Chapter 17
“Are you okay?”
Emily laughed, but even to her ears the sound was bitter and angry. “No. I’m angry and frustrated and I kind of want to hit something.”
There was no “kind of” about it. She’d never hit anyone in her life, but right now, the urge was strong.
Ryan’s fingers tightened around hers as they walked. “You can hit me if you want.”
“You? The man who was just accused of attacking an elderly, clearly senile woman?”
“I’m not sure your mother would like being referred to as elderly or senile.”
“I don’t really care what she’d like. I don’t even think she was attacked.”
“Hey.” He tugged her to a stop and cupped her cheeks. “I’m fine. What your mother tried to do didn’t hurt me—”
“But it could have.”
“It didn’t.”
She leaned into his hand. How he so easily made everything feel all right when moments ago, she felt like her head was about to explode, she had no idea.
“Hey, guys.”
Emily turned to see Connor and a blonde woman approaching.
Ryan slipped an arm around her waist. “Emi, have you met Raven?”
Emily shook her head. “Hi.”
“Hi.” The woman’s eyes glowed with warmth. “I’m a huge fan.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
“I swear I’ve watched every one of your movies. Some more than once. When I found out you were coming here, I think I almost passed out.” Her smile widened. “How’s shooting going?”
Emily lifted a shoulder. “It’s getting there.”
“Are you coming inside?” Connor asked.
Emily looked to her right. They were outside The Pancake Bar. She hadn’t even noticed. And through the window sat Ryan’s entire team. Ethan sat next to a woman in a pale pink dress. Joel, with Polly from Bloom. Zac was there. Even Ryan’s sister.
They were eating and laughing and they just looked…happy. Relaxed. Like there was nowhere else they needed to be.
A yearning suddenly hit her hard and fast in the belly. To have that. Friends. Real friends. Who laughed with you because you were funny, not because you were famous. Who smiled with you because they enjoyed your company.
Ryan shook his head. “No, we’re going—”
“I’d like to join them.”
He frowned. “Are you sure? We have a reservation at the Thai restaurant.”
“Can we cancel?”
“We can do whatever you want.”
“I’d like to join your friends.” She looked back through the window. “I haven’t spent enough time with the people in your life.”
He kissed the back of her hand. “Done.”
“Great!” Connor led them inside.
Emily was introduced to Maggie, Ethan’s partner, before sitting between Nora and Ryan.
Nora grinned at her. “Hey, Hollywood.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Emily is fine.”
“What about ‘Emily Prior, Queen of Film’?”
Raven leaned across the table. “I was being serious with what I said out there. I fangirled so hard when Connor said he’d met you.”
“I think I choked on my coffee.” Maggie laughed.
“Trust me, my life is exactly like yours. Just a few more people see my work.”
The women laughed, and yeah, they were right.
Her life was nothing like this. She lived in California and spent her days dodging media and paparazzi and working with people she had nothing in common with.
Her Friday nights were not spent in cozy cafés, eating pancakes and sipping coffee with friends.
Ryan’s deep chuckle sounded beside her.
She looked at him. At the curve of his lips. At the way he treated his team like they were family.
I want this. The quiet words whispered in her head. Not after her next movie. Not in a few years’ time.
Now.
“Tell me the truth,” Polly said, tugging Emily’s attention back to the women. “Is Michale Bates as conceited and entitled in real life as I think he is?”
“Worse. He travels with his own entourage.”
The table laughed…and for the next hour, Emily ate and drank with people who made her forget that she’d ever had to perfect a fake smile. Her stomach actually started to hurt at how much she laughed.
The women were talking about Joel’s cat, Saint, when Ryan’s conversation with the shop owner caught her attention.
“Are you two dating now? Will we get the famous Miss Emily Prior as a full-time resident in Deep River?”
She held her breath, truly interested in hearing Ryan’s answer.
Maybe?
Or, We haven’t talked about it yet?
“Afraid not, Basil. Emily lives in California.”
