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  The door flew open, and Charlotte glared at me. Her face was still red, a change from its usual creamy complexion. “You actually think we’re going on with this? I’m about two seconds away from calling Paxton and telling him to go fuck himself if he thinks I’m going to put up with another minute of you. Either I get somebody new in here, or you’re all fired.”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

  “Why? Are you going to suddenly get a personality transplant?”

  “You know, you say things like that and then you wonder why we don’t get along as well as we could.” I stared her down until she looked away. “Listen. We don’t have to keep arguing like this. It’s ridiculous. You rubbed me the wrong way when you challenged me about that conversation back there. It wasn’t a very comfortable one. To put it mildly.”

  She huffed. “I shouldn’t have given you crap about it,” she muttered. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know how to be right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean this is bonkers!” She threw her hands into the air. “Somebody tried to kill me and nobody knows who and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I’m scared to death, okay?”

  “So why not just come out and say that?” I asked. “It’s natural. Nobody’s going to make fun of you. I won’t think any less of you.”

  “No, I doubt you could think much less of me if you tried,” she smirked, leaning against the door.

  “You have me all wrong,” I said. “You just assume I don’t think well of you.”

  “You don’t,” she said, eyes narrowed. “Come on. I know how to read faces, and yours is an open book. You think I’m Hollywood trash. Like I don’t deserve the money I have or the way I live.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do. And whatever, you’re entitled to your opinion.” She shrugged. “You’re not the first person to feel that way, and you won’t be the last.”

  “None of that matters right now,” I said, trying to push it aside. She was right about me, of course. I didn’t think she or anybody else who acted for a living deserved to live the way she did. I knew men who’d fought and died and earned a tenth of her wealth—maybe even less. All she did was rattle off lines in front of a camera and smile during interviews.

  “What does matter, then?” she asked, folding her arms. I couldn’t help noticing the way her tits pressed together under her dress, peeking out a little from the low v-neck. My eyes snapped back up to hers. She didn’t seem to notice my lapse in attention.

  “What matters is why I’m here—to keep you out of danger. To make sure whoever started the job doesn’t finish it. That’s the main goal right now. I’ve been doing this for a long time. You’ve gotta trust me and the rest of the agents. We’re all on your side.”

  She chuckled grimly. “That’s gotta be a first for me in the last ten years or so.”

  “What?”

  “Having people on my side.”

  “You don’t think you do?”

  “I could name a half-dozen people off the top of my head who’d cut my throat if it meant getting a part for themselves. And they’re supposed to be my friends. Nothing is real. I can’t trust anything.”

  “You can trust me,” I said. And I meant it. Like Janine said, Charlotte was somebody worth feeling sorry for. She only looked like she had it all together. It was an act. She was really a scared, vulnerable girl whose career was more precarious than it looked. I wondered what it must be like to never know if people were really on my side. At least I knew my friends had my back.

  “Thank you. And I’m sorry I gave you shit.”

  “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have taken it personally.”

  “So we’ll be nicer to each other from now on?” she said.

  “You still want me around?”

  It looked like she actually had to think about it for a second before nodding. “Yes, I do. I think you’re just what I need right now. I can’t talk to Zach. He’s not much on conversation.”

  “I didn’t think he would be.” We both laughed.

  It was getting late, and Charlotte checked the time. “We’d better both get a lot of rest tonight. My call’s at five o’clock.”

  “See you in the morning.” I went back to the living room to get ready for the night, and was glad we had managed to find some sort of common ground. Facts was, once I got past my prejudices, she looked more and more like a regular person. Someone I could pity and want to protect.

  Janine was just leaving as I reached the couch with the intent of making it up for bed, and I felt a rush of embarrassment as I realized she must’ve overheard everything. I wondered if that was normal for her, having people forget she was around.

  “Don’t let her do that to you,” she whispered, putting on her coat. Her eyes shifted back toward the bedroom door, which Charlotte had already closed.

  “Do what?”

  “Manipulate you into being on her side.”

  “But I am on her side,” I said. And I didn’t appreciate the insinuation that I’d been manipulated.

  “I know you are, but just remember: she’s a very good actress. And you’re a man.”

  “Meaning?”

  “She’s good at making men want to protect her and take care of her. Don’t get me wrong—I love her. I love working for her. But I like you.” Her cheeks reddened. “I don’t want to see her use you, is all.”

  “Thanks.” It was all I could manage to say as Janine left. I was still speechless long after she closed the door.

  So was that it? Was the actress only acting? Was she using all the tools at her disposal to get me to fall in line? Well, we’d see about that. I’d be nicer, even friendly, but I wouldn’t let her work me over the way she’d probably used dozens of men in the past.

  Chapter Six – Charlotte

  I woke up with a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I had to go back to work.

  I’d only considered quitting, oh, a hundred times in three days. I could quit the project and go back home where things might be crazy but they at least made sense. Nobody was trying to kill me in LA—well, not literally. They might have been trying to kill my career or my reputation, but nobody had ever hit me over the head and tried to strangle me. Big difference.

