Ash crossed his arms over his chest and directed his attention to Beck. Beck stood a little straighter. “We’ll book you on the next flight to LA.”
2
“Don’t! Get your hands off me.” Samantha struggled against the arms banded tight around her chest.
I have to get free. They’re going to kill me if I don’t.
“Shut up, bitch. You’re coming with us.” The thug hefted her off the ground and strode down the dark alley. She fought with all her might. Kicking out her legs. Relishing the grunt of pain from her attacker as her leg connected with part of his body.
She wouldn’t let him take her. She couldn’t. All she knew was if he took her, her life would be over. She had too much to live for. With that thought flowing through her, she doubled her attempts to get free. All the while envisioning her family and the devastation her disappearance would cause.
“Annnnd CUT.” The director’s voice echoed around the darkened street. Immediately the arms around her belly loosened and she was placed gently on her feet.
Samantha smiled up at Miles, the actor portraying her kidnapper. “Thanks.”
“Are you okay? You’re not going to get any bruises are you? I grabbed you pretty hard.”
Samantha couldn’t deny it was really sweet of Miles to be concerned about her. Most other actors she worked with didn’t seem to worry about if they’d grabbed her too harshly, even in a hug. “Nah, it’s fine. Besides,” she lightly punched him on the arm. “If I get bruises it’ll look more authentic. I’m sure the make-up artists will appreciate it.”
Miles rolled his eyes. “You’re weird, Samantha, but a hell of an actress.”
Her chest swelled at the compliment. Working on this film was the highlight of her life so far. Cross Purposes was going to make or break her career. God, how she hoped it would make it. After being in Hollywood for years, her career had slowly progressed from being an extra, to one or two lines of dialogue, to supporting roles then lead roles in some indie movies. Finally, she’d landed the lead role in a major movie backed by one of Hollywood’s biggest studios. The director, Pascal Hernandez, was a legend in the movie industry. The script had been written by Amberley Price, daughter of Hollywood royalty. Finally everything was falling into place and she wanted to be able to share it with her family, but she couldn’t.
Not if she wanted to protect them and keep them safe.
“Samantha?” Lost in her thoughts she hadn’t noticed Pascal had come up to stand beside her.
“Hi Pascal. Sorry I was just thinking about the, uh, um, the next scene.” Even beneath all the layers of makeup Samantha suspected her cheeks were turning bright red.
“Right. Well I really liked the emotion you brought to the scene. Just the right amount of terror, fight, and vulnerability.” He looked at his watch. “We’re going to do one more take, from a different angle and then we’ll call it quits for the night.”
“Sounds good.” Her adrenaline and excitement levels were sky high, she felt like she could film for another five hours.
“Places everyone.” Pascal called as he walked away.
Samantha got to her position and took a couple of deep breaths. This was what she’d been working toward since she was fifteen. She wasn’t going to mess it up.
Two hours later, Samantha unlocked her apartment door and almost slipped on the envelope that had been shoved under her door. Her name printed in black ink and block letters on the front stood out against the pristine white of the paper.
Her heart rate tripled and sweat beaded her forehead. She kicked the offending item across the ground and, before she closed the door, she looked down the hallway in both directions. There was no one lurking in the shadows, not that she expected to see anyone, but she had to look anyway.
God, she really needed to investigate moving to a place that had better security. But on her meager earnings, this apartment was all she could afford. It wasn’t a bad place to live. The building was well maintained, but it wasn’t the best one on the block.
The last thing she wanted to do was pick up the white rectangle, but she had to. Sighing, she bent and grabbed the corner, as if it was a venomous spider and not paper.
Taking a better grip of it, she tested it’s weight. It was light, so at least the creep who’d dropped it off hadn’t put a spider in it.
Her cell phone jangled and she yelped, dropping the envelope at her feet. Diving into her purse she pulled out her cell, smiling when she saw who was calling. “Amberley, hey how’re you doing? And why are you calling me so late? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
As crazy as it had seemed she and the screenwriter had become good friends, even more so since Amberley had become engaged. Her fiancé was a Navy SEAL and ironically, knew Sam’s sister Rayne and her brother-in-law Ghost.
Her heart ached thinking of her younger sister, but she pushed it aside to concentrate on her call.
“I know, but I had a nap this afternoon and can’t sleep now. How did the day go today? I’m leaving Virginia tomorrow and coming to set the day after. I’ll be there for at least a couple weeks.”
“Filming’s going great. I’d say you could stay with me, but I’m betting your parents are wanting you to stay with them.”
“Yeah. They’re letting me stay in my old place. I don’t mind. As much as they annoyed me when I lived so close to them, now that I’m on the other side the country, I do miss them.”
“Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you on set. I think you’re going to love what’s happening with the words you crafted. It really is an amazing script.”
“Thanks. I worked hard and I can’t wait to get there. I should’ve been there from the start of filming, but I was, um, not feeling the best.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Well,” Amberley paused. “I wouldn’t say that, but I’m better than I was. It’ll pass.”
