Chapter 43
Wes
By the time I make it up to Knoxville, it’s already midmorning the next day.
As usual, the paperwork and processing for the arrest took much longer than they make it seem like in the movies.
God, I wish real life was more like the movies sometimes.
For so many reasons. Lack of paperwork being close to the very top.
Nina texted me the address of the hotel and the room number she’s staying in, so I know she’s okay.
But until I see her again, hold her in my arms, I’m uneasy and restless.
I speed way faster than I should in the lumberjack truck that I “borrowed” from set (what?
I’ll give it back) and make pretty decent time, if I do say so myself.
The one consolation I had for how far away Nina has been from me this whole time is that she’s also been far away from her family.
I doubt any of them would do anything to her now that Aaron’s been arrested, but sometimes people don’t always respond rationally.
Still, I’ve hated the thought of her being up here all alone.
So imagine my surprise when I near the hotel room and hear voices—multiple voices—sounding from inside.
Nina. I raise my hand to pound on the door, positive that I’m going to find the Miller family chewing Nina out for airing Aaron’s dirty laundry, or worse. “Open up!”
Instead, when the door opens, I see Nina waiting for me.
Just Nina. She must read the worry on my face because she smiles and nods at me.
It’s a certain, sure nod, like I’m the one who’s just been through a life-changing, distressing incident and need to be reassured. “Everything’s okay. Come inside . . .”
Too confused to do anything else, I follow her into the hotel room—where I find Lyle, Sienna Diaz, and Raquel Ezra waiting for us.
Seeing any of these people again was not on my bingo card for the foreseeable future, but Nina looks totally unfazed. Almost as if . . .
Ah, okay. Yep. Took me a moment, but I caught up eventually. Nina planned this entire thing, obviously. But why?
Nina takes my hand, which I squeeze gratefully, as she ushers me into the room. “You remember Nate R., whose real name is Wes. Say hi, Wes.”
“Hi, Wes.” My smartass mouth can’t help but make a joke, even as I’m still completely baffled as to what is going on.
After everyone takes their respective seats, Sienna is the first to speak. “We were happy to get your text,” she tells Nina.
Nina texted them? When? I’m really out of the loop here. I’d sort of assumed Nina and I would be personae non gratae with anyone from Mountain Man after basically demolishing their show. I’d even worried there might be a lawsuit.
“And we’re very intrigued by your proposition,” Raquel adds.
I really need to get out of the dark here.
I don’t like being the only person in the room who doesn’t know what’s going on.
I’m usually the keeper of the secrets, not the person who has information withheld from him—and let me tell you, having tasted my own medicine, I am not a fan.
“Anyone want to catch me up on what’s going on here? ”
Sienna’s gaze is decidedly less warm as she looks over at me. “Ah, yes. The FBI agent who assured us he wouldn’t destroy our show, then went on to—what was it he did again, Rae?”
“Destroyed our show,” Raquel deadpans.
Ah, there’s that hostility I was worried about. Reserved entirely for me. How fun. I clear my throat. “For the record, I would like to apologize for declaring my love for someone who wasn’t one of your contestants. In public. On camera.”
Raquel looked unimpressed by the apology. “Would you actually take any of it back?”
“No,” I tell her honestly.
“Then don’t apologize for it.”
Fair enough. I look at Sienna, who shrugs. “Honestly, if we still wanted to make the show work, we could make it work. Declaring your love for the wrong person, revealing a secret double identity—that could all be reality TV gold, if that’s still what we were interested in pursuing.”
I hone in on that last part, both intrigued and confused. “You aren’t still interested in doing the show . . . ?”
Sienna and Raquel exchange a look. Lyle clears his throat, speaking up for the first time. “Ms. Diaz and Ms. Ezra have decided that reality television is not where they would like their future creative endeavors to lie.”
“It seemed like a good idea on paper,” Sienna laments. “Filming something near home, being close to our families. Not having to leave for months at a time to shoot a project.”
“Being behind the cameras for a change,” Raquel adds.
“But after Perry got his oily paws on the production, the show was going downhill fast. He insisted on the next challenge being the women wrestling each other in the mud. In bikinis. Even though it was supposed to be the men competing for the women. So it made no sense, in addition to being completely sexist.” Sienna stops, taking in a breath.