Her heart dropped. Yes, it was just the café owner, and there was no reason to tell the man anything.
But for some reason, it still hurt. Ryan was answering a question they hadn’t even discussed. And it brought up that old familiar fear and insecurity. Fear of building a life in her head, around her love for him. Fear of him then taking it away, before it had time to eventuate.
She pushed her seat back and stood.
Ryan frowned up at her. “Are you okay?”
“Just going to the bathroom.”
Nora stood. “I’ll come.”
“You don’t—”
“I know.”
Nora slipped her arm through Emily’s and tugged her toward the back of the café. The second the door closed behind them, Nora turned to her.
“You know my knucklehead brother loves you, right?”
“Wow, Nora, right to the point. But he doesn’t—”
“He does. He’s loved you since the day he bought you that half-priced vodka soda in that rundown California bar.
And he’s great at decision-making when it comes to super dangerous search and rescue missions, and those crazy ops he used to go on as a SEAL.
But when it comes to you, he gets scared and makes wrong decisions. ”
“We haven’t talked about what’s going to happen once shooting finishes on this movie.”
“Why not?”
She shuffled on her feet, because…yeah, why not? “I want to stay. But I’m scared he’ll do what he did last time and break up with me to…I don’t know. Force me into the future he deems more rewarding.”
“You really think he’d make the same dumb mistake twice?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“You’re right, he could.”
Despite everything, Emily laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me it’ll be different this time?”
“No. I’m supposed to tell you he’s worth the risk.”
That’s exactly what choosing him was…a risk. A risk she wanted to be brave enough to take.
She nibbled her bottom lip and glanced around the bathroom—only to freeze at the sight of a shoe. No, not just a shoe. A shoe connected to a foot. On the floor. Of the last stall.
“Who’s that?” she gasped.
Nora followed her gaze, and they both rushed across the bathroom.
Emily stopped when she saw her, air cutting off in her throat.
“Faye?” She dropped to the woman’s side and touched her pulse. Strong beats pumped beneath her fingers. Thank God! She looked up at Nora. “Get the guys.”
Nora spun and ran toward the door. Emily was just turning back to Faye when the jiggle of the door handle sounded, followed by Nora’s gasp. “Oh no.”
“What is it?” Emily called.
“It won’t open. I think we’re locked inside.”
The second Emily walked away from the table, Ryan felt her loss. A month ago, sitting at dinner with his friends had been the most comfortable thing in the world. Now, anytime he did anything without Emily, it felt like something was missing.
Fuck, he was screwed.
“She really accused you of breaking into her room and attacking her?” Zac asked, scowling.
“Yeah.” Ryan sipped his soda. “I think she would have really enjoyed seeing Ward drag me out in cuffs.”
Ethan cursed. “You think she planned it? Faked the attack?”
“I don’t know. There were no physical injuries, not even a bump on her head as far as I could tell, so it’s possible.” When Melanie was involved, anything was possible.
“Be careful,” Joel said quietly, the usual grin on his face completely absent now. “If she’s willing to fake an attack in an attempt to get you arrested, there are likely very few lines she won’t cross to get you out of her daughter’s life.”
Ryan wasn’t scared. He’d faced bigger threats than Melanie Prior.
“What’s going on with you two?” Connor asked. “You and Emily.”
“I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it.” But it had been on his mind…a lot. “She has an entire career, an entire life, outside of me and Deep River.”
“We had an entire life outside of Deep River too,” Ethan said. “Until we didn’t.”
A banging from the back of the café caught his attention. It was distant, like it was coming from the hall. “You guys hear that?”
Everyone at the table quieted.
He scanned the restaurant to see Emily and Nora still hadn’t come back.
He shot to his feet and moved to the back of the café, the banging growing louder with each step.
What the fuck?
He stopped outside the women’s bathroom and tried the handle. It didn’t move. He inspected the lock, cursing when he saw the toothpick that had been jammed inside.
One hard shove of the handle, and the toothpick snapped and the door opened.
“Thank God!” Nora gasped. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the last stall.
