Star Crossed (Stargazer #1)(71)
Author: Jennifer Echols

Then he phoned his father and said he couldn’t go to L.A. Someone else could go, or his father could go. When his father predictably started yelling, Daniel shouted back, “I am having a family emergency!” then hung up and blocked his father’s calls.

The taxi dropped him off in front of the Paris casino. He wheeled his suitcase just inside the door, slipped the security guard he recognized from that afternoon a hundred-dollar bill, and showed him Wendy’s picture on his phone. “Long blond hair,” Daniel added. “Beautiful woman.”

“Yeah,” the guard said. “She left with some movie star, the one who’s in town because he was on that TV show last night? He had his arm around her.”

Daniel swallowed. “Colton Farr?”

The guard snapped his fingers. “Exactly!”

Daniel ran across the street to the casino where he’d been staying, dragging his suitcase, cursing the whole way. Just inside the door, he handed his suitcase off to a bellhop, along with another hundred and his business card, and asked him to call if Wendy was in the room or her suitcase was gone.

He hurried across the casino floor to the blackjack tables. Maybe Rick had been following Wendy around town. More likely, Colton himself, boor, emotional abuser, ass**le, who’d wanted her from the very beginning, had taken her.

Daniel assumed what was becoming his usual position on the periphery of Colton’s blackjack table and waited for Colton to notice him. Colton did his usual double take. He cursed with a vehement shake of his head, scooped up three ten-thousand-dollar chips and some change, and slammed away from the table. All his former deference to Daniel was gone. He approached him with his own arms crossed and demanded, “Now what?”

Daniel nodded toward a door at the back of the huge room. “We need to talk in private.” He led the way into the service corridor. He’d worked in this casino enough times to know that the hallway where they were headed had no traffic and no security cameras. After he’d closed the door behind them, it was the perfect place to ball his fist and sock Colton in the eye.

“Hey!” Colton hollered, holding his cheekbone. “What the f**k, man?”

Daniel hadn’t hit anyone since high school. The searing pain in his hand just made him madder. “I’ll tell you what the f**k.” He lunged at Colton, knocking him into the wall, and pressed his arm across Colton’s throat. “Where’s Wendy?”

“With you!” Colton choked out.

He sounded sincere. He was also an actor. Daniel eased some of the pressure off Colton’s neck, making him think he was being released. Then, while he was still off balance, Daniel slammed him into the wall again. “Tell me where she is and I’ll walk away. If I find out later that you know where she is and you lied, I will f**k you over so hard that you’ll wish you were still doing community theater in Des Moines. You know I can do it.”

“I have no f**king idea! Get off me!”

With a final curse, Daniel threw Colton to the floor and paced a few steps away, running his hands through his hair. He was out of ideas. If Colton wasn’t lying, Rick must have Wendy after all. And Daniel had no clue how to find them.

“Have you lost your mind?” Colton exclaimed from the floor. “You sound British all of a sudden, like you’ve always secretly wanted to play Hamlet.”

Daniel’s pesky British accent had come back, which made sense. He’d never been so stressed in his life. He asked Colton, “Have you ever heard of a guy who looks like you getting into parties or hanging with the paparazzi?”

“No,” Colton said, sitting up against the wall and touching one finger to the bruise under his eye. “But if you have a question about those prying ass**les, you should ask Lorelei. She makes friends with them for some damn reason.”

“Call her,” Daniel said. “Right now.”

Colton coughed, spat blood on the floor, and pulled his phone out of his back pocket. He glared at Daniel as he waited for Lorelei to answer, but as soon as she did, his voice was friendly. “Hey! Listen, strange question. Ever heard of a photographer who looks like me?” His fair countenance grew darker, and the fluorescent lights of the hall seemed to dim as Daniel watched.

“Hold on,” Colton said. “I’m going to give you to Daniel. Tell him everything you just told me.” As he handed the phone up to Daniel, Colton said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but it doesn’t sound good.”

Taking the phone, Daniel noticed in passing that his hand was shaking. “Tell me,” he demanded.

“He’s been hanging with the crowd outside my house for a few years,” Lorelei said. “I thought that was creepy at first, because he showed up right about the time I started dating Colton, like he was trying to take advantage of looking like Colton, planned it or something. He seemed really nice, though. We joked about his looks. I got comfortable with him, I guess because he reminded me of Colton so much, and then—come to think of it—he’s the one who told me last weekend that I should call Wendy.”

Daniel took one pained breath. “What do you mean?”

“I was just talking to him outside when I was on my way to a club, because sometimes I tell the guys where I’m going to help them out a little, you know? And he said if I was having image trouble, he’d heard of this kick-butt girl at Stargazer who seemed to be saving ass for everybody he’s been taking pictures of lately.”

“What’s this guy’s name?”

“Rick.”

Daniel put one hand to his forehead. “Have you seen him in Vegas this week?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean he’s not there. I haven’t been looking. You know what, though? I’ve seen a friend of his, Billy. He’s probably still out in front of the casino. He has a handlebar moustache and he always wears a hat. The paparazzi dress a little weird—”

“Thanks. Bye.”

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “Why do you sound British?”

Daniel hung up on her and tossed the phone down to Colton. “Sorry.” He barged through the door, back onto the glittering casino floor.

“Hey!” Colton called. He was out of breath when he caught up with Daniel. “If Wendy’s in trouble with this guy, let me help you.”

Daniel didn’t want Colton’s help, but he might need it. As they wound their way through the banks of slot machines, he told Colton about the attacks on himself and Wendy.