Page 38 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2

A familiar head poked his head into the trailer. Bo looked apologetic and out of breath. “Sorry, I thought you’d gone back to your chalet. I didn’t realize you were still here. Nolan and Joel want to shoot the Slye Peak scene tonight.”

I let out a huff of laughter. “You’re kidding.”

He shook his head. “No. I wish I was. I’m beat.

I can only imagine how you feel. But they changed their mind and want it filmed at sunset.

Apparently they got a deal on the helicopter to keep them on a few more hours.

Makeup and wardrobe are expecting you in an hour.

Can I get you anything to eat before then? ”

I stared at him. “You have to be joking. I’ve been on set since six this morning. It’s almost seven already. If they’re expecting me in an hour, when is the set call?”

“We’ll depart for Slye Peak at eight thirty, and the actual set call is nine fifteen,” he said, referring to a sheet he then remembered to hand me.

I looked at it in disbelief. They had plans to keep us on the mountain until eleven at night. The sun would be fully set by eight thirty. This couldn’t be real.

My phone buzzed, and I glanced at it. Declan.

I answered the call. “Hey.”

“Don’t leave a man hanging like that, Finnegan,” he said. The familiar sound of his voice washed over me with reassurance. I sat down hard on the sofa nearby.

“Sorry, I…” I took a breath. “I need a rain check on the staring thing.”

The teasing tone was gone when he spoke next. “What’s going on?”

“They added another call tonight. A climbing scene.”

“Tonight? They’re filming another climbing scene tonight?” He sounded as confused as I’d been. “Are they yanking your chain?”

“I don’t know. But I need to eat something before reporting to makeup and wardrobe in an hour.”

He sounded like he was trying to control his anger. I didn’t blame him. “Did you know you’d be climbing in the dark and they just moved the shoot forward?”

“No. No mention of shooting a climbing scene in the dark. This is the first I’m hearing about it.”

“Do you feel safe climbing in the dark?”

I opened my mouth to say no. I might feel safe climbing in the dark if I was fresh. But climbing at night after the day I’d already had? No way. But I didn’t say it because the person I needed to say it to wasn’t Declan Stone. It was the director who was playing fast and loose with my safety.

“Well, your hesitation answers that,” he muttered. “This is ridiculous.”

“I need to go,” I said, knowing I’d lose my nerve if I didn’t move quickly. I wanted to call my agent first and make sure I knew my rights before going to Nolan. “I’ll call you later?”

“Finn, wait,” he said.

“No, I need to do this. I promise I’ll call you after, okay?” I hung up the phone and dialed Iris. When she didn’t answer, I dialed her assistant, Dawson, who answered after the first ring.

“Finn! How’s it going in Colorado? From all accounts, you’re doing an amazing job. No surprise there, though.”

I didn’t have time for chitchat. “I need to talk to Iris, but she’s not answering.”

“She has a fundraiser at the Getty tonight. You might have caught her getting her hair done. What can I help you with?”

I explained my situation to him and the urgency of my request. “I need to know if I can refuse.”

“Re… fuse?” he asked, like he was unfamiliar with the concept.

Kix’s eyes lit up from across the small trailer, and he began nodding. “You should,” he hissed. “You sooooo should. Give Nolan an ultimatum. What’s he gonna do? Fire you? Pfft.”

Something about Kix’s words got under my skin. There was no way in hell he’d ever give the director of a feature film an ultimatum. But he wanted me to? Did he want me to stir up drama? Get fired?

I focused back in on what Dawson was saying. “I’ll have to pull your contract and have an attorney?—”

“Nope. I need it now. And I need you to get Iris on the phone for me. Make it happen, Dawson. I’ll be waiting for your call.” I took a page out of Declan’s book and hung up after making my statement.

While I waited for a callback, there was something else I needed to do.

I turned to Kix. “Tell me about New Year’s.”

It took him a minute for my words to sink in, but then he gave me his cheesy grin.

The one that made it seem like we were best bros.

We’d never been best bros. Despite my efforts for over fifteen years, we’d never been more than slightly repellant magnets, the kind you keep pushing together just so you can feel that awkward rejecting force when they get too close.

“It was sick, man.”

It made me sick, so he was close. “Why would you host a party at my house without telling me? When you know I would have hated having a bunch of strangers in my home?”

“Yeah, but it was New Year’s. And I was avoiding that stalker chick, remember? I was crashing at your place. Where else would I have hosted it?”

Was he serious? “You violated my trust! You were fucking busted by the cops , and you never said a word.”

He held his hands out as if to calm me down.

“Wait just a minute. We weren’t busted by the cops.

We were joined by the cops. Not the same thing.

Also? You’re such a fucking Mary Sue. What do you care if I have friends over to celebrate a holiday?

You’re acting like your house is some kind of sacrosanct place when everyone knows it’s like a fucking monastery.

Just you and your nosy fucking mommy all up in your business. ”

I felt like I’d been slapped in the face.

My “nosy fucking mommy” had been the woman he’d come to when he’d lost roles and faced heartbreaking rejections.

His own parents were nice enough, but they didn’t know the business.

He’d come to my mother for help. Time after time he’d begged her for connections, advice, and help navigating the sometimes overwhelming machine of the film industry.

She’d taken him under her wing as best she could.

The only thing she hadn’t done for him was ever, ever let him get close to getting a role she wanted for me.

She’d protected my own career like a rabid grizzly with a single precious cub.

Instead of tears pricking my eyes as I would have expected, I felt anger, white-hot and all-encompassing. I wanted to punch the shit out of his smug face and tell him to stay the hell away from me and mine.

