Saving This (The McCallans #5) (26 page)

Wait a minute… He said
our kids
. That was a definite reference to the future. Was it something she was allowed to bring up? Not that it meant any time soon, but maybe it was a topic she could dabble in.

On the other hand, too many things had to happen first. Max was dealing with a lot right now. She couldn’t imagine he’d want to add more to his plate. It was kind of selfish of her to even think that way. She knew his biggest wish was to have his son back in his life. And studying him right now, as they ate and he recapped some of his day, she wondered if he’d purposely changed the subject to avoid talking about it. He was a professional fake, after all. She didn’t feel he was dishonest with her anymore, but maybe she’d been duped in la-la land for the time being.

She decided to hold off on the rest of the kid conversation. As it was, they still hadn’t even crossed certain milestones in their relationship. She loved him, but had never told him so. He’d never expressed that sort of thing either. They were good together in so many ways, but maybe her idea of where their relationship was at was different than his. They’d dubbed themselves exclusive, but as it was, Anna was only spending weekends with him. The rest of the week was busy with work—both of them—or other mundane tasks. And starting next week, Max would be busier than ever when the movie began filming.

Perhaps the timing wasn’t right.

A shower and bed were on the list next after kitchen clean up. On their way to the hall they passed the bird, and upon Geraldo seeing them, he started pacing along his perch again. He was making strange grunting noises, some low pitch and some higher.

Anna was about to cover the rest of the cage with the blanket but asked, “Is there something wrong with him?”

Max was rubbing his face again, shaking his head, and sighed. “I think he’s mimicking us from earlier in the kitchen.”

Anna’s mouth dropped open when she realized what he meant. “Oh. My. God.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“
Max, it’s Harvey. You’ve got a date with the judge on November twenty-third. You were right, Kate is going for full custody, plus claiming you’re an unfit parent. Give me a call when you get a chance. I want you to meet with me as soon as possible this week. I’ve got good and bad news and want to share it with you in person
.”

Max could barely manage the screen on his phone to hang up the voicemail. He finally pushed the right button and tossed the phone on the seat next to him. As much as he liked Harvey, he hated when people did stuff like that. Seriously, he just wanted the fucking information. Why make him wait?

“Bad news?” Mary asked.

He glanced to the left of him at the woman who was now his personal assistant. She’d come highly recommended by Cole, along with the driver he now had as his personal bodyguard.

“Yeah, maybe,” Max mumbled. “Anyway. I’ll need my schedule for the next few—”

She handed something over; the 8x11 bi-fold calendar he gave her that fit nicely in the front pocket of his work satchel.

Flipping it open, he saw Mary had the production schedule neatly penned in for the next few months, with every single item highlighted in different colors. Screw technology. Sometimes he just wanted a tangible piece of information to look at.

“You’re green, main cast and crew is yellow, stunt crew orange, meetings are in purple, and blue is your personal schedule. The key is in the margin for reference. The same schedule is also synced on your phone, just in case. Text me any changes or additions and I’ll enter them straight into it from my computer and it will update on your phone and laptop. I’ll text you a reminder two hours before each item you need to attend.”

“Make it three hours,” Max sighed. Who knows where he was going to be and when in the upcoming weeks.

“Three hours, then,” she repeated, jotting something down on a notepad. He saw her even put a date and time by it.

Hmm, so this woman was legit old school, even noting when he told her something.

She noticed him looking and paused. They didn’t quite know each other well enough yet for Max to tell her how extremely anal she was, but he decided to tell her anyway.

“I see you run a tight ship.”

Mary pursed her lips but put the pen down on the notepad. “I do, Mr. McCallan. But I assure you it’s for your own benefit.”

“Oh, I know it is,” Max smiled. “But let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. You will not call me Mr. McCallan, are we clear? Please call me Max because I’m not going to respond to anything else. That goes for you too, Jake,” he called up to the front seat. Jake looked at him in the rearview mirror and nodded. Max turned to Mary and raised his eyebrows for a response.

“I’ll do my best,” she answered.

“Nah,” Max smiled, shaking his head. “Call me Max or you’re fired.”

Or course he would do no such thing, but he was so fucking serious about his name preference. He hated being called ‘Mr.’ or even ‘sir’, but the latter he’d take into consideration because some people were raised to be respectful that way. However, he didn’t need to be addressed that way by people who dealt with him on a daily basis.

