Read On Heartbreak Ridge: Movie Trilogy Prequel Novella (The Movie Trilogy) for Free Online

yourself. I’ll give you a chance, but I’m not doing you any favors.”
    “I appreciate the opportunity, sir.”
    He laughed again, clasping my shoulder with his strong arm. “We put a little muscle on you, the girls are gonna buy memberships just to watch you sweat.”
    Against my better judgment, I shrugged. “Whatever it takes.”
    “Well, it takes a shower, to start,” he replied, laughing.
    Frank gave me a space to sleep in above his office. The storage alcove had room enough for an air mattress, a small, overturned box to act as a table, and a newspaper. I hadn’t negotiated any pay- or actual job objectives- with Frank yet, but the monthly rent for the available apartments that I was finding in the ads would eat most of whatever I’d be making for sure.
    By the end of my second week in LA, I realized that the room and the showers were my paycheck. I didn’t have an actual job; Frank let me hang around, use his facilities, and basically serve as a billboard for his gym.
    But holy hell, he was right about the girls.
    They came in droves to wherever I was in the gym, and at first, I took full advantage of the situation. When memberships tripled after my first month, I marched into Frank’s office with a list of available apartments.
    He glanced at the classifieds, and then back down at his laptop. “What, kid?”
    “I need an apartment. I found three. Do I have a job here?”
    Frank snickered, continuing to type. “You’ve got food, a place to shower and sleep, and you’re telling me you need an apartment.”
    “Yes.”
    “You getting pussy?”
    I shrugged. “Yeah. But when I start turning them down, I’m pretty sure they won’t be as interested in coming here anymore.”
    He scowled, lifting his eyes from the screen. “Kid, you’d still be living in that piece-of-shit pickup if it weren’t for me.”
    “I didn’t say I was ungrateful. I said I needed an apartment. You want me bringing in the clients, fucking them in the storage room? Classy.”
    He sighed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “I’m not your pimp, Keaton. I’ve got some morals. This feels a little shitty to me. If you want to sleep with them, that’s up to you. I’m not keeping you here to do that. I’m paying it forward. Someone ga ve me a chance when I got here to LA, and I’m doing the same for you.”
    I eased up a little, dropping the newspaper to his desk. “I appreciate that. And I plan to pay you back- two -fold- when I’m a successful director.”
    He smirked, rolling his eyes. “That’s not how it works. You pay if forward, not back. So when you’re Mr. Hollywood big-shot director, give someone a break. The break I gave you.”
    “Fine. But I need an apartment.”
    He shook his head, laughing his throaty laugh. “Fine. Pick one. It’s yours. Be conservative. I got college tuition for my girls to think about.”
    I grinned. “You won’t regret it.”
    The apartment was small but clean, and the location was the main reason I’d chosen the place. I was within walking distance of the Paramount production studio, and I planned to do everything that I could to make myself known there.
    After two months at Pump , I was already getting stronger and putting on muscle. I ran every morning before breakfast, worked out twice a day (usually with gorgeous women eagerly watching my every move) and then finished the day with a work-out in my apartment.
    In bed.
    Frank was right; I had my pick of any woman I wanted, some married, some not. All gorgeous. I’d lied and told him that I was already twenty, so a couple of weeks before my nineteenth birthday, he was ready to shit a brick when I told him my actual age.
    “You know these women are all too old for you, kid. Fuck . You ever lie to me again, I’ll kick your ass.”
    I shrugged, digging my Pennsylvania driver’s license out of my wallet. “My last name is also Thorne, not Thane, but I trust you to keep that a secret.”
    He glared at me, sitting