Free Sweet Downfall by Eve Montelibano Page B

out from the outside.
    “Come in.”
    Gwenna entered the tent. “Jaq, are you okay?”
    He nodded and slung the backpack on his shoulder.
    “Where are you going?”
    “Just gonna check on something.”
    “Can I come?”
    Her eyes were telling him she wanted to come another way but even a promise of a wild nooner from the sexy starlet couldn’t cheer him up today. “Sorry, sugar. I need to attend to something. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    She pouted. “Is this about that video?” she pressed.
    “Gwennie…”
    “Who is she? An old girlfriend of yours?”
    He didn’t like her questions. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “You’re not going to her, are you?”
    He speared her with a serious look. “You should be concerned about your acting, sweetheart. It’s more important to me than those nonsense.”
    She smiled, licking her lips, touching his denim-clad hip suggestively. “Can I treat you to something delicious before your go? You won’t have to do anything. Just lie down and enjoy.”
    Christ, the woman was a blow job junkie! On another occasion, he would have been her willing fix, but not today. Today, he needed to fix something. Fast!
    He kissed her cheek. “Take a rest. We’ll be busy tomorrow. I’ll see you then, okay?”
    He exited the tent.
    Pulling a cap over his head, he ducked behind tents, avoiding being spotted by the hounds.
    A scandal of this magnitude was the last thing he needed attached to his name right now. He was gunning for a General Patronage rating for this movie, an action-packed, fantasy-epic designed to please the younger generation. It will have its world premiere in summer, which meant he had two months tops to wrap up all the additional fight scenes so he can go back to LA and proceed to post-production. But all of that might be shot to hell because of a freakin’ video scandal starring him, no less!
    The local moviegoers might just boycott his movie because the director was a slimy perv caught in some old video humping the shit out of an insanely beautiful society princess. It was a consolation he’d finished all the major scenes involving his lead actors a month ago or he’d be the laughingstock on set for weeks.
    Sex videos were like a fad nowadays and he’d seen some nasty shit by some notorious Hollywood celebrities wanting to get even more famous. He had watched them with mild curiosity and some amusement and even shared some ribald jokes with his male friends. But those celebrities were multi-media commodities and public properties who shrewdly capitalized on their infamy for more popularity. While Angie was…
    God, this would destroy her. She won’t be able to handle this.
    Dammit, who would do this thing?
    He called Joey. She popped up again beside him like a troll. Sometimes, Joey really spooked the shit out of him.
    “I need to go back to Manila to check on something. Entertain the bitches. Treat them and the entire crew at a restaurant later for dinner. I’ll be back tomorrow for the shoot, okay?”
    She nodded. “Got it.”
    They entered a tent. Eric was inside conferring with Wade Douglas, the fight choreographer, Calum Wells, the chief cameraman and Edmund Mead, the set designer. They stood up when they saw him.
    “Let me see the shoot sched, again, Eric.”
    Eric showed him a chart and gave him a pen. He put marks on the chart.
    “Have those scenes set up when I get back. We’ll resume tomorrow. Call me if something comes up. Keep those hounds away at all costs, okay boys?”
    They nodded, but they all looked speculative. That pissed him off some more. He was embarrassed by it all but he didn’t need to explain anything to them. This was his damn business. Not that he still needed to talk about it since the whole country was probably latching on it like flies on freshly dumped shit anyway. Still, he felt the need to apologize. His team were all professionals. “Sorry about that, guys. I’ll take care of it. See you tomorrow.”
    He left the