Page 68 of Blood Stone

“Now,” Adrian demanded.

“Okay. Okay.” He pulled a wallet out of his jacket and flipped it open so they could see the California driver’s license in the clear plastic window.Robert Peter Gunther.

He flipped the wallet closed again. “Happy, now?”

“Not by a long chalk,” Kate replied. “What were you doing in the server trailer?”

“My job. No one goes in there much, except this tall dude, so I thought I’d check it out and find out what gives.”

“You didn’t think to ask?” Terry said. “Anyone could have told you what was in there.”

“And now you’ve destroyed our Internet connection and made a lot of people very unhappy indeed,” Kate added. “Including me. Exactly what did you think you might find while you were investigating, Mr. Gunther?” She tried hard to keep her tone reasonable, but it sounded tense even to her.

The problem was, they needed to suck up to the press in every way possible, because every inch of exposure and every minute of air time on the major networks was thousands of dollars extra at the box office.

But because each network, newspaper, magazine, on-line site, blog and radio station was in sharp competition for a scoop, a photo, an angle, each representative and each camera lens jostled and fought in sharp competition with the other and the whole press corps behaved more like a pack of rabid hyenas than responsible journalists.

Expecting them to stay in the hastily erected media tent and feed from the official releases and interviews Mary-Ann was working nearly around the clock to provide to meet their ceaseless demands was asking them to go against their nature.

Kate found them popping up on the set just as she was filming and there had been more than one scene ruined because of a whirring camera or flash going off at the wrong time, either distracting the actors or the sound being caught on the soundtrack, forcing a reshoot. Bob was just the latest – and admittedly the worst – in a long line of petty incidents involving wandering journalists poking around at whatever caught their interest.

Tripping over them back here at the main site, once they were back after the day’s filming was more tiresome, as most of the cast and crew considered themselves off duty when they returned to the campsite and didn’t have their public guard up.

And now this. No Internet. No connection back to the big world. No relief from the small number of slightly whacky creatives they were all forced to keep company with. No entertainment. No distractions. No communications. No shopping, no browsing. Unless Terry managed to pull off some small miracle and get it up and running again. She would personally pay him a month’s salary in bonus if he did. At least.

Kate stared at Bob Gunther and tried not to hate the man for the job he did. She needed his kind, but she despised them. He didn’t give a damn about the mess he had created. As far as he was concerned, it was a small price to pay in search of his story.

Gunther was studying her. “You never know where you might dig up a story, now, do you? I heard an interesting one about Patrick Sauvage’s sweetheart deal with you. Only it wasn’t so sweetheart, was it? You made him wear a human watch dog in case he tries to climb inside another bottle or syringe.”

Kate managed to ride out her shock and keep her face steady. “You answermyquestions, Gunther. You’re the one who damaged property. It’s called breaking and entering. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”

He made a move. Perhaps it was the start of a lunge toward the door behind her, and freedom. But that was all he made, was the beginning of a move. Adrian and Terry both latched onto him, their hands around his arms and a hand each on his shoulders.

“No, you don’t,” Adrian growled.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Terry added.

“Fuck you,” Gunther muttered. “All the weird shit going on in this place…I was just finding out. It’s my job!”

Kate almost laughed. “Weird? If Patrick Sauvage has a watchdog, Gunther, and I’m not admitting to anything at all, here, let’s make that very plain.Ifhe had a watchdog, he wouldn’t be the first actor in Hollywood to have one. I think calling it weird is reaching a bit. Are you that desperate for a story?”

Gunther cocked his head to one side and just looked at her. Kate realized with a touch of cold surprise that there was pity in his expression. “Lady, you’ve got no idea what’s going on under your own nose. And this is your set.”

Kate wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh at his melodrama, or be offended. Or scared. Was there something happening on her set that she didn’t know about? Of course there were always petty little dramas – someone was always secretly fucking someone married or otherwise inappropriate. Scandals and gossip she tended to let run beneath her notice unless they were impacting on morale or efficiency, or the production of the movie. But from Gunther’s tone, this was something bigger.

Or was he simply trying to justify his own actions?

“There’s no need to be so rude,” Terry said, removing her need to respond.

“Nah, I don’t have to,” Gunther said, still looking at her. “I can see from her face she hasn’t got a fucking clue what I’m talking about.”

Adrian shoved the back of his shoulder.

It was meant, Kate was sure, as a warning to Gunther to keep a civil tongue in his head. But the shove was not a light one and Gunther stumbled forward. As he stumbled, he reached into his jacket.

It was the way he was reaching. Not high up for something that would be tucked into an inner pocket. Butaround, for something near the ribs…

“Gun!” she screamed even before she saw the weapon he was pulling.