36. Slider
36
SLIDER
“Okay, are we clear on the plan?”
Audrey rolled her eyes at me. “If you go over it with me again, I’ll?—”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed her before she could finish that sentence. Her eyes grew hazy as she smiled up at me. “Sorry. Just thought I’d keep you from saying something you might regret.”
“I think I’ll do that more often.”
I stepped back, needing my space. I had to keep the mission clear in my head, and that meant letting someone else take the lead on this one. “IRIS will be on your six the whole time.”
“On my six,” she rolled her eyes. “Why can’t you just say he’ll be on my backside?”
“Because then I would be thinking about another man standing right next to your ass, and then I would kill that man.”
She nodded with a sigh. “Well, I guess whatever gets you through the day.”
I turned her around and smacked her ass, watching as she walked away. All we had to do was lay the trap and then reel them in. Then this whole thing would be over and we could go home. Hopefully, that meant Audrey would be coming home with me.
“Are you sure she’s ready for this?” Thumper asked.
“Nope, but why don’t you ask her and see what she says.”
He snorted at that, shaking his head. “No thanks. I already have one woman who threatens my balls on a daily basis. I don’t need another.”
I found the idea of having a woman to threaten me quite nice. That alone should have had me running for the hills, but with Audrey, I found nothing was as it seemed.
I watched from the monitors as Audrey drove away with IRIS and Spencer. It had to work. I just wanted this whole fucking thing to be over, but we needed more than just a few pieces of evidence to get the whole thing to fall apart. We needed something so strong that there was no fucking way they’d even think of going after Audrey or Spencer again.
Rae walked into the room, setting down her computer at the table to work while Thumper and I waited for the team to arrive. There had been an awkwardness between us since our blowup about Cash. Even after I apologized, while things were better, nothing could take back the things that were said.
“How sure are you that Audrey’s mom will fall for this?” I asked Rae.
“She’s a greedy actress. She’ll buy it.”
“Yeah, but how can you be sure?”
Rae glanced up at me, her eyebrow cocked in challenge. “She already gave her daughter up once. Why wouldn’t she do it again? Besides, you have IRIS with her. What could possibly go wrong?”
I gritted my teeth, wanting to wring her neck for saying that shit. “Really? The man works with explosives, and you want to know what could go wrong?”
She shrugged. “What? It’s not like he’s just some Joe Shmoe. He’s got skills. It’ll be fine.”
“It’ll be fine,” I grumbled. “Meanwhile, FNG, Fox, and Max are out there doing God knows what.”
A sly grin crossed her lips, which only made me worry more. “I know what they’re doing. Do you want to know?”
I did and I didn’t.
“Trust me,” Thumper muttered, “it’s better if you don’t know.”
I had a feeling he was right. “I’m more worried about Audrey. God knows what’ll happen when this goes down. She’s not exactly…”
“Exactly what?” Rae asked, her lips twitching in humor.
“Not exactly stable.”
She snorted, “I can’t wait until you tell her that.”
“Like I would ever say that to her face. She’s like the female version of IRIS. I can’t believe I even let her walk out of here with him!”
“He’s probably giving her pointers right now,” Thumper grinned. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he planted a bomb or two on her just for fun during the showdown.”
“That is not helpful,” I bit out.
“No, but it sure is nice to think someone else will have to deal with him other than me.”
“You know, there was a time I liked you.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“I don’t anymore.”
“I already figured that,” he said with a wink. “But think of it this way. If I hadn’t practically forced you to sleep in the same room with her, where would you be right now?” He kicked up his feet and sighed happily. “Face it, your happiness is because of me. I’ll take a thank you at any time.”
“If you’re the cause of my happiness, you’re also the reason I’m so fucking worked up right now. You’re the one who suggested IRIS go with her.”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Not sure if you’re interested,” Rae interrupted, “but she’s going in to see her mom now.”
I stopped bickering and sat down in front of the monitor. My lips curled in disgust the moment her mother answered the door. “What a despicable woman.”
“You know what they say,” Rae mumbled.
I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. “What do they say?”
“Like mother, like daughter.”
“Bullshit,” I grumbled. “She’s nothing like her mother.”
“Let’s hope not. You don’t have the money to keep up with a woman like that.”
“I’d like to bury her in the field behind OPS and wait for dogs to dig up her body. And only when they’ve torn her to shreds would I call them off.”
Thumper slowly turned and stared at me like I was Fox. “Maybe you should lay off the Funyuns.”
I hadn’t had any Funyuns in a long time. That wasn’t actual food, and unlike Fox, I needed sustenance to survive.
“Mother,” Audrey said as she entered her house.
“Audrey, what are you doing here?”
“I came because I need help, and you’re the only one I can count on.” She spun around and faced her, putting on the show of her life. “The studio knows about my contract and I think they tried to kill me.”
“Oh, nonsense. Why would they do that?”
“Because I can’t make action films anymore. With my eyesight as bad as it is, I would be a liability on the set, and they know it.”
Her mother completely disregarded her, walking away and leaving Audrey to fend for herself. She turned and hustled after her, walking right into a high table and knocking over a vase.
“Shit. I’m sorry,” she said as she bent over to pick up the pieces.
“Forget it, Audrey,” I muttered, worried she would cut her finger.
“It’s nothing, Audrey. Just forget about it.”
But she didn’t walk over to help her daughter from getting cut by the vase. My dislike for this woman was growing by the second. She really had not a single care in the world for her daughter. My confidence in this working just shot up eighty percent.
“Mom, I need you to help me convince the studio that this was all a misunderstanding.”
“But you knew this would happen. I’m not sure what you want me to say to them.”
“Just tell them to back off. They’ll listen to you. You’re Ginger Leigh!”
The fact that she even had to suck up to her mother for a fake reason really grated on me. It wasn’t until Rae clamped down on my arm that I realized I was growling at the screen.
“Darling, I’m not sure they would listen to me. It would take an awful lot of convincing.”
“They tried to kill me. They tried to kill Spencer,” she argued.
Her mother sighed heavily, clearly annoyed with the whole thing. “I suppose I can try. What would you like me to do?”
“Tell them I’ll meet them anywhere they want. I can pay back my salary on the last movie. I’ll do more promotions for the upcoming film if they’ll just back off.”
“And what are you going to do in the meantime?”
“I have to run by the set. There are documents there that I need to get. It would prove that they were trying to kill me. If I get them, I need you to keep them safe for me. Can you do that?”
“Of course, darling, but ? —”
“I have to go. Please, when I get these documents, I need you to lock them up tight. They’ll be worth a fortune.”
I could practically see Ginger’s eyes flashing dollar signs through the camera. She hurried Audrey out the door, but it was the way she looked at her daughter that had me disturbed. She was taking the bait, alright. There was no such thing as loyalty to her daughter.
“Well, that’s that,” Rae sighed. “Now we wait for the inevitable.”
“She’s going to flip on her daughter and call the director,” I muttered. “She’s going to cash in on that payday and tell them where her own daughter is headed. I could kill her right now.”
“Save it for the ending,” Thumper reminded me. “We still need her.”
We did need her, but when this was over, Audrey was never going to talk to her mother again. I’d make sure of it.