  I didn’t know what to expect after leaving my bedroom that morning. It was still dark outside, only four-thirty, but there was Spencer. He was in his usual uniform, dark tee and jeans, standing by the front door like a guard dog.

  “I didn’t expect to find you so bright eyed at this time of the morning,” I said, a little thrown by the smile on his face.

  “I’m used to waking up early,” he said with a shrug. “Carry over from Army days.”

  “Oh, of course. I didn’t think about that.” I put on my coat, wrapping it around me before throwing a bag over my shoulder. “How long were you there?”

  “You’re really interested in my history?” he asked with a smirk. I reminded myself we were playing friends and managed to swallow back the snarky remark that threatened to bubble up out of my mouth.

  A little vulnerability never hurt anyone. “I just need something else to think about right now, okay?”

  His expression changed. Softened. When he looked like that, I could almost see myself falling for him. After all, he was gorgeous. Sex on a stick, as my mom used to say. She had a lot of charming little sayings. “Of course. I didn’t think about that.”

  As we walked down the hall to the elevator, he rattled off his military history. “I went in right after high school and decided I wanted to be a Ranger.”

  “That’s a pretty big deal,” I said. Even I knew not just anybody could decide to be one and become one.

  “You’re right,” he said with a grin.

  “Oh, so modest.” We both chuckled a little, and I looked down at the floor so I wouldn’t have to look into his eyes. They were way too nice, and it was way too easy to keep looking when I shouldn’t.

  “And I left a
ctive duty when I was twenty-three. Honorable discharge.”

  “Just like that?”

  He nodded, and I noticed the way his jaw tightened. Muscles jumped in it. “Just like that.”

  Okay, then. Touchy subject. I wondered if something really awful happened to him. When we left the elevator and crossed through the marble lobby to the revolving door, I let myself fall a half-step behind and watched him as he walked. He didn’t limp. I didn’t see any scars on his arms when he wasn’t wearing a coat, the way he was just then. Nothing on his head, either, just thick, dark brown hair with a touch of white here and there. Was it true that stress and shock turned a person’s hair white? If so, maybe that was why he’d been discharged. It didn’t have to be a physical injury.

  I couldn’t help thinking about it on the way to the set, sitting in the back seat with him while my driver took us across town. Then I realized, looking into the front seat, that I didn’t recognize the man driving us.

  Spencer noticed me staring. “Oh, I forgot. I’m sorry. This is Jake. He’s one of the best drivers we have.”

  “So, wait. You fired my driver?”

  “More like we gave him a little extra vacation time,” he said.

  “Okay. If you want us to get along, there’s something I’m going to need you to do.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Run things like this past me before you just charge ahead with them. I would’ve liked to have been kept in the loop, you know?”

  “Sorry. It’s just our normal protocol. I didn’t think to mention it.”

  “Well, think next time. Please.” I didn’t want us to get back on the wrong foot again, since it was nicer to get along with him than it was to fight—even though I always liked a good fight. But he was already getting my blood up. I bit back the urge to let loose on him and ask how he could dare make a decision like that without consulting me on it first.

  “Will do.” He sat back, looking out the window as we whizzed through town. “I’ve never been on a movie set before.”

  That made me smile, and broke the tension. “I don’t think you’ll be very impressed,” I said. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because nobody ever is, really. If anything, once you see how something is done, you can never go back to being innocent again. You’ll never watch another movie and see just the movie up there on the screen. You’ll think about all the dozens and dozens of people behind the cameras.”

  “Even during a sex scene?” he asked with a smirk. I heard the driver chuckle from behind the wheel.

  “Yes, even then. Sometimes an actor or actress will ask that only the very most necessary people be there on-set during those scenes, though.”

  “I can see why.” He shuddered, shaking his head. “I can’t imagine doing something like that. Did you ever?”

  My eyes widened. “Have you ever seen any of my movies?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Oh, come on. That means you haven’t seen any of them.”

  He shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “Are you serious?” I looked in the rearview. “How about you?”

  “Oh, yeah. A bunch of ‘em. My girlfriend loves your movies. Especially that one you did about the jewel thieves.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a grin, then turned to Spencer. “And if you would ever crawl out from under the rock you call home, you’d know that I had a pretty hot scene in that one.”

  “Yeah, you did.” I caught Jake’s grin in the mirror.

  “That doesn’t bother you?” Spencer asked.

  “What?”

  “That the guy driving the car has seen your…stuff?”

  I couldn’t help laughing. I tried to hold it back but just couldn’t manage it. “I’m sorry,” I said, waving my hands. “I’m not laughing at you. I swear.”

  “Right. You’re not laughing at me.” But he was smiling when he said it.

  “I’m not. It’s just that I’ve never heard that question asked in exactly that way before.” I wiped tears of laughter from my eyes. “Oh, I needed that.”

  “I’m glad I could make you laugh,” he said, his voice dry.

  The car pulled up to the location and I thanked Jake, then promised to autograph something for his girlfriend. “Or bring her along sometime. We can hang out.”

  “She’d love that,” he said with a wide smile. “I’ll tell her you said so.” I noticed Spencer smiling, too, as we got out of the car. We walked together to my trailer.