“Don’t ever ask me for another goddamned favor as long as you live,” I said instead, in a low voice shaking with irritation. Why hadn’t I seen it more clearly before? I’d spent most of my teen years feeling guilt that I’d had success and Kix had been forced to settle for the leavings.

In reality, I’d had success because I’d worked my fucking ass off and had tried improving my skills while Kix had been off fucking around with friends or trying to make his way to the top with his ass instead of his head.

Why had I always felt like his own success or lack of it had anything to do with me?

“Don’t worry,” he said, sneering at me. “You don’t have anything I’d ever want.

You have no friends, no sex life to speak of, and no fucking idea what you want to be when you grow up.

You’re a washed-up child star whose mother has to sleep with directors to get you roles you’re clearly not suited for.

Hell, you can’t even deal with getting a little roughed up on a shoot without calling Mommy to come take care of you and having to take the rest of the day off to snivel in your bed.

Woe is poor fucking Finn Heller. Crying in his millions of dollars. ”

My stomach roiled with disgust and betrayal. I tried to ignore the nasty lie about my mother, but it was near impossible. I needed to know if there was any truth to it at all, and unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking with a clear head at the moment.

I slammed my way out of the trailer, panning my gaze around to see if I could spot Nolan anywhere. My eyes landed on Joel sitting under the main craft services tent, eating a plate of some kind of pasta that was steaming in the cooling evening air.

“Great job today,” he said when he saw me approach. “You hungry? Join me.”

I stood across the table from him and clutched my hands together to keep from waving them around like a lunatic. “Where’s Nolan?”

His chewing continued as he shrugged. “No idea. Why?”

I wasn’t about to tell him the truth, that I needed to know if Nolan had ever had an inappropriate relationship with my mother. So I latched onto the other shitty situation at hand.

“I’m not okay with this evening’s call sheet. First of all, climbing at night is dangerous. Climbing at night on a rock face you’re unfamiliar with is downright idiotic. You can’t be serious about this.”

“You should talk to Nolan… oh look! There he is. He’s on his way over here.”

Sure enough, the director strode from his trailer to the tent while looking down at his phone. When he glanced up and saw the look on my face, he slowed.

“Don’t throw a hissy fit, Finn. You’re better than that,” he said in a dry voice. “The scene needs to happen, and tonight’s our best chance with the weather and the helicopter’s availability.”

I stayed a thousand times calmer than I felt. “When did you decide to add another scene to my already packed call sheet?”

“This isn’t about you. It’s about production. More goes into getting the shot than just one of the principals. Surely you know that by now.”

His was one of those toxic personalities that relied on gaslighting. People like Nolan Trainor thrived in Hollywood, and they were treated like gods which only served to make them even more unbearable.

“I do know that. Know what else I know? You can’t get the shot at all without the principals.

” I kept eye contact and willed the specter of Chip Clover away.

I needed Nolan to see Finn Heller the adult actor staring back at him, asserting my rights as a man and an equal.

Regardless of the reasons for casting me in this role, he had chosen me for it.

And I wasn’t going to be treated any less than any other principal in a big-budget film.

Before Nolan had a chance to open up his mouth and tell me where to shove my rights assertion, the whoop of a police car split the evening air around us.

An Aster Valley sheriff’s vehicle skidded to a stop in the gravel parking area nearby, throwing up a cloud of dust. All of the cast and crew who were still around at this time of night turned to watch as the sheriff of Aster Valley stepped out and approached us under the tent.

He did not look happy. And now, of course, was when my eyes began to sting.

Declan’s voice was deep and commanding. Professional. “Finn Heller, you need to come with me.”

My nostrils flared in irritation. As much as I wanted to see him, this was none of his fucking business.

I was handling it myself. I needed another asshole fighting my battles for me like a damned hole in the head.

I’d just been accused of not being in charge of my own shit, and now here he was trying to save the world for me.

While it was sweet as hell, it was piss-poor timing.

“What for?” I demanded. The people around us looked back and forth like they were at a tennis match.

His eyes hardened. “Do you really want me to share the particulars with everyone here?”

He seemed to be referring to… an actual police matter?

“What happened?” I asked, feeling my anger slowly replaced by concern.

“You were identified as the unauthorized driver of Mrs. Brainthwaite’s vehicle on multiple occasions by multiple witnesses. I need you to come with me and answer some questions.”

What the fuck was he talking about? I’d just been on the phone with the man not twenty minutes before, and now he suddenly thought I was a… car thief?

I threw up my hands in disbelief. “Why the hell would I steal the woman’s car? I drive a?—”

“I’m well aware of what kind of car you drive. And I’ll allow you to come clear everything up at the station.” His eyes were more intense than they’d ever been before. “Get in the vehicle.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is insane.”

“Are you refusing to come with me voluntarily?” He moved his hands to the cuffs on his duty belt. Hypothetically, would it be weird if I admitted to popping a semi? I didn’t. Obviously. But… but I kinda did. Just a little.

I glanced over at Nolan, who eyed both me and Declan suspiciously.

He was between a rock and a hard place. Was he really going to call the sheriff’s bluff and risk Aster Valley arresting one of his principal actors on set?

Or was he going to admit defeat on his dangerous night climbing scene and let me go clear things up at the station?

Nolan pierced me with his gaze. “Don’t say a fucking word until our lawyer arrives. Do you hear me?” He reached for his phone without waiting for my answer.

I glanced back at Declan and felt the familiar twist of excitement in my gut I got when he was near. How fucked-up was I when the man excited me even while quasi-arresting me?

I let out a breath and tried to shove the concerns about Nolan and my mother to the “later” box in my head and lock it down tight. The same went for the Kix situation.

“Slap the cuffs on me, Sheriff,” I said, holding out my arms and meeting his eyes with a dirty challenge.

This was going to be good.