Page 21 of Blood Stone

Roman hid his grin. The girl could barely be sixteen. She should be in bobby socks and giggly about her latest crush, in high school with her best friend forever. Instead, she was trying to make her bones in one of the most unforgiving industries in the world.

He dismissed her deliberately from his mind. He couldn’t afford to adopt every stray kitten he came across. He would have drowned in cats centuries ago.

Once they have moved far enough around the scenery, he spotted the trailer. It was big, yes, and once upon a time it had probably been expensive, but now it looked battered, weathered and old. The trailer had seen a lot of miles, and some of them had been tough. The paintwork on the back of the trailer, which faced them, was chipped and scraped by stones and gravel from countless unsealed roads and off-road travel. The bumper was dented and dinged. The license plate was faded by sun and age, and the cover over the spare tyre was so bleached by the sun the manufacturer’s logo had disappeared.

But there were three, not one, large gas bottles attached to the back of the trailer, and someone had done a damned fine job of building the extra racks to take the bottles. The trailer had what looked like pretty new tyres on it, too. The treads were good and they were top quality all weather tyres. There was an awning attached to the side of the trailer – not a tiny standard thing, either. This had been added to it after the fact, and it was a solid, useful-looking one.

The trailer was a home away from home and apparently an office on wheels. There were cables and plug-ins snaking from the side of the trailer over to a power box on the side of the hangar, and another tube wriggling its way out of a small door. That would be the water line.

Roman circled around to the side door. It was open, and the steps were lowered. He could hear Kate’s voice from inside.

The P.A. hovered by the door. “Go on in, Mr. Xerus.”

Roman hesitated. “What’s your name?”

“Britney.” And she blushed.

Of course. Britney. He made himself smile at her. “Thanks, Britney.”

She smiled back nervously, and bit her lip.

He stepped up into the trailer.

It was quiet inside. Kate was the only one in there, and she was on the phone, listening intently. She was sitting behind a perfectly normal desk littered with files, and a big laptop computer with its screen propped open. A cordless phone was jammed against her ear and her fingers were pressed against her other temple.

When she saw him, she waved him in, her frown not budging.

Roman moved another pace in and waited, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. Something was indeed wrong.

The trailer was unlike any normal trailer, on the inside. No big surprise there. It had been virtually gutted, except that, at the back of the trailer, through a door, Roman spotted what looked like a perfectly normal bed. Kate’s home away from home when she was filming on location. Hence, the water line. There was probably a bathroom back there, too.

The rest of the trailer had been turned into a business office, with two desks. One large one that Kate was sitting behind and a smaller one with a full sized desktop computer and printer set up. For the assistant, he assumed. The desks were cherry wood and glowed with care.

Along the walls were cabinets and shelves, cupboards and other built-in furniture that housed normal office equipment. It was an efficient, tidy arrangement. Economical, too. This way, Kate avoided the horrendous office space rentals that every other executive in L.A. got stuck with.

There were two very comfortable chairs in front of Kate’s desk and she waved at Roman again, this time with more force, insisting he sit in one.

Roman shrugged and sat. It put him directly in front of her. Her eyes met his and her brows lifted by the tiniest fraction before her gaze flickered away, drawn back by the speaker on the phone. The crease between her brows deepened.

He wasn’t the problem, then. It was the jerk on the phone.

A tiny trickle of relief touched him and he was able to study Kate with a neutral gaze, absorbing once more her natural features.

She wore makeup well, and knew how to use it, for she had started out as a model at a very early age, then moved into films as a B-grade actress, before landing one unforgettable role in a major production. That had been her entry into directing and production. That had given her the connections she needed. She had used all the money she had raised, plus all the influence she could leverage to fund her first low budget movie, and nothing had stopped her since.

She had long ago ceased trading on her looks, and Roman suspected that sometimes she even forgot she was considered a stunning blonde beauty. And she was all that.

He’d known who she was and what she looked like before he’d met her, but he hadn’t been prepared for the impact of her appearance in person. She was shorter and more fragile than he had expected, although she was still tall for a woman. But her eyes were as stunning in person as they were on the screen and in photos. No one had to touch them up. They had impact. More so now she was a power player in the industry, because she didn’t bother too often with feminine charm. She stared directly, with no quarter given, and her gaze with like a laser, direct and deadly. The jolt of her stare had been forceful, that first night.

But it was the way her mind worked that intrigued him the most. Roman hadn’t been braced for that one at all. She thought cleanly and clearly and with no quarter given for fools and those who were in the wrong. It was refreshing, especially coming from a Hollywood player and a woman.

Kate was winding up her call at last. It wasn’t a happy conclusion, for her frown hadn’t shift. “So, get back to me if anything changes,” she said at last, and paused. “Thank you.” She switched the phone off, dropped it on the desk, pressed her fingers to her temples and looked at him. “I missed our meeting, didn’t I?”

“I get the feeling you didn’t blow me off for anything minor.”

“Is that why you came here? To see if I had stood you up?” Her frowned deepened. “I would have told you, if that was the case. Some excuse. I wouldn’t have left you just sitting there.”

“I know. That’s why I came here.”