Date With a Diva

by Joanne Rock

  Damn it.

  Gritting his teeth, he watched Lainie meet with one of the movie producers who also acted as her point person for contact with the film crew. Then Nico scoped out their surroundings for any potential suspicious characters.

  The Persian rugs had been taken up along the hallway, leaving a more industrial base carpet to handle the mass of people. An ice chest full of sparkling water and diet drinks acted as a watering hole for gofers and set assistants.

  Daisy and Bram sat on the floor at one end of the wide corridor, their heads bent together over a big map. No doubt they were charting future travels. Adventures they would share together. He hoped they knew how damn lucky they were.

  Rosaria Graham listened to the director as he talked her through the layout of the scene while big booms with microphones and cameras were wheeled around the hallway. Playback televisions were visible in one of the open doors leading out into the corridor, while a fresh-faced staffer from the lobby coffee shop wheeled in a snack cart, her ponytail swinging as she maneuvered around the milling crowd.

  Other than a few guests hovering at the far end of the hall, Nico didn’t see anyone unfamiliar. He decided to keep his attention focused mostly on that group while the cameras were rolling. Easy to do since he and Lainie would be stationed right in there with them.

  For now, he’d just try to convince himself that he was okay with Lainie’s rejection this morning because there was always the possibility she’d change her mind. And he loved her enough to wait around until she finished her twelve-step program or whatever the hell she needed to do to realize they were right together.

  He just hoped she’d see things his way before they both landed in the nursing home because he knew damn well that after loving Lainie Reynolds, he wouldn’t be counting off any more relationships on his other hand.

  ON ONE HAND, LAINIE REALLY wanted to stand by Nico during the filming.

  On the other, she wasn’t so sure she could trust herself to be next to him and not tell him she was crazy about him, too.

  After finishing up her brief meeting with one of the producers, she searched the busy corridor for a few square feet that weren’t dominated by a certain six-foot-plus hockey player. But when you were a woman in firm denial about the possibility of being in love with a man, every facet of life conspired to remind you of that particular male.

  In other words, it didn’t matter whether she stood near him or not during the filming since she’d be thinking about him anyway.

  Sighing, she vowed to act like a grown-up as she wound her way through the corridor, which had been dimmed for dramatic effect. By the time she reached Nico’s side, the director was already getting Rosaria in place for her big scene.

  “I hear we’re going to have the option of following the cameras down the hall as the chase scene progresses,” she told him. “Apparently they’re not using any audio in this section since the action will be accompanied by scary music, so it doesn’t matter if we make a little noise. We just can’t distract the film crew.” In an effort not to stare at Nico, Lainie peered around the corridor and spied Bram and Daisy in a far corner, heads bent together over a map, dreamy looks in their eyes.

  How was it that two people could look so right together despite all the differences in their worlds? Somehow they fit. Maybe because they had all the important things in common?

  She looked back to Nico, wondering if she wasn’t missing the bigger picture with him.

  “Stay out of the film crew’s way? Got it.” He shoved a hand in the pocket of his red gym shorts. His white polo shirt showed off the deep bronze of his skin and made her want to walk her fingers all over his broad chest.

  What if they could fit together as well as Daisy and Bram?

  She gripped her leather binder tighter as the lights dimmed even further and the director called for quiet on the set. Was Nico thinking about the last time they’d watched a taping together? The dim lighting and their proximity to one another had been enough to ignite so much hunger that Lainie had actually let him unzip her blouse in public. Let him run his hands all over her, any way he wanted.

  Come to think of it, being with Nico had inspired her to be more sexually daring than she’d ever been before. She’d pursued him, for crying out loud. Even after he’d told her he wanted to hold off on intimacy.

  She’d always been too self-conscious of her mother’s promiscuousness to allow herself that kind of sensual freedom before. Yet with Nico, she’d barely thought twice.

  Amazing.