The hesitation in Amberley’s voice was telling. “Oh my, God, you’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Amberley laughed. “Yeah, how did you pick that up?”
“Women’s intuition. I bet Tom is over the moon. Although I can’t believe he’s going to let you fly out here, unless he’s coming with you.”
Amberley’s sigh sounded down the phone. “No, he isn’t, he left today on a mission. Our plans were already in place before the team was called away. He was going to fly out with me and then fly back to Virginia the next day. We wanted to tell our families in person that I’m pregnant. He’s not happy I’m going by myself, but he knows I also want to be on set. I imagine he’ll come to LA when he returns.”
“Oh Amberley, I’m sorry, that must be so tough, him being called away all the time.” Sam’s thoughts went to her sister, Rayne. With Ghost being a Delta Force solider she probably had plenty of experience with him being called away on missions unexpectedly. Now that Rayne had a baby, would Ghost go away as often?
“I knew what I was getting into when I fell in love with Tom. He’s my everything and I know he and his teammates are super careful. I really wanted him to be with me when we told our families.”
“I’m sure he wanted to be with you too.”
“Yeah, he did, it was hard to say goodbye, especially with the earth shaking news that we’d just received. Thing is, I can’t imagine my life without him. Don’t even want to think about doing this by myself.”
A stab of jealousy pierced Sam’s stomach. While her career was starting to take off, her personal life was as stagnant as a rotten lake. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a date. Let alone spent the night in someone’s arms. The last guy she’d slept with had been an extra on a film they’d been working on. Too much alcohol and not enough sense had led to a hasty coupling in the supply closet in a bar. Not her finest moment.
She let the memory of that night and non-existent dating life slide away. The here and now was all she planned to concentrate on. This was her time. Her love life would sort itself out when it was su
pposed to.
“Anyway, I’d better run, try and get some sleep before my flight. I just wanted to call and let you know I’ll be seeing you on set soon.”
“Sounds good, can’t wait to see you. Bye.”
Sam disconnected the call and tossed her phone on the table beside her, the phone skidded to a stop by the white envelope.
For a short while she’d forgotten about the anonymous delivery. Dread balled in her stomach and she reached out to pick it up. Opening it wasn’t what she wanted to do, but something she had to.
Samantha lifted the flap and pulled out a sheaf of papers. Relief slammed into her when she spied the apartment building management company’s name. She scanned the letter and closed her eyes—great! She was being evicted because the building had been bought and was about to undergo a massive renovation.
How the hell was she supposed to find a new place in thirty days while learning lines and being on set for up to fourteen hours in the day?
Just when she thought life couldn’t get more complicated, fate decided to throw a wrench in the works. Over her life she’d been handed plenty of wrenches and she’d juggled it all, she could do this too.
Three days later and she still wasn’t any closer to finding a new apartment. The super in her building had ignored her pleas for another month before kicking her out. She’d found out that the all the residents had been given staggered eviction dates. During her breaks she’d been scouring the rental sites but everything in her budget was unappealing.
Regardless of the fact her agent had negotiated a great deal for her for this movie, she was going to be careful with her money. Who was to say it wouldn’t be five years before she got another leading role?
As she went to stash her phone back in her bag and head out to set, it buzzed with an incoming message. Without giving it too much thought she opened the message app and almost dropped the device when she read the words.
I like what you’re doing on set, Samantha. Does Rayne’s scream sound similar to yours? What about your brother’s little wife? Maybe I should find out.
Her heart pounded loudly in her ears and black spots appeared in front of her. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps. If she wasn’t careful she was going to pass out.
Someone was watching her on set? She glanced around her small room, as if she was going to find the person responsible for the text messages standing behind her.
Samantha threw her phone on her dressing table as if it was burning hot. She covered her face with shaking hands in attempt to get some clarity. The worst thing she could do was walk out onto that set looking like she was about to fall apart. The scenes called her for her to be kick-ass and strong as she stood up to her kidnappers as they attempted to interrogate her. No way could she fall apart. Getting control of herself needed to happen and it needed to happen right now.
Using the techniques she’d used to before going on stage for her high school productions, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. A massive effort considering she could still feel her heart thumping out of her chest.
With each deep breath she took a tiny piece of calm and replaced the panic. A couple more breaths and she’ d be fine, ready to face the crew and the other actors.
“Knock, knock. Can we come in?”
Sam’s eyes shot open and the calm she’d fought long and hard to achieve dissipated in a flash. She looked up and found Amberley standing in the doorway to her dressing room. She also wasn’t alone, her handsome fiancé was standing next to her, his arm securely around her shoulders. Behind Tom was another tall man with dark hair, she couldn’t get a good look at him so she didn’t pay too much attention to him as he spoke to Tom and walked away. Instead she concentrated on Amberley’s face, her grin could light up the whole studio.
Digging deep and calling on all her acting skills she summoned a smile for her unexpected guests, while slowing her rapid breathing again. “Hi, I’m good, but I can see you’re even better. I didn’t expect to see you here, Tom.”
