by Cara Adams
The movie site was fenced, but the fence was nothing a fit person couldn’t climb over. It was more designed to prevent passersby from wandering onto a scene and ruining the filming than anything else. It wasn’t like there were things here worth stealing. The furniture was all inside the buildings and there were no genuine antiques or expensive artworks. Almost everything was designed to look good in the background of a shot, not to be inspected closely for flaws.
Autumn paced impatiently for a while, but the burning smell got no worse, and she couldn’t hear any worrying noises. Finally, she wandered over to the other living room scene, the one with the wooden floor, and stared at it carefully. The two armchairs and the couch were the real thing, but the painting on the wall, the bookshelf over to the side, complete with books, and the window on the back wall were all just painted onto wooden sets. She walked around behind them and the backs had different scenes painted on them, old stone walls, like part of a castle, with detachable triangular wooden bracing poles. It was actually quite fascinating as an example of an optical illusion, she supposed.
The roller door squealed and she turned suddenly, her purse banging into her thigh. Impatiently, she hitched it higher up her shoulder and stepped out of the set and into the open concrete-floored area to see which one had returned, Nicholas or Curtis. But it wasn’t either of them. It was a man she didn’t recognize. Likely, he was someone who worked here and had come to investigate the smell as well.
“Hi. I’m Autumn. Is everything outside all right?”
“I was going to say this whole evening has been a waste of time. There’s nothing here of value at all. But you’re one of those panthers, which means you’re of value. Drew and Charlie should pay me some big bucks to hand you over to them. Come over here, my pretty. We won’t wait for the others, because they may want to share you. I’m going to get me some nice money for you, oh yes, I surely am.”
“I don’t think so.” Autumn gripped her heavy purse firmly and waited for him to come closer. As soon as he got in range she’d be aiming for his head. Hitting his balls with her purse would hurt a lot more, but it was a much smaller target. Anywhere she hit his head should be enough to knock some sense into him. It was a damn shame she didn’t carry Mace or hairspray with her, but the sheer weight of the bag would do enough damage, she hoped.
“Come on, pretty one. You come to Jim now.”
The man was sidling up to her, trying to grab her unawares, but she wasn’t stupid enough to take her gaze off him for a moment.
Finally, he leaped forward and she swung her purse at his head with all her strength. He screamed and staggered backward, raising both arms to hold his head and therefore leaving his balls unprotected. She kicked up hard, slamming her foot into them, and when he dropped to his knees she belted him over the head again with her purse. Autumn ran to the bedroom set she and the men had used and quickly unhooked one of the sets of handcuffs then ran back and cuffed his hands in front of him. Back she went again for a second pair of handcuffs and secured his ankles. Then she moved well away from him as he was already stirring and swearing. When he found he couldn’t stand up he began screaming abuse at her.
“Hey, you were going to capture me. I captured you. Fair’s fair,” she said.
“They’ll put me back in jail, you bitch.”
“You should have thought of that before coming here, shouldn’t you?”
The man began shuffling on his bottom toward the roller door.
“Just keep doing that if you want me to knock you unconscious,” Autumn said, swinging her purse. He gave her a filthy look but stayed still.
Just as well. She’d already hit him as hard as she could twice and it’d only stopped him for a matter of seconds. And if she tried to hit him with some of the furniture she wondered if it may have been designed to come apart in a fight scene and therefore be totally useless as a weapon. Fortunately, he seemed prepared to sit there and sulk for the time being.
She heard a dragging sort of sound and swung around to the back door of the building. Nicholas opened the door and came in dragging two unconscious men. Good heavens, he must be strong. Of course, he was a wolf, but even so these weren’t small men and they were completely unaware of being dragged along the ground.
“What have you got there, Autumn?” Nicholas asked, frowning at her.
“This is Jim. He thought he’d like to sell me to Drew and Charlie, who I’m guessing are some of the rogue panthers. I simply turned the tables on him.”
“So I see. Well done. Could you go get me a few more pairs of handcuffs, please?”
Pushing her purse back over her shoulder, and grateful she always carried it with her everywhere, Autumn went back to the bedroom for the remaining two pairs of handcuffs, which she gave to Nicholas.
Efficiently, he cuffed the two unconscious men then said, “Stay here while I get some rope for their feet.”
Nodding and standing well away from the men in case any of them woke up again or Jim got rambunctious, Autumn waited patiently for Nicholas to return, looking from the roller door to the back door every few minutes and highly relieved when he did arrive back.
After the men’s legs were tied and the three of them were roped together, Autumn asked, “Was there a fire? Was anything damaged?”
“One of the wooden set pallets is scorched, but it didn’t catch alight. I don’t know whether they were trying to start a fire or not. Perhaps, Jim, you can answer that question?”
Jim just scowled at Nicholas.
“These two were busy breaking into one of the storage sheds, so they’ll be heading back to jail again. When Curtis gets back inside we’ll call 9-1-1. Will you be all right if I go out again and help him clean up the trash?”
“Of course. I have my secret weapon.” She hefted her purse and grinned at Nicholas.
He walked to one of the sets and came back with a gun. “Use this instead. Aim for their chests. That’s a nice big target you’re sure to hit.”