  Lainie felt a lightbulb start to click on in her head as the world around her went darker still and the action sequence commenced. A lone, eerie red light shone on Rosaria Graham as she ran out of one hotel-room door into the hallway area. But Lainie couldn’t concentrate on the scene with her blood pounding in her ears, her brain finally making a firm connection between her heart and her mind.

  And the voice in her head shouted that the reason she’d acted differently with Nico was because he was different. He had nothing in common with her player ex-husband who’d been all about appearances. He’d hidden his true self from her for years. Nico, on the other hand, didn’t care how he looked to the world. If anything, he’d gone out of his way to be honest with her, even if his truth drove her away.

  She reached for him, needing his support as a wave of stifled emotions flooded over her.

  He wasn’t there.

  Frowning, Lainie blinked and realized that the rest of the guests on the movie set were following the cameras down the corridor as Rosaria, pale faced and wide-eyed with terror, ran from her assailant.

  Lainie moved to join them—to join Nico—when a hand grabbed her from behind. Fingers clamped over her mouth.

  What?

  Confused and thinking she’d somehow stumbled into the movie action scene, Lainie moved to step out of the tall man’s grip, but the guy behind her only responded by wrapping his other meaty arm around her waist. Biting into her waist with grubby nails. Dragging her away from the camera.

  Away from Nico.

  And while the frightened heroine of Hollywood’s next sexy action-adventure ran one way, Lainie was hauled roughly the other way.

  No!

  Fight-or-flight instincts roared to life, but she didn’t have a chance to act on either with one hairy arm wrapped around her middle and a fat palm pasted across her mouth. This could be her kitchen bomber. The person Nico had been warning her about. But she’d been too intent on running her business to listen.

  Arms pinned to her side and her legs struggling to find purchase on the floor, she was yanked backward into a nearby suite. Normally, Lainie rather liked the pirate-themed Booty Boudoir, but right now she wanted no part of playing helpless maiden to some creep’s pillaging buccaneer.

  Nico would miss her. Find her.

  “Don’t even think about screaming, Lainie.” The vaguely familiar voice behind her snarled as he edged deeper into the room with her. “You don’t want to bring all of your Hollywood guests into close contact with my gun. Besides, a smart businesswoman like you definitely doesn’t want any more negative publicity for the resort.”

  Lainie struggled to place that familiar voice but she couldn’t see the man who held her, his big arms wrapped around her like a straitjacket.

  “I only want to talk to you, understand? If I let go, you have to promise not to scream or I’ll need to use the gun prematurely.”

  Gun?

  Her stomach churned with a reminder of the organic health-food shake she’d had for breakfast. The stuff was gross going down, and she definitely didn’t want a taste of it coming back up.

  She nodded. Ready to agree to anything if only he’d let go of her.

  Easing his hand from her mouth, her abductor moved into view as he reached for his gun and turned the weapon on her.

  “Paul?” No wonder she’d recognized the man’s voice. The gun-toting assailant was one of her ex-husband’s lackeys, a Rat Packer who’d never been convicted
because the police never had enough evidence. Paul Bertoldi had managed Club Paradise’s restaurant back when the resort operated as a couples’ haven. He’d also dated Summer Farnsworth long ago, before she got over her penchant for tattooed tough guys.

  “Nice of you to remember me, Lainie.” He cocked the weapon and jerked it in the direction of a gilded chair. “Have a seat and let me tell you what I need from you.”

  She sat, knowing it couldn’t be good. Straining for some sound from the hallway outside, some hint that Nico was already looking for her, she cursed the heavy old architecture of the hotel that made the rooms so private and quiet.

  “Robert’s trial is coming up and we need you to change your story when you testify. Recant all that bullshit about him stealing money from your personal accounts.” Paul leaned on the back of the sofa as he stared at her over the barrel of his gun. The mermaid tattoo on his right shoulder smiled at her inanely. “And just in case you’re reluctant to lie, we’re prepared to give you a little incentive. You cooperate with us and no more of your pretty hotel gets blown up.”

