Page 41 of Romance Is Dead

The medics hoisted Audrey up to prepare to load her into the ambulance.

“I don’t really know,” the medic with red hair said. “But usually it takes six to eight weeks to heal from a break like this.”

Natasha cursed under her breath, but it was nothing compared to Audrey’s reaction. She sat bolt upright, throwing the medics off balance as they struggled to carry her into the ambulance.

“Excuse me?” she said, her accent slipping as she gripped the sides of the stretcher. “Are you serious? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Mara and Natasha froze, staring at Audrey as they registered the sudden shift in her voice.

Audrey’s eyes widened as she caught herself, but not before one of the medics noticed as well.

He was a young, sandy-haired man who looked like he’d be at home in any college frat house if he wasn’t at work, and his face lit up at her words.

“Hey! Are you Addie Abrams?” He squinted down at her, nearly dropping the stretcher in the process. “Man, you don’t look like her, but you sure do sound like her.”

I gasped. So that’s where I knew Audrey from. Suddenly, I knew exactly why she’d looked familiar to me on the first day of filming.

A few years ago, I’d been asked to star in Found Footage , a film spoofing the uber-popular horror genre.

I turned it down, and thank God for that.

It wanted to be the next Scary Movie franchise, but instead it had bombed — hard.

They’d found debut actress Addie Abrams to fill the leading role, but even though she’d clearly given it her all, the movie was a total failure.

The press were particularly hard on Addie, making fun of everything from her weight to the shape of her nose to the way she said the word “bag.”

It was awful.

A few months after the movie premiered, I’d seen a few gossip items about her being seen leaving a plastic surgeon’s office covered in bandages. Clearly, the media coverage had got to her. I’d hoped she would rebound from the fiasco, but then. . . nothing. I never saw her name again.

Now I knew why. She must have changed her appearance, given herself a new name, and adopted an accent in an attempt to start over in Hollywood. Which seemed like an extreme reaction. But the poor girl had been through so much. That must be what she had been hiding this whole time.

A secret that would be a very good motive for murder if it meant keeping her true identity under wraps.

Watching the ambulance disappear down the path and into the trees, new questions wormed their way through my mind. We’d solved the mystery of what Audrey was hiding, but had our killer just been whisked off to safety?

Teddy insisted on driving me back to the hotel. We were quiet on the drive, adrenaline ebbing from the shock of the accident and Audrey’s departure under the wail of sirens. I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep until Teddy gently shook me awake.

As we rode the elevator to our floor and stepped into the hall, Teddy reached for my elbow, pulling me to a stop before I could go any farther.

“Stay in my room tonight.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

He held up a hand. “Not like that. Just. . . I’d feel a lot better if you were with me and I knew you were safe.”

“Teddy. . .” Deep down, I knew he had a point.

And I knew he meant it when he said his intentions were purely safety-related.

But in truth, I couldn’t trust myself to keep it purely safety-related.

And with Teddy leaving tomorrow, I couldn’t risk my emotions getting deeper than they already were.

Just thinking about him leaving made me miss him.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he offered, pressing on. “I’ll sleep on the floor.” He nudged my arm. “I’ll sleep in the bathtub, if it makes you feel better.”

“As much as I’d like to see you try to squeeze into the bathtub, I think I’ll be ok.”

A muscle in Teddy’s jaw popped and he bit the inside of his cheek. “Fine. But I’m checking the room from top to bottom before I leave you alone.”

“Deal.”

My limbs were heavy as we trudged down the hall, the fact sinking in that there was someone still out to get me, likely angry that their attempt with the sabotaged tree limb had failed.

I went through the evidence we had so far, unable to shake the feeling we were missing something.

Scott had an alibi for Trevor’s murder, and he had no reason to want to hurt Brent.

Natasha had alibis for both Trevor and Brent’s murders.

Mara was a nonstarter. It had to be Audrey — but if she’d sabotaged the tree, wouldn’t she have known to get out of the way?

Who was left? The entire crew, but I didn’t know any of them well enough to even begin parsing whether they had a motive or means for murder.

We were running out of time.

“You sure you’re ok?” Teddy asked as we arrived at my door.

“Yeah. Just tired.” I forced a smile, not wanting to worry him, and slid my key card into the lock. “I’ll be fine.” I pushed open the door.

And immediately froze.

The entire room had been ransacked. Someone had been here.