Ruined (Barnes Brothers #4)(40)

Of course, after the night she’d had—the nights, the past few weeks, why should she like the sun?

Or anything else?

The buzzer on her phone went off and she sat, glaring at it. Her head didn’t spin around too much so she guessed the worst was over, but she was still tempted to pick it up and hurl the damn thing across the room.

Her mood, to put it short, was toxic.

It had been for a while. A few weeks, to be exact.

She couldn’t say it had been JD’s call about Sebastien that had set her off. It had come not long after, though.

As time passed and she came to figure certain things out, she realized she had to make a decision.

She’d called JD last night and told him.

He’d almost lost his mind and demanded she get her ass into his office this morning.

She’d said no, and then he had threatened her. Not with severing their contract or anything. No, he’d said he’d show up on her doorstep and that was ten times worse.

So fine.

She’d go see him and explain herself.

He might not like it, but he’d just have to deal with it.

The phone rang just as she was settling down for what might have been another thirty minutes of sleep and she could have whimpered. The sight of her best friend’s name on the screen caused a mix of emotions to rise up—one was sheer irritation. She’d needed that thirty minutes of sleep.

The other, though . . . need.

For the past couple of days, she’d resisted the urge to call Abigale and unload everything. Abby would listen—she might die of shock, but then she’d recover and listen.

But Marin wasn’t quite to the point where she could tell her yet.

As the phone rang, she huddled into the blankets and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the burn of tears.

***

He’d looked a little pissed himself when she stormed into his office not too long ago but now he looked . . . calm.

Calm and clear-headed as she told him again what her decision had been.

“No.” Tapping his fingers on the desk, he stared at her shrewdly.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Marin demanded.

“I did.” He was already reaching for his phone and she gaped at him as he held up a hand to shush her while he buzzed his assistant. Her voice came on the line and JD said, “I need Sojo and Townsend on the line. Pronto. Tell them both it’s about Torn and it’s urgent.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Marin pointed out. “You aren’t going to be able to change the circumstances.”

“Some circumstances? No. But others?” He shrugged.

She huffed out a breath and got up to pace. Now that she’d woken up, had time for her head to clear and her body to settle, she wasn’t so cranky, but that didn’t mean she regretted the call she’d made to JD.

She was doing the responsible thing here, even if he couldn’t see that.

“JD, this just isn’t going to work. It’s not possible.”

“As long as you’re professional, as long as we keep our heads and think around the problem, everything is possible. Come on, Marin.” He flashed her a smile. “It’s Hollywood, after all.”

She rolled her eyes at the absolute corniness of the statement but before she could argue, Sojourne Torré—the director of Torn—came on the line. It wasn’t more than a minute before she was joined by Michael Townsend.

Sojo, as always, was blunt to the point of rudeness. “I don’t have time for chitter-chatter, Rutherford. If your boy Barnes has flaked out, then I’m going to find my own man to play Rand.”

“Sebastien doesn’t flake out,” Marin said, irritated. “If he’s committed, he’s committed.”

There was a humming kind of pause, and then Sojo said, “Well, Marin Lassiter. Please tell me that you aren’t the matter of utter urgency.”

Her stomach clenched as she looked over at JD.

“Everything is fine . . . for the most part, Sojo. We just had something . . . unusual come up.” JD flicked his eyes toward her.

Marin averted her own and waved at him.

This wasn’t going to work.

But JD would have to figure that out for himself.

***

The phone rang two days later.

As was becoming his habit, Sebastien pounced, Marin’s name already hovering on his lips.

Then his eyes fell to the caller ID and the bubble of hope burst, going sour inside him.

It was his manager. He talked to JD more than he talked to his brothers sometimes—and he was talking to them on a regular basis now. Well, most of them anyway.

“Hey, JD.” Disappointed, it took him a few seconds to process the words that JD bluntly laid out. Very bluntly.

“Ah . . . can you say that again?”

JD did, repeating it in the same blunt fashion and Sebastien closed his eyes. He took a moment to think over his response. Still, even after taking that moment, he couldn’t think of anything decent to say. So he went with his gut response. “What in the hell do you mean, we start working in two weeks?”

“You heard me. We’re stepping up production. We’ve had all the parts cast—save yours—for a while now. A lot of the preproduction shit was in the works before the project got sidetracked and pretty much everything will still work. They’re already hammering those details down as we speak.”