  “To answer your question, it bothered me a lot at first.”

  “What did? Letting people see you like that?”

  I nodded. “A whole lot,” I said. “But over time, it gets easier. I mean, it’s just a body. We all have them. I’m not kidding myself by thinking anything I do is artistic. My movies aren’t art. But they’re entertainment. And it’s all in good fun.”

  “So what happens if a person’s watching you on TV and pauses the movie on an image of your body and…you know…”

  “Gets off on me?”

  “Yeah.” It was actually sort of adorable, how embarrassed he seemed. I couldn’t imagine him just then as an Army Ranger, kicking ass in some desert on the other side of the world. He seemed so innocent.

  “Well, I’m glad I can help them do that, I guess. I can’t stop them. And hey, there are people out there who get off on My Little Pony or who fuck their car. I mean, we all have our thing. I think I’m relatively tame, don’t you?”

  I was smiling when I said it, but that smile melted from my face when we reached my trailer. I stopped at the bottom of the steps.

  “You okay?” he asked, standing next to me. “You sure you’re ready to do this?”

  I could hardly hear him over the blood pumping in my ears. It suddenly felt a lot colder than it had before, and the pre-dawn sky looked even darker. I still didn’t remember anything from the attack, but just knowing what had happened there in the trailer was enough to make my feet freeze in place.

  “I think so,” I whispered. “Can you do me a favor, though?”

  “Sure.” I felt his hand touch mine. Even scared half to death as I was just then, it felt good.

  “Can you go in first to make sure there’s nothing wrong inside?”

  “Oh, yeah. I would’ve done that anyway.” He went up the metal steps and opened the door, then flicked on the lights. I saw him looking around and held my breath. “It’s fine,” he said. “You can come in.”

  They’d cleaned up. I noticed that right away. There was a throw rug on the floor, too. I remembered sitting there in front of the long mirror that extended from one end of the trailer to the other before everything went black. That rug hadn’t been there before. Was there a blood stain? I didn’t want to look to find out.

  “Well, this is it,” I murmured, hating how shaky my voice was. “Make yourself at home. You’ll be here for a while.”

  “Hopefully not too long.”

  “Right. Because there are better places for you to be.”

  He tilted his head to the side, scowling. “Because it would mean the cops had solved the case and you didn’t have anything to worry about anymore. Stop picking fights.”

  “You’re right, you’re right. I guess a doctor would say I used that as a defense mechanism.” I was babbling and I knew it. Anything to stop thinking about what had happened to me. Anything to keep from trying to remember what I’d blocked out. There had to be more to it. I must’ve seen somebody come in, especially sitting at the mirror like I was.

  Suddenly something came back to me, but not from when I was inside the trailer. “Alcohol in my system.”

  “What’s that?” Spencer looked at me with narrowed eyes.

  “They said I had alcohol in my system at the hospital. It was why they wouldn’t give me anything for the pain.”

  “Oh, right. I’d heard that, too.” He shrugged. “What about it?”

  “I wasn’t drinking. I don’t drink anymore.
Ever.”

  “You don’t?” He looked skeptical, though I could tell he was trying to keep a neutral expression.

  “I don’t. I’ve been sober for four years. It got pretty messy in my late teens, early twenties. The studio I was working for at the time put me in rehab and I haven’t touched a drop since. On my life. I swear it.”

  Spencer frowned. “What would show up on lab results as alcohol? I don’t know of any other compound that would give a false positive. You didn’t have anything else in your system that you’re aware of? You’re not taking any, I don’t know, fancy herbs or whatever?”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t gone that far down the rabbit hole,” I said. “I know lots of people who do, but juicing is about as far as I go. And using essential oils when I feel like I’m coming down with something. But that’s all.”

  “They just assumed at the hospital that you’d been drinking, and so did the police.” He pulled out his phone and began texting somebody.

  “Who’s that going to?”

  “Ricardo. I’m interested in seeing what comes of this. He’ll probably ask the doctors or lab techs for your bloodwork and go from there.” He glanced up at me as he typed. “You’re telling the truth? The total truth?”

  “If there was alcohol in my system, I didn’t put it there. Somebody must’ve made a mistake somewhere. Maybe they got my blood mixed up with somebody else’s.”

  He nodded, still typing. A knock at the door made me jump. We looked at each other. “Yes?” I asked, hating how weak and wimpy I sounded.

  “Hair and makeup.”

  “Come in.” I pulled my sweater off and wrapped myself in a robe before I even thought about Spencer being right there. When our eyes met in the mirror, his face was red. Well, it wasn’t like I wasn’t wearing a bra.

  “Sorry,” I said with a shrug. “Like I said, it’s just a body.”

  “Yeah, just a body.” I couldn’t help loving how uncomfortable he looked. So he wasn’t Mr. Frost after all. Under that disciplined exterior was a red-blooded man. Something worth keeping in mind.

  Then the hair crew showed me the piece they were using to cover my stitches and I was too busy paying attention to think about him for a while. It felt good to get back to work, even if I still had butterflies.