Ryan cursed when he saw Faye on the floor, eyes closed, and Emily kneeling beside her. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Emily shook her head. “We found her like this.”
Zac rushed in, and Emily stood so he could take her place in the stall. As Zac looked over the unconscious woman, Ryan called an ambulance.
The second he hung up, he crossed over to Emily’s side. Her arms were wrapped around her waist, face pale.
He curved an arm around her shoulders. “Help’s on the way.”
She nodded, but her entire focus remained on Faye. “Ryan?”
“Yeah.”
“This was a scene in the movie too. Her scene.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Faye’s character is attacked in the bathroom of a café. She’s found unconscious on the floor.”
His gaze shot back to Faye, something cold slipping over his skin. “Preston’s character. Is he chased through the woods at night with the masked killer behind him?”
She tensed, the last scrap of color draining from her face. Ryan had his answer before she spoke.
“Y-yes,” she whispered.
Filming was done. The movie was done.
He tugged Emily closer, like that could somehow protect her. If some fucker was recreating scenes from the movie, then they had to be close to the project. They would need a script. Inside information.
As paramedics took up space in the bathroom, he led Emily outside. His team was on the sidewalk nearby, and they headed toward them, but Ryan stopped when he saw a car pull up behind the ambulance, and Roscoe and Preston climbed out.
“What’s going on?” Preston asked, his gaze on the flashing lights of the ambulance.
“Faye was attacked,” Emily whispered.
Preston’s head reared back. “Attacked?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Roscoe asked. “Is she going to be okay for her scenes tomorrow?”
That’s what he cared about? “A woman is unconscious on a bathroom floor, and all you can ask is whether she can continue making your fucking movie?”
Roscoe’s eyes narrowed. “My fucking movie is a piece of art I’ve put years of my life into creating. So yes, I care about it.”
“She was attacked in the bathroom, just like her character,” Emily said. “Similar to how Preston was attacked in the woods, like his character.”
Preston reared back.
While Roscoe just rolled his eyes. “Preston wasn’t attacked. And what are you saying? There’s a copycat killer?”
“She’s saying,” Ryan growled, “that someone who has access to the script is recreating the scenes in a really messed-up way.”
“Someone close to the script…” Roscoe lowered his voice. “You saying it’s me?”
“I’m saying it’s one of you.”
Ward suddenly appeared beside them, a deputy behind him. “What’s going on? I got a call about an unconscious actress.”
“What’s going on is that this movie needs to stop filming now,” Ryan growled.
Roscoe scoffed. “Because one actor got attacked?”
“More than one.”
“Preston was drunk and high. He saw shit that wasn’t there.
” The director folded his arms. “The studio isn’t going to stop production on my film because this town has some bad fucking people running around.
You think I don’t know about the recent attacks that happened before we got here? This isn’t any of us.”
“Boys, come on.” Ward held up his hands. “This isn’t helping.”
A deputy who’d arrived with the paramedics stepped out of the café. “Sheriff, I spoke to Basil. There’s no security footage, and the back door at the end of the hall was unlocked.”
“So we’ve got nothing.” Ryan’s jaw locked.
“She probably fell and hit her head,” Roscoe scoffed.
“Are you listening to yourself?” Emily barked. “Two of your leading cast members have been in eerily similar situations to that of their characters. Faye is hurt. Do you not care about our safety at all?”
“Of course I care. It’s why I agreed to him and his team being thorns in my side the entire damn time.
” The director glared at Ryan. “But if you think I or the studio are stopping production, you’re dead wrong.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that’s going to stop this film.
I’ve worked too damn hard. We’ll all take a couple days off until Faye’s cleared for work, then we’re getting back on schedule.
End of discussion.” Roscoe stormed into the café.
Ryan stepped toward the man, but Connor grabbed him, shaking his head. “Leave him.”
He fought the urge to shake off his friend’s hand and go after the asshole. But Connor was right to stop him. If he hadn’t, Ryan wasn’t sure one hit would be enough.