  “How generous of you.” Her heart pounded at the realization that this was the man who had decimated her kitchen and injured two people. “But do you have any idea how many laws you’re breaking right now by threatening me? I know you want to help Robert, but you’ve got to realize you’re throwing yourself right back under police scrutiny by setting off explosives and attacking me.”

  “Gotta pay the bills somehow.” He shrugged his big shoulders. “I don’t exactly have job offers pouring in after hanging out with Rob Flynn. So what do you say—you going to change your story, or do you want me to start setting off the bombs I’ve got planted around your hotel?”

  Anger roared through her. Fury with him, with Robert, with herself for marrying a man who would go to such lengths to protect himself.

  Could it be true? Paul had never been the brightest bulb in her ex-husband’s employ, but if Robert was calling the shots behind this, she could easily guess he would have told the guy to cover his bases and plant explosives ahead of time.

  Which meant this overgrown thug could blow up a room that held one of her guests. Or Nico.

  Anger turned to cold fear as the full import of a potential bomb washed over her.

  “Okay. Consider my story altered accordingly. You can tell Robert I’ll say whatever he wants.” She could always lie now and involve the police later. Assuming this guy would go away without hurting anyone today.

  “Just please don’t harm my guests. They don’t have anything to do with this.”

  Paul nodded as if satisfied. “As long as we don’t see any police cars at your hotel again, we’ve got ourselves a deal.” He narrowed an eye at her until he looked like a one-eyed pirate, an ugly fixture in the Booty Boudoir. “But at the first sign you’ve gone to the cops about this, we’ll start taking out one room after another.”

  Lainie gulped. Nodded. And this time, she really hoped she didn’t hear voices in the corridor. She’d rather take her chances getting rid of Paul on her own than risk having Nico get involved. Or worse, having Nico hurt.

  “I won’t be going to the police.” She’d figure out how to safely point the finger at him and her ex-husband later, when she wasn’t staring down the wrong end of a handgun. “May I leave now? My friends will be wondering where I’ve disappeared.”

  “And leave me here like a sitting duck? I don’t think so.” He rose to his feet and then dug around in a duffel bag on the couch before pulling out a length of rope.

  “I’m going to put some serious distance between me and the hotel first, but you know how many friends Robert has on the outside. Someone will be watching the hotel after I’m long gone. Even if you finger me, there’s no way of knowing who else Robert has waiting to take my place.”

  He stalked closer with his length of rope and this time, Lainie was certain she heard voices outside in the corridor. A man yelling.

  For a moment she wondered if it could be Nico, but more than likely it was part of the movie scene in progress down the hall. She hoped Rosaria managed to fight her silver-screen attacker better than Lainie was fending off her real-life menace. But she couldn’t risk a fight when lives were at stake. She knew without a doubt if Nico was to stumble on Paul holding a gun to her, he’d fly at the guy with nothing but his fists for weapons.

  It was his crazy, all-or-nothing goalie mentality, a fearless attitude that made him put himself on the line. And it was one of the many reasons she loved him.

  Loved him, damn it.

  Why did she have to wait until creepy Paul Bertoldi threatened Nico and her resort to realize what mattered most? Once again, she’d known something deep in her heart but had refused to admit it. Hadn’t she vowed she wasn’t going to live in denial after all those months she’d suspected her ex of cheating on her and had turned a blind eye?

  Confident she was doing the right thing by submitting to whatever Paul had in mind, Lainie extended her wrists in an effort to be helpful. She wouldn’t let Nico play hero for her, not when the results could be deadly.

  Paul tied her to the chair lightning quick, his rope biting into her skin and pinning her arms behind her at an unnatural angle. He glanced around the room as he scooped up his duffel bag and packed away his gun.

