Chapter 20
Bianca finished spraying the roses over the railings and backed out of the shot, moving over to Liam and Clancy.
The porch smelled faintly of water and fresh petals, and the flowers she’d arranged along the railing caught the light in soft bursts of color.
A camera operator shifted position nearby while someone adjusted a reflector that flashed bright white for a moment before settling.
“This is going great. We’re way ahead of schedule.” Ewan hurried up to them. “Seriously, we’re going to save tons of money, but we need to get those shots by the mountain and the river. Do you have that location?”
“I was going to go look at it tomorrow,” Bianca said. “I’ve been busy.”
Ewan glanced at his spreadsheet. “We need it ready to go tomorrow morning at first light to catch the sunrise. Let’s go. I’ll go with you.”
Bianca waved at Maggie, who was over by the climbing vine Bianca had trained along the side railing earlier.
Maggie hurried over, dressed in overalls and a pink checked shirt, her face alight. “This is so much fun. Thank you for letting me be an extra.”
“Of course,” Bianca said. “We need to scope out the secondary location. Are you still willing to let us use it?”
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Of course.” Maggie winked. “Especially for the ten grand.”
Bianca took a deep breath. She had promised Adam she wouldn’t leave the ranch without telling someone, but if she was with Maggie and Ewan, she should be all right. Nobody would notice if they took off for a bit. “We’ll be back within an hour. Right, Maggie?”
“Oh yeah, it’s quick,” Maggie said. “In fact, I’ll drive if you want.”
“Even better.” Bianca turned back to Liam. “I’ll call you with descriptions.”
“It sounds perfect,” Liam said. “We only need about half a day there, tops. We’re going to wrap this up faster than I hoped.”
A small pang struck Bianca right in the chest. She didn’t want to wrap up quicker.
The thought surprised her with how strong it felt.
When she’d arrived, the plan had been simple: film the scenes, finish the work, and move on to the next location.
That had always been the rhythm of her life. But now Adam was here.
The mornings in his kitchen and the quiet evenings after the crew left had started to mean a lot. Maybe she could put off the trip to Texas for a bit, although she still needed to scout that area. “All right, let’s go.”
They hurried past the organized chaos of the film set.
Large trailers lined the far edge of the yard, their doors open while wardrobe racks stood just inside.
Long cables stretched across the ground between lighting rigs and cameras mounted on wheeled platforms. A group of grips hauled a tall metal stand toward the porch while someone balanced a clipboard and called out the next setup.
The whole place buzzed with motion, and Bianca threaded through it easily, used to the rhythm by now.
They reached Maggie’s older SUV parked near the edge of the property, dust streaking the doors while the back seat looked comfortably worn.
Bianca climbed in and pulled the seatbelt across her chest just as Ewan jumped into the back.
Maggie started the engine and drove away from the chaos. “You and Adam seem like you’re doing well.”
“We’re having a lot of fun,” Bianca said. That was the safest way to say it, since her heart was already involved way too quickly. “He wants me to buy into the flower shop in town.”
Maggie’s eyes lit up. “Do you want to?”
“Not even remotely.” Bianca laughed softly and shook her head.
“I don’t want to own a flower shop. I love planting flowers and landscaping, but I love seeing a setting for a movie too.
” She looked out the windshield as the road curved gently ahead.
“I see things. The lighting, the shadows, the possibilities.” She spread her hands a little, trying to explain a feeling that was hard to describe.
“I don’t want to give that up.” She felt like she’d known Maggie longer than she actually had, because the woman made conversation easy.
Mineral Lake in Maverick County had that way about it.
“I understand,” Maggie said. “But really, how often are you gone?”
“Not that often,” Ewan said from the back seat, stretching his legs and settling deeper into the seat.
“If you think about it, you stick around because you want to, not because you have to. You could have been here four days and then moved on for this film, and you don’t really set up the studios. Somebody else does.”
“That’s true,” Bianca said thoughtfully. Over the past few years she had drifted from project to project, never having a home to think about.
Maybe she’d been sticking around places longer than necessary because she didn’t really have anywhere else to go.
The SUV rolled along in silence for a while. The road curved between trees and open stretches of land where the mountains rose in the distance. She watched the shadows move across the hills and tried to picture scenes in her mind.
“Our land and Boyd’s land border here,” Maggie said, turning down a rough trail that was barely a road. The vehicle bumped gently as the tires rolled over loose stones and uneven ground. “None of us have cattle on this side.”
A creek rushed along beside them, water flashing in the sunlight as it slipped over rocks and curved through the narrow valley.
“That’s gorgeous,” Ewan said, leaning forward between the seats.
“We could get some good shots there,” Bianca murmured, her heart leaping as she studied the view.
Maggie kept driving slowly along the narrow trail. “If you turn around this corner up against this mountain,” she said, gesturing ahead, “I think it’d be a pretty place to have a picnic. Isn’t there a picnic scene?”
