“This is Jesse. Jesse, this is Lars. He directed two of the films I was in last year.” Gretchen directed his attention toward me, and belatedly, I remembered that I had a rather large knife in one hand. I quickly slipped it back into the block, pretending that nothing at all was amiss.
Lars shook my hand, but I guarantee you he couldn’t have described me to anyone later. His eyes were all for the dazzling movie star.
“If I’d have known you were coming in today, we could have arranged a tour! Listen, can I call you later? I had some interesting stuff across my desk in the last week, I wanna run a few things past you.”
Linking her arm through his, Gretchen slowly herded Hairy Angry Lars off the set, picking her way through the cables and equipment with the ease of long practice. “Sure! Just call Reggie, he can set something up. It was good to see you again!”
Five minutes later, she managed to extract herself from his blatant ass-kissing, and as we walked away I heard him yell, “Well, what are you all standing around with your thumbs up your asses for? Reset!”
Gretchen made it all the way out to the street before all the color drained from her face and her knees buckled under her.
“Easy. I gotcha.” I wrapped my arm around her waist before she could fall, and she leaned on me, trying to keep from hyperventilating.
“I don’t…I don’t understand…that man was going to kill me….” Her eyes were wide, shocky, staring at the teeming street around us without really seeing anything. I debated on slapping her, but settled on some firm talk first.
“Gretchen.” When that didn’t work, I gave her a little shake. “Gretchen!” Finally, she looked at me. “Do you have your cell?”
“Oh…um, yeah. It’s in my purse.” She fumbled it out.
“Call Tai. Tell him to meet us at the car. We need to get back to the hotel where it’s safe, okay?”
“I…” Nearby, someone knocked over a barrel, and she almost jumped out of her skin. I admit, I flinched too.
“Hey.” I tipped her chin up with one finger, making sure I could look into her eyes. “Call Tai. Let’s go.”
After a moment, she swallowed and nodded, making the phone call. There was no mistaking the tremor in her voice as she spoke to her bodyguard, and I noticed that Tai never asked what was wrong.
I kept hold of her elbow as we marched back toward the Town Car, ready to bolt and run if we had to, but there was nothing there. No stomach-twisting nausea, no goose bumps, no cold wind, no smell of damp soil. Just a plain, ordinary, movie lot, full of plain, ordinary movie people. No one even looked at us twice.
“Dante’s not answering his phone.” Just once, Gretchen hesitated in our hasty retreat. “We have to find him.”
“Do you have any idea where he was going, here?”
“No.”
“Then he knows his own way home. We’re not waiting.” I wasn’t going to be happy until I could get her back behind wards.
Bobby had the Town Car door open when we reached it, Tai already behind the wheel with the engine running. I shoved Gretchen inside with little ceremony, then climbed in beside her. “Get us back to the hotel.”
We rode in tense silence all the way back to the hotel, Gretchen turning to look behind us often enough that I finally had to look too. Now, I’m not an expert at spotting tails or anything, but I truly didn’t see anyone following us. Still, I didn’t relax until we’d made it up to the penthouse and I felt the thin bubble skin of Cam’s protective wards slip over my arms.
Gretchen slumped onto the couch and dropped her head into her hands.
“What the hell happened?” Bobby finally broke the silence.
“He tried to kill me.” Gretchen’s whisper was barely audible. “He really tried to kill me.”
“Who? Who tried to kill you, honey?” Tai crouched down in front of her, gathering her hands into his, and I caught the faintest whiff of cloves. Almost instantly, I saw some of the color come back into Gretchen’s face, and the trembling in her fingers stopped. She took a few deep breaths, then gave Tai a grateful smile. Did she understand, I had to wonder? Did she realize he’d just magicked her into calm? Hell, did
“I don’t think he was trying to kill you, actually.” Everyone looked toward me, puzzled. “I’ve been replaying that fight in my head, and he never went for you. He went straight for me.”
It was true. Twice, in my mind’s eye, I could see openings, moments when I’d left him with a clear path to Gretchen. Mega-bad on my part, but he hadn’t taken advantage of it. Either he sucked worse than I did, or he wasn’t interested in her.
“So what does that mean?”
I found a seat on the back of the sofa, picking at the leather stitching a bit. “It means this is about that.” I nodded toward her tattooed arm. “Your contract. Someone wants something from you, and they don’t want me in the way.”