“Yes, of course,” Mary nodded. “My apologies.”

“Mary, I’m giving you a hard time,” Max assured her, noticing she looked completely stressed out right now. The natural wrinkles on her forty-six-year-old face were even more prominent now. “I’ll let you guys in on a little secret, okay?” he asked, glancing up to the front so he knew Jake was listening too. “I’m very laid back, I never wear any ‘I’m too good for you’ pants in case that’s what you’ve assumed, and you can be very straight and upfront with me. I don’t handle lying or deceit very well—if you have any intention of doing either of those, I suggest we go our separate ways this very second. You are not allowed to discuss any details of my life with anyone, including my father or grandfather. I don’t have to be clearer about that, do I? You both read through your contracts thoroughly, I hope?”

“Yes, of course,” Mary answered.

“Yes, sir,” Jake nodded from the driver’s seat. “And we’ve arrived. Which entrance do you prefer?”

“South, please. Thank you.”

Jake pulled the SUV up to the south entrance of the Gleason building. It was a small underpass at the back entry, so both Max and Mary exited the vehicle. Jake spoke to the security guard, who then gave a nod to each of them as they entered the building.

“Hello, Mr. McCallan,” the petite brunette smiled from the end of the hall. She announced his arrival to someone on her headset and then removed it as she stood from her desk. “I’m Benita Diaz.” She held out her hand.

“Please call me Max.” He shook her hand and she nodded. “This is Mary Klein, my personal assistant.”

“Hello, Mary. It’s nice to meet you.” Benita smiled and shook her hand too, and then went straight to work. “So these are your keycards for the building.” She set two lanyards in front of them with attached i.d.’s. “I’m sure you really won’t need them after a couple of days, though. We’ve got great security and employees here. They’ll recognize faces quickly and you won’t have a problem.”

Max knew she meant Mary, who scooped up the cards for both of them, but he only nodded. He’d really never needed i.d. anywhere he went.

“But when you go out to all the sets in the back lot and you’re not with other crew members, you might need it at first. I know you have your own assistant—” Benita’s smile traveled from Max to Mary as acknowledgement— “but we also have assigned the best one here for you. His name is David Sawyer, and he can assist you directly or work side by side with Mary, whichever you prefer. And speaking of Dave…”

A balding man in his mid-thirties came through the double doors to the right. Benita made introductions, and then they were on their way through the studio. Max was given a brief tour, even though he’d been in this place before. It was a pretty sight, really—a four-story warehouse building that had been used to film countless movies. This was where all of the regular filming would take place. For military flashbacks later on, and a few other scenes, they’d travel elsewhere.

“Max! Hey man!”

They’d entered the main set where dozens of bodies were milling about. Jeremy Robb, his main actor, stood with a few of the crew and waved him over.

Day One was about to begin.

***

“It didn’t take her long,” Harvey said as Max entered his home office.

Mary had been dropped off at her own house at the end of the day, and Jake took Max to Malibu to meet with his attorney at nine that night.

“To strike back?” Max asked.

“Yep. Pretty sure she’s been waiting for it. Getting all her ducks in a row like you’ve been doing.”

He didn’t like any reference to doing anything the same as Kate, but whatever. Max sat down when Harvey motioned to a chair. “So what next?”

Harvey dropped into his desk chair across from him. “I’m going to prep you for facing the judge next week. Can’t say we have a good one or a bad one, so no promises for what she will be like to deal with. I’ve heard she’s fair, though.”

“She?” Max replied drably.

“Yeah,” Harvey nodded. “You can always expect sympathy for the mother no matter who the judge is, but you’ve given so much money to Kate and you’re always asking to have Chase. You have text messages and notations in your banking for what the money is supposed to go toward—the apartment, the car and driver, a private tutor and other things for Chase. It’s not like you’re a deadbeat dad who has never paid child support. That is going to work very much in your favor, so kudos to Ms. Donnelly for being such a selfish bitch. You want to be in your kid’s life. There’s proof of that, no matter what she throws at you.”

