Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
GRANT
S ome fucker thinks he can get to Kit right under my nose. I grip the steering wheel tight and slam the gas pedal down to the floor. The engine revs as it fights to catch up with my speeding while I whip my truck around another corner on the way back to the production lot.
I’d been on my way back from dealing with Aaron Jamie when Rafe called me.
“Get your ass back to the lot. We’re moving out.”
Normally those would be fighting words because that fucker doesn’t tell me to do shit but I let it slide when he said, “It’s to keep Kit safe. More photos dropped.”
I don’t say shit. Just hang up the phone and focus on the road. There’s more cars than usual out on the road leading to the remote lot. The increased traffic is the sun’s doing. There’s nothing that sends the sun-starved denizens of Seattle in search of a nature trail like the sun’s warmth. My fingers twitch when a slow driver pulls into my lane and hits their brakes immediately.
“Motherfucker.” I take in a calming breath and let it out before repeating the breathwork again. The car’s brake lights in front of me flash again and I force myself to inhale and exhale slowly. I can’t lose my cool and run the shitty little electric car off the road like I want to. If I do that, I’m not going to be with Kit like I’m supposed to be.
I fucking hate not being with her, but Aaron Jamie needed ending. I take another deep breath, switching lanes and passing the slow driver like a sane driver. When I arrive at the production lot gate, the whole place is in motion. Electric. That’s the only word to describe the way crew members and staff are running with their arms full of equipment and binders of scripts.
Whatever the photos were, they couldn’t have been of brunch. That means it wasn’t Aaron Jamie’s dead ass who did this.
Who else is taking photos of Kit?
I throw my truck in park and slam my door behind me before I set off at a jog towards the main building. Kit is there. I hurry, darting between trailers and staff. There is a trailer being loaded with sound equipment and another with lighting being rolled in.
“Hurry the fuck up with that! When I told you I wanted this loaded fifteen minutes ago, I meant it you shit!” A grizzled veteran bellows before there’s a crash from inside one of the trailers and the entire crew loses their collective shit. I don’t bother looking because my mind is starting to work.
They aren’t just loading the equipment for few scenes, the entire fucking lot is packing itself up. That means filming is changing location. There has only been one other time in my career that this has happened and it was because one of the writer’s had offed themselves and the director had a shit fit about us being connected to the death and refused to continue filming until we changed location. By The Way’s filming has been on track for an early wrap-up, something the investors and the studio execs were foaming at the mouth over. An early wrap meant money saved and that gave them the only thing they gave a shit about
Profit.
A move like this is going to eat into that profit. Whatever spooked the producers to do this has to be massive. I hit the doors to the main building and keep going. Rafe had texted me while I’d driven.
Writer’s Room.
That’s where they are now. The room just off the main dining spot is open and bright, lined with windows that look out into the forest. There is only one way in and all those windows give anyone outside a clear view of the room’s inhabitants.
Why the fuck would Rafe bring Kit here if more photos dropped? Something isn’t right, not when his suite is available. There’s mine too, but it isn’t as comfortable as Rafe’s. Still, why did he bring her here where she is out in the open?
My hands curl into fists and I round the corner leading into the Writer’s Room. I already know whatever happened is bigger than Aaron Jamie and his stunt the night before at The Cellar. I’d been dealing with him and not protecting Kit. I’m going to rip this fucker’s spine out when I find them. Whoever it is has to be feeling powerful right now. They have the entire production moving, everyone scurrying like ants to pack it up because of whatever game the mystery photographer has set into motion.
God, I hate that they have me scrambling just like everyone else. I don’t do that. I control the game. Always. The moves I make are mine and mine alone to make, but it’s different now that Kit is in play.
She is my woman and she is vulnerable. She is soft and sweet, as innocent as someone could be around monsters like Rafe and I. She’s the reason this fucker has me by the balls.
“Grant!” Kit’s voice jolts me out of visions of using entrails to strangle the cunt of a photographer taking photos of her. She breaks away from Rafe and runs for me, her beautiful face tear-stained, dark hair messy and her eyes red-rimmed. I can tell she’s been crying for a while.
I hug her to me and bury my face in her hair. “I’m here, sweetheart.”
“Please don’t go away again,” Kit whispers, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs and I hold her closer.
I smooth her hair back and kiss her temple. “I won’t,” I promise her, rubbing her back soothingly. She holds me tighter and I don’t miss the little hiccup she gives against my chest. Motherfucker. I am going to cut their balls off and shove them down their throat. Whoever did this to Kit is as good as dead.