Autumn was just going to say she had no intention of shooting anyone when she realized the gun was fake. A prop. So she nodded and said, “Thanks, Nicholas. I’ll be fine here now.”
Jim took one look at her holding the gun and became still and quiet. She didn’t trust him at all, but for the moment he wasn’t going to cause her any trouble. But why had they come here to steal things anyway? It was a very small movie studio, not a bank or even a gas station or convenience store, where at least there’d be cash.
“Why did you come here? Why not rob a convenience store or a bank?” she asked.
“Banks have too much security and everywhere else we looked at had cameras. Since we’ve all done time our faces are on record, and wearing a balaclava is no protection as it can get pulled off if there’s a fight. This place looked like a nice easy target.”
“Because there’s nothing to steal. So you’ll be going back to jail for wasting your time instead of getting a job.”
“Only fools work a regular job.”
“But they do manage to stay out of jail.”
Jim didn’t reply. Autumn made sure to stay well away from him in case he realized the gun was a plastic replica. Time seemed to pass incredibly slowly, but finally, she heard Curtis’s voice.
“I recognized this one straightaway. Last time I saw him he had a broken nose. He was driving the truck that ram-raided the gates at Carnal Connections and the backseat passenger wasn’t wearing a seat belt. When the truck hit the gates the man in the backseat flew over the seat, kicking this man in the face and breaking his nose.”
“Oh yes, I remember that, too. The backseat man sliced his own head open by breaking the windshield, didn’t he?”
“Evidently, it didn’t knock any sense into them, since they came here the minute they got out of jail,” said Curtis.
“They won’t be here long. I’ve called 9-1-1. I’ll go to the front gate to meet them and bring them to the roller door.”
“Okay. I’ll just tie this m
an up while we wait for them to arrive.” Curtis had a man over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Nicholas had another one over his shoulder, who he dropped none too gently on the concrete by the two unconscious ones before he waved to Autumn and then went out the roller door, ready to meet the police.
This lot will soon be back in jail, but that still leaves Drew and Charlie. How many more of them are there, and why don’t they just give up and go somewhere else?
* * * *
In the end Autumn did text Ramona and tell her what was going on as the police seemed to want to ask the same questions over and over again even when it was more than obvious she’d had no idea what was happening. Finally, Omar arrived. The Alpha of the panthers was a huge man, well over six foot tall, and all of his bulk was solid muscle.
“You’ve gotten Autumn’s statement, you know her address, and you know she can give you no more information. I’m taking her home now,” said Omar firmly to the cops, grasping her arm and leading her out of the building.
Autumn hid a grin at the grumbling and muttering from the police as she was marched away. No one was bold enough to contradict the Alpha, though.
Neither Curtis nor Nicholas looked any more pleased than the police officers did, but Autumn knew her men would want her safe at home and the police had no intention of leaving the movie studio grounds anytime soon.
“Why do you think they tried to rob the movie studio, Omar? It makes absolutely no sense at all,” said Autumn as they drove home.
“Some people aren’t good at thinking for themselves or running their own lives. They need an Alpha, or a Dom, or just a wife or mother to tell them what to do. In my opinion these men fit that category. They needed money so decided to steal it. They convinced themselves some unguarded place would be the easiest target without working out that because it’s not guarded there’s likely not much of value in it. Rather like people who smash car windows because they see a pair of sunglasses inside. They’re lucky to get a few dollars for the sunglasses, and for that they risk jail time. At least robbing a bank makes sense in a lawless kind of way.”
“Yeah, you could retire on the proceeds of a bank robbery. And I suppose these people have no real job skills and would be working for minimum wage,” said Autumn.
“Well, they didn’t strike me as smart enough to get a job that requires too much brain input, but that’s no reason not to find work at all,” said Omar.
Autumn nodded then thanked Omar for driving her home and walked into the main building at Carnal Connections and up the stairs to her room. She supposed she ought to be grateful for her own job. She loved crafts and had found a job where she made things and got paid for it. “I am rather lucky, aren’t I? But I work hard, too. Some of the designs I make take hours and hours and hours of concentrated effort. But I enjoy it, so it’s all good.”
And what about being with Nicholas and Curtis tonight? Was that also “all good”?
Autumn sat down on her bed. Oh yes, it’d been good all right. Very, very good. The best orgasms, ever. Four of them. She’d never had so many in a single day before. But the basic problem still remained. Curtis was a human and a Dom. Nicholas was a werewolf. She was a half-panther. Mixing them together into a relationship was never going to work long term. Dammit!
Chapter Three
“We’ve never had a moment’s trouble with the people in this neighborhood. Many of them work for us as extras when we need a crowd scene for a movie we’re filming. I have no idea why these people decided to try to rob us. Or burn us down, or whatever bee was buzzing in their tiny little minds last night,” said Curtis, working hard to hold on to his temper.
Nicholas had texted most of their staff not to come in today, as the police were still poking around the grounds looking for evidence. Evidence of what, Curtis wasn’t too certain, as the broken lock on the one shed they’d managed to get into was about all the evidence there was, except for the people themselves and a slightly scorched wall where someone had tried to start a fire.