“What do you mean? She doesn’t have anything on me personally. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Good, but you know she’ll try. Regarding the money you’ve given Kate, is there proof that it’s for anything in particular? Has she flat out said anything like ‘Give me this much or I’ll make sure you never see your son again.’ Or, ‘Give me this and I won’t spread such-and-such about you everywhere.’”

“Yes. Definitely.” Max chuckled, but it was more out of disbelief. “When she first told me Chase was mine, she demanded ten-million dollars if I wanted to keep it quiet.”

“And you agreed.”

Max sighed. “At the time, yes. It was a personal decision to keep everything confidential until I could figure out the best way to handle things. I didn’t want my brother to find out in such horrible way. Not like I could prevent that anyway,” he mumbled.

“So you gave her the ten mil?” Harvey jotted something down on his notepad.

“I gave her five. She was supposed to stay out of town, break things off with my brother, and not cause any drama until I could finish the current project I was working on; then I’d give her the rest. But she came back and saw me on the set, and that’s when my brother saw us together.”

Again Harvey wrote on his notepad. “I need dates.” He pulled out a thick file and plopped it on the desk. “Cole has your financial records here, so help me piece all of it that’s associated with Kate.”

“Alright.”

“Hope you don’t have anything to rush home to because we’re going to work on this all night.”

“Not a problem.”

“She’s going to make you look as bad as possible.”

Max sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s her specialty.”

“So you need to be completely upfront about anything she might use against you, and I also need you to answer something for me.” He paused and stared at Max across the desk. “I can make you look like a saint, or make her look like the devil. Which do you prefer?”

Chapter Thirty

“You directly asked her for more time with Chase and she flat out said no?” Teague asked. He stilled the punching bag and waited for his brother’s response.

Max was removing the tape from his hands but took the time to choose his words carefully. Teague had come to the set with him the next week, and at the end of the night, they made use of the training gym. It was actually a facility Teague was very familiar with since he’d trained there for stunt work so many times.

“How’s the shoulder feeling?” Max asked as he sat down on a nearby bench.

Teague stripped off the gloves and went to work on the tape. “I’m going easy, so it’s okay. And don’t change the subject. You can’t let her do this, Max. You have as much right to Chase as she does. This has to stop. I know you have shit going on and you’ve wanted your life to be in order, but when are you going to take care of this? Getting your shit together works in your favor, but how long is that going to take? Maybe Chase will be an adult by then. Hell, who’s to say you’ll ever have your shit together perfectly.”

He couldn’t blame Teague for the harshness. He’d chewed himself out so many times for putting it off, but the truth was, he’d either been waiting for things to fall into place, or was hoping Kate would magically grow a conscience. And when he realized neither was going to happen, he really had been organizing his life better. He felt he was in the best place he could possibly be in right now. He just didn’t know how much of one thing he was going to have to sacrifice for another. If Kate decided to go after the rest of his family like she’d threatened…he wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with it.

“Sorry, man,” Teague said, tossing the tape on the floor in front of him. “I’m just… All of it pisses me off. You know it’s still a sore subject. But even so, I want Chase to be around. For you, for me, for all of us. And for Kate to get what she deserves. I know vengeance isn’t classy, but I guess I have that evil McCallan payback gene in me.”

Max lightly laughed and tossed his tape on top of Teague’s pile. “I think it’s in everyone. It’s hard to be fucked over and not want to punish the people who did it.”

Teague paused for a few seconds. “You talking about Kate or Olivia,” he stated.

“Mm, both I guess. I mean Olivia was sort of a different story. That was just straight up getting my heart crushed and handed over to me. Humiliated. Devastated. She never set out to ruin my life publicly, though. Kate was never important to me like she was to you—”

Teague grunted. Max smiled with sympathy, knowing what his ‘vengeance isn’t pretty’ comment really meant. He couldn’t imagine having romantic feelings for someone like Kate Donnelly, so it was understandable why Teague felt utterly gutted by his time with her.

“But there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” Max continued. “Maybe we can go grab something to eat and discuss it?”

Teague slowly nodded, but it was obvious he was worried or confused. Max scooped up the tape from the floor and tossed it in the trash. He called Jake and told him he would be riding with his brother, so he’d just see him in the morning. When they’d gathered their things, they headed for the private parking garage.

“God, this feels amazing,” Max exhaled when they both sat down in Teague’s Mustang Boss. “I’m feeling a bit rebellious just from sitting in it.”

