to drown me and sweep me away emotionally.

It was my fault she was here in this very room in the Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai; she was mostly out of danger but it was no guarantee until she was moved from this room in the ICU ward.

Therein lay the problem and the issue because no one knew if my mother would make a full and complete recovery yet and no one could seem to give me a straight answer.

A sympathetic nurse I’d come to know as Cathy walked in and checked the monitors before she placed a hand on my shoulder. “Your father is here. He’s waiting outside for you.”

I smiled weakly and stood before my legs seemed to carry me into the hallway. There was my dad, last action hero, former mayor of the small town he’d grown up in half way around the world in Stockholm, and clinging to his trophy wife. Although she wasn’t a “trophy wife” per se, she was twenty-two years my father’s junior and eight years older than me. Her dark hair set off unusual though highly attractive features, hazel-brown eyes and a Mediterranean complexion which wasn’t unusual since she was of Turkish-Cypriot descent though she was British by birth and spent the vast majority of her life in London. Artemis Ozan-Sandstrom spoke with a thick Cockney accent that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

I was shocked she had showed up at all since one, she was a famous pop singer in the UK and no doubt 
The Daily Mirror
 and 
OK!
—the British, 
not
 the American edition—were lurking around somewhere ready to take her photo if they hadn’t already gotten their fill at the airport when they’d arrived directly from Paris. She was also six months pregnant and although it was perfectly okay for her to fly, I knew from my father she’d suffered several miscarriages before this one and she was being extra careful in her condition.

I embraced them both and hung on tight. Although Artemis and I had had our difficulties in the past, no one could have ever predicted this would be the next time we were face to face with one another.

“What happened?” Papa asked me.

I knew he meant what had happened the press had failed to mention because it was confidential and unless they wanted to get sued, they would never report such a thing.

“According to her husband, she had smoked a joint and taken a Vicodin or two after our dinner. They had a disagreement and you know the rest. How much truth there is to that story is a mystery to me because I wasn’t there so I don’t truly know what happened and one of the people who does isn’t talking at the moment,” I explained.

The tears came again and I hated myself and swiped at them angrily before I looked up to see Etienne walk down the hallway. He carried two tall coffees from Starbucks. It was the day before Halloween so to say my mother had shitty timing regarding her accident which had happened two days previously was an understatement of the year.

I hated myself for being able to joke about this incident at all in “Hollywood speak”. As far as the industry was concerned, this was a tragic incident. Only the doctors knew what had really happened but there were truly only two people who knew the whole story and I was staring at the second human being.

Etienne handed my coffee to me before he spoke to my father and his new wife. The two men had met previous to the wedding—which I had not been invited to—and seemed to have a solid relationship; it only surprised me slightly my father didn’t catch on I wasn’t making any snide comments about my mother’s “boy-toy”.

“This is all so awful. Are you doin’ all right, love?”

My glassy eyes followed the voice of Artemis. “I’m okay, I guess. I mean, it was only a couple days ago we made up and everything seemed really good. My mother and I have been at each other’s throats for so long, it was nice to get along with her and have that camaraderie between us.” The tears, those goddamn tears would be the death of me. “We spoke about something of a more…intimate nature…but she said she would take care of it and I believed her.”

That was a blatant lie. I knew exactly what had happened but I wasn’t about to tell anyone. Not anyone else who would dare look at me with the contempt I already received from the man who still held my heart despite his blatant rejection of me. Part of me kept waiting and hoping he would come back but I knew 
him
 and there was no way he would make me feel better about what I had done to him. I deserved everything I was going through and I couldn’t even bring myself to feel sorry for what was happening to me.

Etienne touched my arm very softly and said, “We have to talk.”

I nodded my head and walked away with him.

I sipped from my coffee and it didn’t taste of anything except a bitter brew I swallowed but the cup was warm and I held on to it for dear life.

I whipped around to face him as soon as we were outside near the bench designated for smoking and said, “Please don’t tell me this has anything to do with—”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” he interrupted in that abrupt French way of his that was as much part of his personality as his Parisian accent.