“What type of movies do you mainly shoot here?” asked Officer Nguyen.
“Not porn, if that’s what you’re thinking. We just signed a contract for a series of community-service advertisements about recycling,” said Curtis.
“Might some companies think they’ll lose business if these advertisements are successful?” asked Officer Diaz.
“How would we know? But why would they attack us instead of the company that hired us?” replied Nicholas.
Nguyen frowned at Nicholas.
“Why don’t you interview the men who broke in? I think you’ll find they’re none too smart. Omar said they were from the shallow end of the gene pool, and they truly act like they are,” said Curtis.
Diaz was trying to hide a grin now, and Curtis felt a bit relieved. He was so tired of the endless questioning. They were the victims here and they’d lost a day’s production over this fiasco already.
“Or maybe talk to the police who questioned them after they ram-raided the gate at Carnal Connections. A couple of them ended up hurt from their own stupidity over that,” added Nicholas.
“Stokes told me about the one not wearing a seat belt,” said Nguyen, shaking his head.
“There’re two more of them who just got out of jail as well. I’d be worried about what mayhem they were plotting if I were you,” added Curtis.
“We’ll definitely check that,” said Diaz.
They asked some more questions, but as far as Curtis could see they were just going over the same ground yet again. Finally, a good hour later, Diaz and Nguyen stood and Diaz said, “Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions.”
Curtis nodded and waited as Nicholas walked them to the door, but all he could think of was, “Please tell the judge to lock them up for longer this time, and please don’t any of you come back.”
But they did have a problem. And it was huge.
Nicholas sat down beside him after watching the police officers leave the property. “Something’s biting you. What is it? Spit it out.”
“If we’re going to mate with Autumn—”
“When, not if.”
Curtis found himself grinning even though he was worried. His best friend could do that to him. Cheer him up out of a bad mood even though nothing had changed. The problem hadn’t been resolved, but already he felt a little better about it. “Fine. When we mate with Autumn we’re going to need more than just a bedroom and a place for her to store her things.”
“Hell, yes. We need a proper bathroom especially for us, not just that bare place everyone uses.”
“Well, yes. But it’s a lot more than that. Omar will never let her leave Carnal Connections unless we prove we can keep her safe. And the kind of security fencing with electric wires and god only knows what else they’ve got there is so far out of our reach it may as well be on Mars.”
“Fuck! You’re right. Besides, there’s no way we can make a stage set secure, or even a room inside one of our buildings secure, because everyone working for us needs access to those areas,” said Nicholas.
“Precisely. Plus there’s simply not the room to build a house on our land. We really don’t have enough space as it is. The amount of film I have to cut because it shows something from another set, even when you and I have done the actual filming ourselves and been damn careful, is already too expensive.”
Curtis looked at Nicholas. The man was obviously thinking hard. Curtis hoped Nicholas had thought of a decent idea, because right now he was all out of ideas, decent or otherwise.
“If we sold this land to a developer, likely we’d get a mighty fine price for it. The land isn’t all that big, but it’s an easy commute into town and a developer could put a hell of a lot of tract houses on it,” said Nicholas.
“Are you suggesting we go out of business? Or sell the business? We’ve just gotten a rather nice contract if you recall.” Curtis liked the idea of selling the land and making money. Who wouldn’t like
the idea of a nice pile of money? But what happened next? How would they get jobs? This was Ohio, not California, and they were a hell of a long way from Hollywood.
“What I’m thinking is we ask Carnal Connections if we can move our business there. Set up the studios near the road on the southern edge of the property. There’s that one-lane road that goes nowhere. We could ask the county if we could buy it from them as well as the land reserved on either side of it. It wouldn’t be a lot of land, but it’d give us our own access road so cast and crew wouldn’t need to go through the Carnal Connections entry,” said Nicholas slowly. Curtis guessed he was still thinking it through as he said it.
“Most of our equipment could be dismantled and transported to a new site. With our own access road, and a high wire fence surrounding our buildings to deter idiots, we’d be much more secure.”
“And we could find a nice safe place to build our own small home—”
“On Carnal Connections’ land but using all our own resources, and that will be much nicer than using the movie set lunchroom and bathrooms,” said Nicholas.
Curtis raised his hand and Nicholas high-fived him. “I’ll sound out the county about buying the road and source some developers and see what kind of money they’re willing to pay for this land, while you talk to Larry about us actually moving there. Since we’ve had to postpone filming for today, we may as well get at least some of our ducks in a row.” Suddenly, fear hit him. It was such a neat and perfect answer. What if they couldn’t do it? It all hinged on Carnal Connections agreeing to have them, then on getting a good price for their own land. And what if Autumn didn’t want to mate with them? She had to. She had to want them. He knew he had to have her. He loved her too much not to be with her forever.
* * * *
Autumn had a huge knitting project she was working on and it was a rush job, so she’d had to put all her other projects on hold and knit as fast as she could. But since the weather was still fine, although cool, and since Oliver and William, Leticia’s partners, worried if Leticia was out working in the garden by herself, Autumn had agreed to sit on the deck and keep her company.
