Hollywood Zenith



At the entrance of Christie's auction house in LA, Istanbul and Antonio, who had arrived early, were waiting for Samuel and Darren. They were chatting and laughing like always.

Finally, a red Ferrari drove into the parking lot, and Samuel and Darren stepped out of the car. Two handsome men dressed in expensive suits immediately attracted everyone's attention, especially Samuel, who was looking extra dashing in a black outfit.

" See? They are all looking at me!" Darren moved his finger through his hair, trying to act cool.

" Oh yeah? Stand over there and see whom they are looking at; how many times have I told you there is only one thing in which you outmatch me currently, and that is the height which is barely noticeable and probably would be gone by next year as I am still a teenager." Samuel shook his head.

Istanbul and Antonio also looked at the commotion and saw two tall men walking toward the entrance. They raised their hand to signal them.

" Wow, you guys really cleaned up nice."

" I now know why all the girls are raving about my brother. Hahaha," Antonio patted Samuel's back laughing.

" You too, looking at Antonio's pigtail, I miss mine." Istanbul wore a special suit with intricate embroidery, while Antonio was more casual with a dark red suit, but it was too tight for his bulky physique.

" Why are you guys complimenting him but not me!? I went to much trouble to look this good!" Darren, who was feeling left out, lamented.

" What can I say? It's a perfect attire for number two!"

" Right! I was thinking the same; wait! Are you wearing makeup?" Antonio took a closer look at his face.

" No, what? Why would I?" Darren denied it vehemently, but now that Antonio had pointed it out, it was noticeable under closer look.

" Don't lie! Let me see!" Antonio tried to grab his face, but he immediately dodged it.

" Okay, okay! I didn't intend to, but I fell asleep when my stylist put it on me. I didn't want her to feel bad, so I kept it on!" He kept on making more lies, but no one was buying it.

" Of course, you are such a kind soul!"

" Commendable."

" A generous man who refused to break a lady's heart!" They showered him with compliments but laughed the whole way through it.

" Let's go inside first; I want to see what they have prepared for us," Samuel asked.

" Of course, I also like to see what we are up against." Antonio sneered.

" We are not going into battle! Stop making that face, but I already reviewed the brochure; it will be fun. Let's go." Istanbul urged them, and they began to walk inside.

" As usual, I had to take the task of arranging our seats as you can't leave these things to a simpleton. Thankfully, I manage to secure four seats in the first row." Istanbul said proudly.

" Is it too hard to believe that I forgot? And it's nothing noteworthy seeing the crowd here. Few familiar faces but nothing to worry about." Antonio curled his lips, not seeing these people as his competition.

" Hah, If you did your research as I told you, you would know that a big whale is coming today! We are bound to lose few beauties to him." Istanbul sighed.

" Who?" Antonio asked curiously.

" Some Russian oligarchs, there is only a handful of them in that country, and each holds immense wealth at their disposal."

" Shit, that sounds bad."

" Is it that bad?" Darren asked.

" It is; their net worth is in billions, and I heard this one is in the oil business and has a nasty personality."

They were not wrong to be concerned; everyone knew how they made their fortune after the country's disintegration. Their numbers were also small, and it was hard to estimate their full potential with the state-run companies under them.

Coupled with their violent nature, not many people wanted to make enemies out of this oligarch.

" What are you worried about? Even if a tiger is the king of its jungle, it has to tiptoe around unknown territory. This is the US, not Russia." Samuel didn't really care. When it came to arrogance, could anyone in the world match his? No!

They followed a staff which promptly led them to their seats. After checking his ticket, Samuel sat down in his seat. There were separate manuals prepared by the auction house which contained everything about the items that would appear today.

He began to check the auction items, and he had to say Christie did a great job compiling the information regarding each item. Production time, service life, mileage, maintenance status, whether it was repaired or not, and other details were printed next to the item's picture.

Samuel flipped through it; he skipped the first few pages as it was full of ordinary and mildly rare vehicles. They were recent vehicles kept in pristine condition; their only advantage was that most of them were not pleasing to a collector's eyes.

It was like an entre for what would come, a means to build excitement before the real treasured cars.

Samuel noticed a vehicle which he was familiar with, a 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe. He remembered it being used in the movie 'Titanic'. Strangely in this reality, there was no mention of this movie.

It gave him a great idea to retold this classic under his production company. He knew if done right, it would be a huge success here, too, but that had to wait. He first needed to fulfil his obligations to the Harry Potter franchise.

He looked at the price; it was only three hundred US dollars which was very cheap for such a vintage. He could bid for it if he felt like it, but he was not in any hurry.

He reached the second half of the brochure, which was a bit interesting. His eyes shone, looking at intricate pictures which took up most of the space along with their specific names.

He decided to grab a few of these as he had plenty of money to splurge.