It’s clear this rant has been building for some time.
“We were thinking of tanking it ourselves after that so it wouldn’t be picked up past the pilot. ”
Raquel nods along with everything Sienna’s saying. “Even before that, the show had its problems. It felt like most of the contestants just signed up to try to become famous. The only genuine connection that seemed to be forming was . . . well, you two.”
“Us?” I look at Nina in surprise. “But Nina wasn’t in any of the scenes, except for that time she was an extra in the background.”
Lyle rolls his eyes theatrically. “Let me tell you a little something about how a reality show works, Nate R.” He says the fake name with more scorn than is necessary, in my opinion.
But I did ruin the show that was his livelihood, so go off king, I guess.
“The cameras are almost constantly rolling. Even when we aren’t officially filming.
You never know when you might catch a candid moment, a secret conversation.
” He levels me with a look. “Or two people falling in love when they aren’t supposed to be. ”
Despite the weirdness of the situation, I can’t help but smile as I look over at Nina.
To know that some of those sweet moments of connection were captured on film, potentially memorialized forever .
. . there are worse things I can imagine.
“I guess I wasn’t very good at pretending to not be in love with you,” I tell her quietly.
“Atrocious,” Lyle confirms. “Easily the worst acting I’ve ever seen in my life, and I got my start on Killer Sexy Robots 4: The Thunderdome.”
Okay, that’s coming in a little hot, but again, I lost the man his livelihood, so I’ll let it slide. I look back to Raquel and Sienna. “I guess it’s nice you have that footage, but what does it matter if there’s no show?”
“There’s no Mountain Man,” Raquel corrects me. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a show.”
She looks at Nina, as if waiting for her to fill in the blanks, and I realize yet again that I’m still a few steps behind. I look at my lady love questioningly. “What’s going on?”
Nina takes in a deep breath, giving another one of her little nods to herself before plunging in. “I’ve messaged with Lyle about the possibility of turning the footage they already have of the Mountain Man show, plus some additional material, into a documentary. About us.”
I stare at her, flabbergasted. “But . . . why? Who would watch that?”
No shade intended. I obviously love Nina, and I know I’m great, but I just don’t see the appeal of watching two strangers falling in love with each other.
Immediately, though, I can tell this response was a mistake, since I seem to have simultaneously irritated Sienna, Raquel, and Lyle—three of the scariest people I’ve ever met. And again, I did time undercover in a prison.
“You obviously did not do the reality television homework that you were assigned to make sure you didn’t ruin our show,” Raquel tells me.
“And look how well that turned out,” Sienna deadpans.
Lyle takes in a deep breath, clasping his hands together, like he’s prepping himself to talk to a very dumb child.
“So, reality television is one of the most watched forms of entertainment. Even when basically every other network television show is struggling to maintain an audience, reality TV still draws in millions of viewers each week. And within that category of reality TV, dating shows consistently draw in some of the highest ratings. You know why that is?”
I’m scared to even attempt an answer. “No?”
“Because people fucking love to watch other people fall in love,” Lyle tells me. “Aside from being born and dying, it’s one of the few shared human experiences across age and gender and cultural divides. We all love love.”
“But we don’t like to watch people pretending to fall in love,” Sienna clarifies. “Which is why the rest of the show would, unfortunately, be such a bust if we tried to salvage any of it—even without the tacky mud wrestling. But the two of you . . .”
I look back to Nina, who is watching my expression carefully. “So you air a documentary about us and all’s good. No suing us for breach of contract or anything?”
Raquel taps her chin. “Now there’s an idea . . .”
Sienna elbows her, but she’s laughing, which is hopefully a good sign.
My mind continues to whir over the possibilities.
The plan was always for Nate R. to make an appearance on a high-profile show; that was a concession the FBI was willing to make.
But for this documentary to work, I would need to appear on there as myself—Wes Ackerman, not Nate R.
Even if the show somehow manages to fudge out all the parts where I’m an undercover FBI agent, the exposure would be much too high profile for me to go back to my job at the bureau afterward.
My career with the FBI would be officially over.