BELOW THE LINE

by

Steven Jankowski


Now Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at Down & Out Books


In between gigs as a Hollywood movie Teamster, Mike Millek a self-proclaimed sailing bum, moonlights as a freelance, armed chauffeur to the stars. A regular client of his, rap music producer Pays Lee, is behind on his payments and when Pays Lee leaves Mike to tend to a 15-year-old underage groupie named Lauren, Mike has had enough. Employing an old friend and movie wardrobe mistress, Molly, Mike borrows some clothes for Lauren so he can make her presentable to take her to school. But by time he returns to his boat where he let her “sleep it off” Lauren had flown the coop.

Later that day Mike finds Lauren’s purse and phone in his Suburban. On her cellphone Mike discovers lurid, explicit sexual videos of Pays Lee with the young Lauren. Playing her missed messages, he discovers that she is the lovechild of former Grammy award winning pop diva Michelle Bartley. Michelle had fallen from grace years ago when she hit rock bottom addicted to crack cocaine. On the mend, she’s been rehabbed and saved by her high-power entertainment lawyer, and now husband Jonathan Pichter.

Through Molly and her soon-to-be ex-husband, Assistant Director Jimmy Sheehan, Mike gets a Teamster gig driving on the same movie they are working on. With Molly now technically a free woman, sparks begin to fly between her and Mike as they cultivate their long-time attraction to each other.

When Pays Lee calls Mike to order another pick-up from his private jet, Mike refuses for his lack of payment and the thought of Pays Lee’s abuse to the young Lauren. It’s not until Pays Lee texts him a picture of satchel full of cash with the promise to pay Mike in full, does he reluctantly agree. But when Mike arrives at Santa Monica Airport, he finds Pays Lee and his bodyguard lying murdered on the tarmac. About to run, Mike notices that Pays Lee is still gripping the satchel in the text. Mike scans the area to make sure no eyes are on him before he makes the ominous decision to take the money and hide it, before notifying the police.

More money than he ever expected, this turns out to be Mike’s biggest payday in his life, but not without consequences. It not only costs him his best friend’s life and leads him down a road of deception with his newly found love Molly, but thrusts them both into a dangerous conspiracy entrenched in the sordid underbelly of the Hollywood power elite.