Chapter 4
Chapter Four
RAFE
J asmine is a nosy little shit but it’s fine. Who isn’t these days?
“So, what’s the deal with you three?” she asks for the hundredth time. I don’t know how many times she’s going to bring it up, like it’s supposed to piss me off. I don’t care that she asks, because if Jasmine is asking, then I get to talk about Kit.
“We’re dating. What are you? A fucking bigot?”
Jasmine’s cheeks go pink and she turns away from me. “W-what? No, I just, I mean the three of you and, uh everyone knows…”
“If everyone knows then why do you keep asking the same tired ass questions?”
Jasmine wraps her arms around herself and has the decency to look like she knows she should shut the fuck up, but she doesn’t. Of course she doesn’t.
We’re near one of the picnic tables outside. The lot is busy as usual, with trucks coming and going with deliveries and equipment. The sun is bright, it’s almost summer now. It will be next month. Kit is excited about the summertime. She’s already planning beach trips and dates to small towns on the coast. I don’t really have it in me to tell her that we won’t be able to go to the beach, at least not any of the nice ones, without being mobbed by the press.
“I have a right to know who I’m working with,” Jasmine practically spits at me when she speaks.
We’re supposed to be running lines. We shouldn’t be though, not with how we’ve been at this for over three months. We know the lines backwards and forwards, but it hasn’t fixed our little problem.
By little, I mean fucking monumental.
When the cameras are on us, Jasmine freezes. It’s only lately and it’s only with me. She’s fine with Grant and the rest of the cast but when she’s one on one with me she’s like a cardboard cut out.
“Who you’re working with is a fucking professional, you little shit.”
Her eyes widen. “What are you-”
“Who I fuck when I’m off the clock doesn’t concern you. Even if I was on the clock and deep-throated Grant in front of you, what would you even do?” I tilt my head and take a step towards her. I’m tired of playing nice with Jasmine. She’s started thinking she can do or say whatever she wants, but that’s only so because Kit needs her to finish the movie.
Jasmine licks her lips and clutches her script tight to her chest but I see past the fa?ade she’s throwing up. She’s not shocked or scandalized. She’s turned on. There’s a flush to her cheeks and her eyes are too bright. I know I’m right when her pink tongue darts out to wet her bottom lip.
“I-well, I don’t know.”
“Really? Seems like you’d try to join in.”
She drops her script onto the picnic table and leans against it. Someone shouts behind her but we both don’t look away from each other. One of the delivery trucks could be barrelling towards us, and we’d never see it coming.
“And what would Kit think about that?” Jasmine asks, her voice soft. There's a hint of sugary-sweet to it that makes my teeth ache. It’s sickly, like candy that makes your stomach turn. Fake ass shit from Jasmine, but what else is new?
“She’d probably take care of you herself,” I tell her honestly.
It’s true. For as innocent as Kit was when we met her, there’s a sharpness in her that’s only grown over the weeks she’s been with us. It comes alive when she least expects it, but I’ve seen it bright and angry more than once. She doesn’t like it when anyone tells me I’m wrong. It could be anything, really.
The only person that gets away with it is Grant.
That asshole could tell me I’m saying my name wrong and she’d let it slide, but anyone else? No dice. When the server got my order wrong and then tried to tell me it was my fault, I didn't care, but Kit had. I thought she was going to smash the plate over their head before Grant smoothed things over with one of his wholesome smiles and an autograph.
The other times Kit gets twitchy is around other women touching me. The worst is when Dottie Bee’s name comes up, which is on the regular now that people know where the inspiration for By The Way came from. I get that one, because fuck Dottie Bee and fuck her touching me. I’d had a guest starring role on Lighthouse Dreams . I’d known how it went with her and the other fuckers on set.
She’d gotten her claws in Grant the same as me.
Kit’s edge comes out to play when she thinks about Dottie and Lighthouse Dreams now.
If Jasmine thinks she’s going to get close enough to join in with Grant and me? Kit would finally give Jasmine what she deserved. No doubt about it.
Jasmine rolls her eyes before shielding them to look up at the sun. “You really think she has it in her? Puh-lease. She’s a doormat.”
“Sure, Jasmine.” I make a show of unrolling my script and scanning the page. “Why don't you just run the scene and-”
“Seems to me that Kit needs to be watching her back anyways.”
My eyes snap up to Jasmine. “Say that again,” I order. She’s still looking up at the sun like she doesn’t have a care in the world, like the goddamn star she’s staring at isn’t burning the stupid retinas out of her head.
“I said she needs to be watching her back.”
I do the math. I can close the space between us in a second, maybe two if I’m slow. Another second and I’ll have her pinned against the table. I’ve got a knife on me like I always do and I could cut her throat easily from there while I held her down. We have a sex scene coming up, something where we need to be hot and heavy, so me being in Jasmine’s space won’t make anyone look twice. She’d bleed out before anyone really knew what was going on.
In the end, I don’t move. That’s Grant’s style. He’s careless, too in love with the power to think past the rush of the kill. When I kill Jasmine, no one’s going to find her body. Not until I’m ready.
“What do you know?”
She finally looks away from the sun and at me. Jasmine slowly blinks while the wind ruffles her hair across her face. If I was cross-eyed and drunk she’d look like Kit when she was younger.
“I’ve seen the photos like everyone else.”
“The ones from the lot,” I say and flick my script at her. She catches it with a squeak. “You behind that shit?”
Jasmine juggles our scripts and shoots me a sour look. “What? No! Of course I’m not behind that. How would I be taking those photos when I’m in half of them, huh? I’m talking about the ones from when she’s younger starting to show up. It’s really interesting, if you ask me.”
She’s right. It doesn’t take a genius to know she is. Grant and I both know she is, even if we haven’t had much time to talk about it.
“There’s nothing to those photos.”
“So you’re lying, then.”
Kit lied to us this morning. I fucking hate it when she lies to me.
“Sure.” I turn on my heel and head back towards the main building.
“Hey! Where are you going? We’re supposed to be running lines!” Jasmine yells at my back but I keep walking.
The only person I’d turn around for is Kit. “Get your shit together,” I bark over my shoulder, “I don’t want to spend all day on this scene.”
Jasmine yells at me but her words are lost on the wind and I don’t slow down to try and figure them out. My mind is on Kit. Why did my shy girl lie this morning? Whatever the reason, it’s bigger than prom. If Jasmine can see it, I know other people can too, which doesn’t suit my plans to keep Kit comfortable and happy.
Grant and I have planning to do and a fucker to kill. Those pictures are done.