Teague laughed knowingly as he turned the engine and they both listened to it rumble. In the cement parking structure it sounded even meatier.

“Some fun times for sure.” He pulled out of the spot and made an exit from the private garage, giving a stiff wave to the security guard when he gave them a nod. “What about your beast? Don’t you drive it?”

“Oh, I wish I could,” Max replied. “Timing’s a bit off but I just haven’t had a chance to work on it. Plus, it’s kind of hard to be anonymous in it. I need to tint the windows better.”

“So you haven’t been heading out in the middle of the night to go for a drive?”

“Yeah, I have the last few years. Not with that car lately, though. Either the Lexus or my truck.”

Teague nodded. They drove in silence for a bit. The sun was still setting, but between the buildings of the city it was a bit darker. It felt good. Peaceful. Riding in a familiar car with the one person who used to also be so familiar to him. It was somewhat bittersweet, but Max felt like it was a sign of things to come.

He wanted that. He needed it.

“What do you feel like eating?” Teague asked.

With a smirk, Max pulled out his phone and made a call ahead. Teague smiled and headed west as soon as his brother hung up, knowing exactly where he was going. He pulled over on Santa Monica Boulevard ten minutes later and Brian came out of the restaurant himself with their order.

“Oh my God, both of you together? Oh shit, and the muscle car. What trouble you guys gonna wreak tonight?”

“No trouble, man,” Teague answered. “Just been at the warehouse messing around.”

“You both on the same set?”

Max and Teague glanced at each other, but Max answered, “Something like that. Thanks for the food, brother. Still can’t find better barbecue than yours.” He handed him a Franklin.

Brian tucked the money in his front pocket and passed over the bag of takeout. “Well you better not even try. Thanks guys, be safe.”

It was sort of hell to wait thirty minutes to eat, but in respect for the beautiful classic car they were riding in, they held off until arriving at Max’s house. They spread the food on the table and went to town.

“You like how isolated you are here?” Teague asked after a few minutes. “I mean it’s cool up here—your closest neighbor is a quarter-mile away, I dig that sort of privacy—but doesn’t it take a bit longer to commute?”

“Only five minutes difference. Just seems longer since it’s a mountain road. And yeah, I do really like it here. I’m barely here anyway now that this movie is going full time, though.”

“And how is that progressing? You have Alex directing it, he’s amazing.”

“Yeah, it’s going great. Did some press again for it yesterday, and even though we’re only a couple of weeks into filming, people seem excited for it.”

“I’ve been hearing the hype, so yeah, you know it’s getting around. Cool. I really can’t wait to see it. And hey, you changed Kellie and Tate’s names, right? To protect the not-so-innocent?”

Max laughed but answered, “Yeah, of course.”

They ate for another minute, but he knew he needed to talk to Teague about the custody battle.

“So about what we were discussing earlier,” he began. “I’m going to be in court with Kate. Fighting for joint custody of Chase. That’s what I was leading up to back at the bags.”

Teague dropped his fork in his coleslaw. “Seriously? That’s…that’s great. Right? I mean why do you look so worried? Take her on, man. She deserves it.”

Max took a bite of food while he gathered his thoughts. “It might get ugly. I only asked her for shared custody, but she’s countering with full. She’s going to drag whoever she can through the mud and—”

“Just tell me when I need to be there to testify.”

Max stared at him for a moment. It wasn’t anything he ever expected, so he was trying to process it.

“Why do you look so stunned?” Teague asked. “Wait a minute, were you seriously not going to ask me to help?”

“Help with what?”

Scoffing, he said, “Max, she fucked up my life too. She has continued to fuck up yours—
all of ours
. This became your fight when Chase became your son, but you’ve been putting it off. Now that you feel you’re ready, you honestly think I don’t want to help?”

“Is it to help me, or is it to get back at her? I mean I guess it doesn’t matter, but I just thought you wouldn’t want to get involved.”

Teague gave him a frown. “Dude, are you serious?”

“Am I serious about what?”

“Does it matter which it is? Yeah I’d like to nail her ass in court. She fucking
blackmailed
you to keep me from finding shit out. She lied to me, she purposely deceived me, and she dragged me through hell like it was my fault. So yeah, she needs to get what’s coming to her.”