“There is,” Bianca said.
“That would be perfect.” Maggie guided the SUV around the bend, the mountain rising close on one side while the creek curved wider on the other. “We haven’t been out here for a couple years, but someday we want to expand here.”
Bianca looked around again, picturing tents, tables, and a camera crew capturing the quiet beauty of the place.
“You know what would be fun?” Maggie continued. “To put a bunch of cabins out here and do a campground.”
“That’d be wonderful,” Ewan said immediately. “Right by the creek where people could fish. You’d probably make a fortune.”
“Yeah,” Maggie said thoughtfully. “I bet we would.”
The peaceful sound of the creek filled the air for another moment.
Then a deep grinding noise drifted across the valley, low and mechanical, like heavy equipment chewing through rock. “What in the world is that?” Ewan asked.
“I don’t know,” Maggie said. She kept driving as the road widened suddenly.
The grinding sound grew louder.
“Whose property are we on?” Bianca asked.
“This is ours still,” Maggie said slowly. “I know it goes until our line curves around the mountain to the right.”
They rounded another bend and the trees opened. Gray rock spread across both sides of the clearing in wide piles, and the grinding noise roared through the air now while dust hung in thick clouds above the ground and large machines tore into the earth. “What in the world?” Maggie whispered.
Bianca stared.
The entire area had been stripped down to exposed layers of rock and dirt.
Heavy excavators scooped into the ground while a crushing machine sat in the center of the clearing, its metal jaws grinding stone into smaller pieces.
Conveyor belts carried the broken rock upward before dumping it into waiting trucks.
Several large dump trucks were quiet, their beds already half full.
The whole operation looked temporary but well organized. Fuel tanks sat near one edge of the clearing. Portable lights had been set up around the site, and tire tracks carved deep patterns through the dirt where trucks had been moving in and out.
“Looks like a mining operation,” Ewan said slowly from the back seat, leaning forward to get a better look. “I’ve used a couple of places like this on other movies. Gravel pits mostly. They make good backdrops for action scenes.”
The hair on the back of Bianca’s neck rose.
Large machines sat frozen across the torn ground, their metal buckets buried in the earth where they’d been digging earlier.
The crushing unit stood silent nearby, its heavy steel jaws still packed with broken rock from the last load it had processed.
The whole operation looked paused rather than abandoned.
“Usually they’re permitted though,” Ewan added, his voice quieter now. “You see signs everywhere. Safety barriers. Company logos. People wearing helmets and vests.”
None of that was here.
Piles of broken stone stretched across the ground like raw scars in the land.
Bianca swallowed.
Maggie slowed the SUV and then stopped.
A truck barreled toward them suddenly from the far side of the clearing.
“Whoa,” Ewan said.
The vehicle raced straight toward Maggie’s SUV before swerving sharply at the last second. Dust sprayed across the windshield as the truck roared past and skidded to a stop nearby. The driver’s door flew open. Boyd jumped out.
“Boyd, what are you doing?” Maggie asked, pushing her door open and standing.
Bianca stepped out of her side of the car, her heart thundering as she stared across the torn landscape. Ewan ducked out of the back and stood next to her. “Whose land is this?” she asked.
“It’s ours,” Maggie said automatically.
Boyd didn’t answer right away. His shoulders sagged and his chin dipped toward his chest. “I really wish you wouldn’t have come out here,” he murmured.
“Let’s get out of here,” Ewan said quickly.
“Yeah,” Bianca agreed, already reaching for her door.
“Sorry,” Boyd said quietly, pulling a gun from his jacket and pointing it at them. “But that’s not going to happen. All three of you move.” He gestured with the gun toward the side of the clearing. “Now. This way.”
Bianca gulped and looked at Maggie.
Maggie frowned. “What are you doing, Boyd? Stealing from us?”
Boyd’s jaw tightened. “Just move.”
For a heartbeat nobody did.
Then Ewan exploded into motion. “Run!” he shouted. He slammed into Boyd, driving his shoulder into the man’s chest and knocking the gun arm sideways. A shot cracked through the clearing, echoing against the mountain as the two men crashed into the dirt.
Bianca grabbed her phone from her pocket and fumbled with a text to Adam, saying where they were. Did she have service? Did he? She threw the phone onto the floor of the car.
“Go,” Ewan yelled again, struggling with Boyd for the gun.
Another shot blasted through the air.
Ewan jerked violently as a bullet tore into him. Blood sprayed across the ground and his body twisted before collapsing heavily beside the churned dirt of the mining site. He gasped as blood spread fast beneath him.
Bianca screamed and ran toward him. “Ewan.” She crouched and pressed her hand against the wound in his chest.
Boyd staggered upright, breathing hard. The gun came up again, steady now as he pointed it straight at them. “Get moving.” He gestured toward a deep cut in the hillside where the machines had been tearing gravel from the earth, a wide ramp sloping down into the pit below.