Amberley giggled and placed her hand on Tom’s belly, he dropped a kiss on her head. A thousand emotions flew between them with that simple gesture. “Yeah, he surprised me last night. Their mission got cancelled.” She snuggled a little closer to her fiancé.
Sam bit back a sigh, her heart rate returning to its normal patter. A wishful longing for a man to look at her the way Tom looked at Amberley swept through her. Not going to happen, maybe never would. “That’s great. How long are you here for, Tom? And was that guy with you, the one who just disappeared, is he one of your team mates?”
“Oh, that’s Beck, he’s here to help with the setup of a new security firm, he tagged along because I haven’t seen him for a while. As for how long I’m here for, I fly back to Virginia day after tomorrow. I couldn’t resist visiting a movie set when Amberley suggested it. I like being able to see into her world.”
“Not to mention seeing if I followed everything you told me teams do,” Amberley said smiling up at him.
“This is true.”
The love between the two was so palpable she could almost reach out and touch it. Their visit was just the distraction she needed to get her focus back on the job and not the text message. Sam’s phone buzzed again, but she ignored it, not wanting to see another threatening message.
“Well I’m glad you’re here. I…” she glanced at her phone as it buzzed again. Two messages in quick succession, three in total in less than ten minutes couldn’t be good. “Um, well I need to get on set.”
Amberley’s eyes narrowed. “Is everything okay, Sam? You seem a little shaken up.”
Shit, guess my false bravado isn’t convincing. If Amberley can see it, how the hell am I going to hide my anxiety from the rest of the cast and crew?
She had no choice. She had to get her head in the game and put the threatening message aside—no matter how hard it was going to be.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just anxious about making sure I nail this character and do your words justice.”
Not entirely untrue but Sam hoped it would be enough to get Amberley off her case. Another knock on the door broke the silent tension building between them all. A production assistant poked her head in the room. “Samantha, they’re ready for you in make-up.”
Sam spared her phone another glance before mentally shaking away the fear. “Thanks, Daisy.” She looked at the other occupants in the room. “Well that’s my call. I’ll see you out there.”
She took one step but a soft touch on her arm halted her progress. She looked up and spied Tom looking intently at her. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” he murmured.
Of course nothing would get past the Navy SEAL. But Tom couldn’t rescue her, especially when she didn’t know who was after her. Besides he didn’t have to worry about her, she could look after herself and her family. Growing up she’d always taken on the role of protector and nurturer. Whenever either Rayne or Chase had fallen and gotten hurt, she’d picked them up, hugged them and fixed any cuts. She took her role as the oldest seriously and when their parents had died she’d made sure that Rayne and Chase didn’t have to worry about a thing. Regardless of the fact that they were adults now, her default to was still to keep anything bad from them.
So while Tom may think something was wrong, no way was she planning on letting him know what she was going through. Straightening her spine, she flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Yep, everything’s great. Just getting into my role.”
Tom still didn’t look convinced but she didn’t have time to worry. She had a movie to film and that’s all that mattered.
Two hours later sweat trickled down her spine and she braced herself for another fake backhand across her cheek. Only it never came instead, in her peripheral vision she caught someone racing toward her, their gait a little off as if they were favoring one side of their body. The faint sound of someone screaming echoed around the set. “Look out.”
In a flash, strong arms closed around her and pushed her
out of the way just as a row of overhead lights came crashing down right where she’d been standing, the glass shattering, little pieces piercing the back of her legs.
“Shit, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” A voice she didn’t recognize sounded in her ear. The stranger’s arms tightened around her, causing sparks of electricity to sizzle through her. A sense of not being in the moment flowed through her, as though she was looking through a window watching the events unfold. Her blood pounded along her veins, yet she remained calm.
Slowly, the sounds of activity penetrated the fog and dispersed it. Loud voices demanding answers echoed around the set, but she focused on the man looking intently at her, recalling he’d asked her a question. She recognized him as the man who’d been standing behind Amberley and Tom. Who was he? Even in her shocked state she could appreciate his good looks. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Oh my God, Sam, that was scary. If Beck hadn’t been here, I—.” Amberley’s words cut off abruptly and Sam assumed Beck, whoever he was, had sent her a look advising her to stop whatever she was going to say next.
Samantha pulled herself out of Beck’s hold. The fact she didn’t know who he was and that he had his arms around her unsettled her already frazzled nerves. “I’m fine, a little shocked at what happened but I’m not hurt. Thanks for moving so quickly, Beck.”
Before she could take a step away, she found herself wrapped up in another strong embrace. “Shit, Sam. That was close. Are you hurt?” Miles asked, concern lacing his tone.
Embarrassed at all the attention, Sam, shook off her co-star’s grip. It wasn’t as reassuring as Beck’s hold had been. “I’m fine. Nothing broken. What are you doing here?” He wasn’t supposed to be on set today so she was surprised to see him.
He shrugged. “I wanted to come down and watch the filming. I like seeing what’s happening next so when I’m required I can bring what the director needs. I’d just walked in when all hell broke loose. How crazy that a row of lights fell right where you were standing!”
Rescuing Samantha Page 2
