alone in one of the SUVs, and told Brigitte she needed some time to herself. She called Hunt from the car and put it on speaker, since there was no one in the car with her.
“Tallie, you can’t be serious. That’s crazy. This is about our career, not our love life.”
“That’s right,” she said coldly, “and both are over. I don’t work with cheaters and liars.” She sounded bitter, but she was tired after a long day, and still hurting over what he’d done. She knew she would hurt for a long time over this one. The agony had only just begun. She’d been there with her second husband ten years before.
“Do you realize what you’re going to cost us both? And Mr. Nakamura will pull out of the picture without you. I just spoke to his attorney.”
“That’s too bad, Hunt. Maybe you should have thought of that before you slept with my assistant for three years and the girl in your office for the last one. You didn’t really expect me to work with you again, did you?”
“Can’t we separate the two parts of our lives? We do such great work together. You can’t just wipe that out.”
“No, you did. Let’s be very clear about this. I won’t work with you again. I’m done.”
“Can we talk about it sometime?”
“No.”
“What am I supposed to tell Mr. Nakamura?” He sounded nervous when he asked.
“Tell him you screwed my assistant and some girl in your office and you lost your partner. I’m sure he’ll understand.” She was getting angry at him now, and it felt better than being sad.
“Look, I’m sorry, I know it was terrible. I was wrong. You didn’t deserve that, Tallie. But do we have to fuck over our careers to prove a point?”
“I’m not proving a point, Hunt. I’m not going to work with you again. I don’t want to. I’ll finish this picture and that’s it.” He suddenly panicked that she might walk out on that, but he knew that she was too professional to do that, but he also knew how principled she was, and how fair. And how stubborn if she thought she’d been wronged. And he knew she had been. There was no moving her off her position now, although he hoped she might reconsider it later, but he doubted she would. And then he thought of something else.
“Did you fire Brigitte?”
“No,” she said flatly.
“Why not?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Why? You can forgive her, but not me? That’s ridiculous.”
“I didn’t say I forgave her,” she said quietly. She couldn’t tell him that she had kept her because the FBI had told her to. And he was under investigation too, so she couldn’t say anything to him. “That’s my business, Hunt, not yours. I gave you the option to stick around. You said you wouldn’t stop seeing Angela, it was your choice. My choice was not to live with a man who wants to sleep with two women, and lie to one, or both.”
“I still love you, Tallie, even if I screwed up.”
“So do I, Hunt. That’s unfortunate for both of us. We’ll get over it. But I won’t work with you again. That’s all I have to say about it. And one other thing. Please don’t say anything to Max about us. She’ll be very upset, and I want to tell her myself, in person, not on the phone. I’ll go there when I can. Thanks for your call. Take care.” And with that, the phone went dead in his hand. They were supposed to sign the contracts with Nakamura in the next few days, and now he had to tell him this. He knew it was the price to pay for what he’d done. And he knew he’d been rotten with her, and dishonest. He didn’t blame her, but he wished she’d at least work with him. They were going to lose the biggest investor they’d ever had, and without Tallie directing he had much less to sell. He needed her. But he needed Angela too, and he didn’t want to give her up. And he couldn’t leave her pregnant with his baby and go back to Tallie now. His whole life was falling apart, and he thought it was all Brigitte’s fault for telling Tallie and causing her to investigate further. He hated Brigitte for what she’d done. But even more than Brigitte, he hated himself for what he’d done to Tallie. He couldn’t hide from that.
Tallie called her father on the way home from Palm Springs that night, to tell him about her notifying Hunt that she wouldn’t work on his next film with him.
“How did he take it?”
“He tried to talk me into doing it so he doesn’t lose his big investor.”
“And?”
“I told him to take a flying leap.” She laughed.
“That’s my girl. I have to say one thing, you’ve got guts.”
“Thank you, Dad. I couldn’t imagine working with him again after this.”
“How do you feel?”
“Lousy. Like I’m crawling out of my skin. Between him and Brigitte, I wish I were a million miles from here. We’ll be through on location next week, I think. We get a break before we start shooting again in L.A. I think I’m going to spend a few days with Max in New York.”
“It’ll do you good to get away. I wish I could go with you,” he said sadly. He hadn’t been able to travel in the last ten years, and he missed it.
“I wish you could too,” Tallie answered. They talked for a few more minutes, and then they hung up, and Tallie drove the rest of the way in silence, thinking about everything that had happened, and how badly she’d been betrayed by Brigitte and Hunt. Brigitte called her just before she got home, and she didn’t take the call. Gone were the days when she wanted to talk and laugh with her best friend. Brigitte was no longer her friend, never had been, and never would be again. She knew that now. It was a double loss for her.
The house was dark and silent when she got home. There was no one waiting for her at home. No lights. No romantic meal set out on the table with her favorite wine. Hunt was doing that for Angela now. The thought of it hit her like a bomb. She walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and decided there was nothing she wanted to eat. She went upstairs, and took a bath, and Jim Kingston called when she was getting out of the tub.
“I just wanted to check in,” he said in a friendly tone when she sounded surprised to hear him. “How did it go with Brigitte? Did she say anything? Did you?”
“Yeah, I told her that Hunt moved out this weekend. She asked if it was because of the information she gave me about the girl in his office, and I said yes. I didn’t tell her that I had found out about Hunt and her. Then she asked if he admitted to taking the money, and I said no, he hadn’t, he lied, but I knew he did. She seemed perfectly comfortable with that, and I think she relaxed when I told her I wasn’t going to investigate it or pursue it any further. She thinks we’re best friends again, and I told her I wasn’t mad. My nose grew about four feet when I said it, and you can call me Pinocchio from now on,” she said, and he laughed. She sounded better to him than she had on Sunday. She still had a sense of humor despite what she’d discovered about both her boyfriend and her best friend. He wasn’t sure he could have handled it as well, and doubted he could. “Anything new at your end?”
“I filed an initial report and opened the case today. I have to get approval from one of the deputy U.S. attorneys here to proceed with it, but that’s more of a formality. If I tell them that I think it’s a good case, they’ll let me go forward with it to check it out. All I have to do now is get enough evidence so they feel they can prosecute it. And hopefully I will. We’re just starting, but I think it’s a valid case.” He sounded optimistic about it.
“How long do these things usually take to get to court?” Tallie asked him, and there was a short pause at the other end.
“You won’t like my answer,” he warned her. “Nine months to a year. The wheels of justice grind slowly, but we get there in the end.”
“At what point would you arrest her, if you get the evidence?” She had become convinced that Brigitte was stealing from her, and no one else. Even if she didn’t need the money, she had the access and the opportunity, and she had proven herself to be a liar, so maybe she was a thief too. And Jim Kingston agreed with her. His gut told him it was Brigitte too. All he had to do now was prove it, and he hoped he could, for Tallie’s sake.
“We arrest her when the prosecutor thinks we have enough evidence for an airtight case, beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s the clincher for us. We don’t try them if we think we could lose. Most of our cases don’t go to trial. We get so much solid evidence that suspects usually plead guilty instead, which saves us all a lot of trouble.”
“That sounds like a tall order,” Tallie said, sounding discouraged.
“Trust me. That’s my job. If the evidence is there, we’ll find it.” He didn’t tell her he was meeting with Victor Carson the next day. He had called him that morning. Jim was moving fast. If nothing else, he wanted to rule Carson out. And he had already lined up a forensic accountant to check his books. Jim had asked Tallie’s permission to use him, since she had to pay for it, and she said of course it was fine. And he was hoping to meet with Hunter
