Page 97 of Blood Stone

He pulled his hands from the coat and lifted one. “You, Kate. You’re in a brutal mood. Snapping at everyone, insulting the cast, screaming at the crew. Have you snagged a single decent take since you started, tonight?”

Her momentary surprise was overtaken by a stronger sense of betrayal. Someone on the set had sent a Mayday call to Adrian. “So who was it that ratted me out, huh?” she asked him. “Who decided that little Kate needed her man to calm her down?”

His eyes were unreadable. “It wasn’t like that at all.”

“No? Then howdidthe call go? ‘Hey, Adrian, buddy, come get your girlfriend to cool her jets, will ya? She’s giving us a tough time, and you can handle her, can’t ya?’ And what did you say? ‘Sure, I get to handle her all the time!’”

He shoved his hands back in the jacket. “You done?”

She crossed her arms. “I could give you reams on that one, but I won’t. The insult runs way too deep and far. So we’ll leave it for now. Just how do you plan on handling me, huh?”

“I’m not, Kate.”

“But yet here you are!”

His jaw rippled. “For two days you’ve been obnoxious and unreasonable, far more than you or any director has a right to be. I don’t know what’s going on, Kate, and neither does anyone else.”

She stared at him, at a complete loss for words. She had really been that bad?

Adrian’s mouth turned down. “It pains me to realize that last night, the way you greeted me, was probably connected with this, somehow. But I guess that was what I signed up for, wasn’t it?”

Fresh horror and guilt speared through her. She tried desperately to think of something to say, a saving grace that would give Adrian some self-respect back.

But it was too late. He was nodding as he looked at her face. He had seen the truth for himself.

“Okay, then,” he said heavily.

“No, Adrian—” she began, reaching for his sleeve. He didn’t quite tug it out of her grip, but he looked down at her fingers and his expression was enough for her to remove her hand hastily.

“Just fix this,” he told her. “Whatever it is, whatever the fuck is going on, you need to deal with it, Kate. Deal with it, resolve it, and get rid of it. Find help, get a guru, find a friend, for heaven’s sake. Reach out if that’s what you need to fix it, but just…fix it.” His lips pressed together, as if he was stopping himself from staying more.

Kate nodded.

He turned away, and Kate could feel herself starting to shake, and the upwell of tears. She hated crying.

Then Adrian turned back. “If you do need the help of a friend…I’m willing to volunteer. You do know that, don’t you?”

She didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded.

“I…good.” He took a breath. “I don’t know what it is we have, Kate, but I don’t want to lose it. Not yet. Fix this. Please.”

He did walk away this time. She watched his back moving in the dark as long as she could, before her tears blurred her vision.

* * * * *

“Uh-oh,” Sebastian breathed, looking up from his bowl of chilli.

Everyone else in their small group looked up, too. They had taken shelter from the tiny breeze that had set up, behind the bank of light generators. The generators were muffled, so it wasn’t as noisy as it might have been and they sat a dozen paces away, on the soft sand, the moonlight and peripheral light from the set letting them see what they were eating. Only Patrick needed much light, anyway.

Now they paused to glance in the direction Sebastian was looking.

Vicent was walking toward them. And he wasn’t alone. A woman with shoulder-length, ebony black hair and flawless skin was with him. She seemed to glow in the pale light.

“Wow,” Patrick breathed, his plate lowering. “I think I’m in love.”

“If she’s who I think she is, you don’t want to touch her with a barge pole,” Sebastian advised him. “These guys are scary fuckers.”

“Who are they?”