Etienne had the most beautiful clear blue eyes with crescent of pale green which circled the pupils. His soft brown hair fell in the waves of pure youth and vitality. And why shouldn’t they? The man was only thirty years old though he was both my mother’s husband and my step-father.

“Then what is it? We need to keep cool between one another because the last thing we need is others suspecting we had something to do with what happened here.”

His face changed and he suddenly looked confused and perplexed. “What are you talking about? We have 
nothing
 to do with this, Evie. Did I shove those pills down Athena’s throat? Did you keep pouring drink after drink when it was obvious she’d had enough? I begged her to go to Promises and she flat out told me she didn’t have a drinking problem! That was in June, shortly after we got married. Do you think we have the power to do to your mother what she was already doing to herself?”

“Yes, I do. I’m not a little girl, Etienne. I turned twenty in June but I might as well be almost thirty in Hollywood years. I have seen and done almost everything—I’ve been exposed to the most depraved acts and I remember the good times between my parents but mostly I remember the bad. They were miserable together for years and I can only thank God it was just me who had to go through with this. I would die if I had siblings caught up in the same situation,” I explained.

“Cry me a river, Evie, because everyone has problems and your situation certainly isn’t unique. Besides, this isn’t what I brought you out here to talk about.” He paused and sipped from his coffee. “I had the barista add in two extra shots of espresso and I am still so tired, I can barely keep my eyes awake. However, it’s not my lack of sleep I am worried about. I am concerned about you. This twenty-four-seven vigil isn’t going to suddenly revive your mother—”

“Doctor Burns specifically said she could come out of it at any time. She isn’t brain dead and besides, I like being here. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be at the moment and besides, with Finn and I not talking, I might as well spend the extra time here with my family.”

He clicked his tongue in a sarcastic manner. “What ever is going between you and your significant other is none of my business, Elvira.”

I winced at the use of my Christian name. Sometimes I didn’t know what was worse: strangers who thought my parents had named me after the “Mistress of the Dark”, a.k.a. Cassandra Peterson, or the people who actually knew I had been named after Elvira Hancock, the notorious blonde cokehead—played by the ageless Michelle Pfeiffer, who’d married Tony Montana—played by an unforgettable Al Pacino, in 
Scarface
.

“Sorry, I didn’t think I was telling you anything you didn’t already know. All I am trying to say is what are we going to do here? What do you want from me? You claim to be in love with my mother so prove you are and fight for her. Spend time next to her while she is in that hospital bed and she will find the strength in her to live.” I said out loud before I bit my lower lip.

“It’s 
my
 decision and I hate she did this to me. Athena changed her Living Will last month. If anything were to happen to her, I would have to make the hard choice and decide whether she lives or dies. It’s a difficult decision though because you’ll have those types of people out there who will say I was nothing but a cheap playboy who married your mother for her money when I didn’t.”

Etienne broke down and I watched with morbid curiosity but did nothing to make him feel better. “If you pull the plug on my mother, I will make sure you regret that choice for the rest of your life. As long as my mother has brain waves and she’s a functioning human being, she stays alive. I will involve my father, the police and everyone else I can think of. I will show you out to be a cold-hearted son of a bitch who murdered his own wife for money.”

His eyes turned cold and he glared at me. “Go ahead but if you do that then I will make sure everyone knows about…”

He didn’t have to say it because to be honest I didn’t want to hear the words spoken out loud.

I cleared my throat. “I assume there is a reason why you brought me out here. You said we had to talk so what is so pressing that we need to talk about it now?”

“If she hasn’t woken up in a week then I 
will
 pull the plug, Evie. I don’t want her to be tied to some machine for weeks, months…years. It isn’t fair to her and it isn’t fair to us. When was the last time you slept?”

I shook my head. “Power naps or eight hours of rest?”

“That just goes to show you. If you can’t remember then that isn’t exactly a good sign.”

The tears came again and I sniffed a little as I turned away from him. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I want to spend the rest of this time with my mom since you plan on pulling the plug even if she 
isn’t
 a vegetable.” I began to walk away before I stopped and turned his way again. “By the way, how much did she leave you? I mean of her fortune?”