“This is a family court matter, not criminal. There’s no trial, just the case presented to a judge. And I don’t know if any of that would hold up in a criminal case anyway. It’s her word against mine.”

“You paid her money.”

“But she has my kid. She’ll just say it was for him. For me to walk out of his life.”

“Is that seriously what she’s claiming?”

“Yes, apparently so. But I have my texts and stuff to counter that claim.”

Teague scoffed. “Unbelievable. And what about the money you keep paying her?”

With a sigh, Max shrugged. “All of that is being sorted out. My lawyer seems to know what he’s doing.”

“Pssh, lawyers. Can you even trust him?”

“I feel like I can trust Harvey. Plus he’s who Cole referred me to.”

Teague paused for a minute as they ate before saying, “I’m not kidding about your custody case. And I am kinda pissed you didn’t talk to me about it. Chase needs a dad in his life. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. That’s not his fault. But Kate can’t keep him from you. That’s just wrong. And for whatever reason you’ve been holding back on this, I don’t even care. I’m just glad you’re ready to deal with her.”

“Yeah about that… There’s something else I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t know how it was going to affect everyone.”

Teague studied him for a second. “So what is it? Just say it.”

“She knows what you and Jay did to that guy a few years back. The one who was stalking Kellie and purposely crashed into her car near grandpa’s house?”

“Nate Butler,” Teague narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I remember that fucker. He physically assaulted her. What about him?”

“What exactly did you guys do to him?” Max questioned.

Teague cleared his throat but his expression was stone. “Nothing he didn’t deserve.”

“Yeah, I get it, man. I would have done the same thing. But Teague… Kate told me this guy has proof of what you guys did. I know Grandpa paid money to make it go away—and maybe that’s the proof he has—but it really hasn’t gone away. Cole is looking into that further but… Whatever happened… I know she’s full of threats, but I’m pretty sure she’s serious about this one. I can usually tell when she’s full of shit, but it seems like she really believes she’s got this on you.”

Teague sat at the table in silence for over a minute, his expression darker now, somewhat cold. Finally he drew in a deep breath of air and slowly released it. “I don’t really care what happens to me over that. The guy reeked of rapist, if you ask me. He’s scum. And if any of that comes up in your custody battle—which I don’t see why it would because you weren’t involved—then so be it. I’ll take full responsibility for it. Leave Jay out of it, though. Let me handle it.”

“It’s not going to come up in my case. At least I don’t think so. But Kate told me if I ever decided to fight her over Chase, then she was going to unleash all of that to the media.”

“Well nothing can come of it, it was four years ago. Statute of limitations on, what would that be—a misdemeanor? –Well too late. It ran out after six months, or something like that.”

“I know, but all of this just…it makes me nervous. There’s a gag order on the custody battle with Chase, but there are a shit ton of other things Kate is ready to spoon-feed to the tabloids. I don’t want you to be caught off guard.”

“So you mean to tell me…you’ve been giving in to Kate because… Because of that? Because she has crap on our family and is gonna leak it all? Is that what you’re saying?”

“You have a different life now, a better one. You guys don’t let Grandpa buy your way out of stuff like that anymore. I know you did the right thing with that guy, he deserved it. But our family did cover it up, and that’s the bottom line. And who knows what else there is. She’s a loose cannon. I just don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire. You’ve been through enough with her.”

“First of all, we did all of that for
Kellie
, you asshole! Kellie was the one who needed protecting. You can’t count on this shit being handled the right way any more. A family like ours is hung out to dry—as an ‘example’. You know it, I know it, and she didn’t want to go through all of that. We handle shit our own way,
you know that.
You’ve had your own share of it too—”

“I know,” Max replied angrily, pounding his fist on the table. “I’m just telling you what I know. I don’t exactly know what kind of evidence she has, but I’m just warning you. She’s a coward and likes to dish her dirt from hiding, so I doubt she has the guts to do anything more than that. I’m prepared to deal with whatever she throws at
me
, but I can’t prevent what she says about any of
you
.”

“Well you didn’t have to do stupid shit to keep it quiet,” Teague growled. “I can handle my own life, okay? I don’t need you making deals with that bitch for my benefit. Got it?”

“If it meant keeping your name out of the negative media, then it was worth it.”