“What happened?” I ask Rafe over the top of Kit’s head and he scowls.
“Someone got into my suite.”
He doesn’t say more but he doesn’t have to. I go still and Kit keeps crying. “How the fuck did that happen?” I snap. I know what he isn’t saying because he already told me the photos were of Kit.
Someone got into his suite while Kit was there.
Right under our fucking noses they took photos of her.
Rafe’s face darkens and he glares at me. “You think I know? It was locked.”
“There you both are! Wonderful. This is wonderful!” We both look to see Holly, the assistant director beaming at us. She claps her hands and hustles forward with an assistant trailing behind her.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Jane, can you please give Grant his itinerary?”
“Itinerary?” Rafe snaps while I take the packet of papers from Jane with a nod while Kit clings to me.
“Yes, the itinerary for the move out. You also have one,” Holly trills and hands Rafe his own packet of papers with a smile. She clears her throat and motions to Kit. “We have one for Ms. Salazar as well but we assumed she would be staying-”
“With us,” I cut her off, “my itinerary is her itinerary.”
Holly winces and looks to the side. “We thought it might be best if she were to stay behind in Seattle.”
I feel Kit go stiff as a board in my arms and I squeeze her to me. “Not fucking happening.”
“They’re taking photos of our woman and your brilliant solution is to leave her behind?” Rafe asks and comes to stand beside me. He takes a step forward to shield Kit from Holly and her assistant.
“How the fuck is that a good idea?”
“The production is obviously not a safe place for her,” Holly says quietly. She clears her throat and looks at me pleadingly because she thinks I’m the way in to get Rafe to see reason but she’s wrong. Out of the two of us, I’m the insane one and we are not leaving Kit behind.
“That’s on security,” I tell her and jerk my chin at her. “Do better and we won’t have a problem, now will we?”
“That’s what we’re trying to do.” Holly crosses her arms and lifts her chin to first meet my eyes and then Rafe’s. She’s doing a decent job at holding her own against us. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t wanting to snap her neck.
“The movie is in danger of being leaked. Someone on set has been feeding photos of not just you three but scenes. Someone here is fucking with our timeline and our investors and the producers are pissed. You think I want a director that’s skittish about everything? No, the fuck I do not because that makes for a crap product. I need my director sound and the production company funding all of this,” she circles her finger for emphasis around the room, “to not be breathing down my damn neck about the movie getting canceled.”
Kit’s sharp intake of breath is the only warning I get before she’s pushing out of my arms and out from behind Rafe.
“They can’t cancel the movie! I won’t let that happen!” Kit exclaims and waves Rafe off when he tries to pull her back. “Who is talking about canceling the movie?” she asks Holly.
The assistant director looks away. “It’s just talk.”
“Who is doing the talking?” Kit presses.
When Holly doesn’t answer her I think we’re going to have to force her but it’s the assistant, Jane, that speaks up. “The investors. Friends of the director,” she says softly.
Holly glares at her. “Zip it, Jane.”
“No, I don’t think Jane should ‘zip it’ since she’s telling me what I want to know. Are they serious about pulling funding?”
Jane fidgets but she nods finally. “They think the leaks are going to make the movie bomb, that there’s no point in people going to theaters if someone is just giving it out for free.”
Rafe scoffs. “Are they idiots? That’s free fucking advertising.”
He’s right. There’s something else going on here that Jane isn’t telling us.
“What else is it?” Kit asks but I’m already putting the pieces together. They wanted to leave Kit behind even while using her as the excuse to move the entire production.
“It’s the three of us,” I say and everyone’s eyes come to me. “Yeah the pictures are fucked but this is a sweet little way for them to keep us and whatever scandal they think is gonna come with us being together away, isn’t it?”
I look at Jane, not Holly and I see her flinch and go red. I’m right.
“Then let them cancel the movie,” Rafe mutters and crosses his arms. “We’re not leaving Kit.”
I open my mouth to agree with him but Kit is there talking before I can. “No, I can’t. We can’t let them do that.” She turns to look at Rafe and I and I hate that I see tears shining in her beautiful eyes. “This book saved my life. I can’t lose this movie. I can’t. ”
Those last two words are a whisper and I already know what Kit is going to say before she says it.
“I’m staying in Seattle.”
Fuck.