  “The knots aren’t that tight. You should be able to free yourself in thirty minutes if you work quick. A couple of hours if you don’t. No screaming or else I’ll have to use the detonator in my bag.” Patting the duffel bag, he walked backward toward the door, shoving a pair of dark glasses on his nose and a navy baseball cap on his head.

  “These knots are loose?” Panic sparked inside her as she envisioned herself tied up in the Booty Boudoir for days on end. Or worse, one of Paul’s fat sausage fingers slipping on the detonator and her hotel blasting to bits. “To Houdini, maybe. But I’ll never get out of this.”

  He was already shoving open the door, however. Leaving her there.

  She longed to hurl epithets and dire threats of retribution, but she didn’t have any intention of breaking the no-screaming rule. She settled for sarcasm.

  “Thanks for the memories, Paul. It’s been real.” Before the door closed behind him, she strained to hear any hint of voices in the hallway. Mostly, she strained to hear Nico’s voice.

  Instead, she heard a berserker cry and the distinct sound of a punch connecting with a human target.

  A human target that groaned like a stuck pig.

  Lainie couldn’t see the doorway, thanks to the configuration of the suite, but she could see the top of Paul’s head as he fell backward on the floor with a thunk.

  Then Nico was sprinting over him and landing in the middle of the Booty Boudoir with a resounding smack of his big feet.

  “Take his bag,” Lainie shouted, having seen enough action flicks to know the bad guy never goes down with the first punch. “He’s got a gun in there.”

  Nico dove for the black satchel on the floor even though Paul didn’t look as if he was getting up anytime soon. Members of the film crew and the movie cast filed into the room, skirting around the body on the floor.

  “He said he already has bombs planted in the hotel.” Lainie couldn’t bear it if Nico rescued her only to have the whole resort blow up around their ears anyway. “We need to call the police and the fire department. And maybe we’d better evacuate just in case.”

  Daisy handed Bram her cell phone to make the calls while an assortment of sleek Hollywood types surrounded Paul and debated whether or not he’d make a convincing tough guy on the big screen. Freeing Nico to walk her way, his hands still clenched in tight fists, even as he clutched Paul’s duffel bag. A wild look lingered in Nico’s eyes, and Lainie decided if she played on an opposing hockey team, she would have never tried to score on him.

  “How did you know I was in here?” She couldn’t imagine how Nico had known to go after Paul. He hadn’t been around the hotel when it had been run by Miami’s Rat Pack.

&
nbsp; “I heard you.” His gaze softened as he looked at her. His touch gentle as he knelt beside her and worked free the knots around her wrist. “I was going insane out in the hallway, wondering where the hell you went when one of the doors opened and I heard your voice from inside.” A hint of a smile touched his grim expression. “I have superpower hearing that can detect the diva tone at thirty paces.”

  She remembered her sarcastic goodbye to Paul as he’d opened up the door and marveled that Nico would have heard her.

  “I was getting in my final parting shot.” Her hands fell free, the blood rushing back into her fingers.

  “Thank God for the diva need to have the last word.” He stroked his thumb over her chafed skin while he looked at Bram finishing up his call to 911. “We’d better get you out of here. You want me to call Summer and Brianne so they can handle an evacuation?”

  She couldn’t help but smile even as the adrenaline flow slowed down and left her feeling shaky. “Tell them they can have a refugee party on the beach.”

  Nico rolled his eyes but Bram must have overheard her because he leaned into their conversation. “You know, I’ll talk to the producers, but I bet we could get some great footage with the whole place being evacuated. Everyone on the beach could have a chance to be an extra for the day.”

  And so, despite Nico’s grumblings about her relentless need for PR, they all found themselves surf side and in front of the camera an hour later while a bomb squad went over the whole property with dogs and some kind of electronic sensors.

  The ocean air seemed to wash away Lainie’s residual fear from her encounter with Paul, the relentless roll of the incoming tide reassuring in its repetition. And it lightened her heart to see her guests having fun on the shore as they jockeyed for position in the quick panoramic scene the director attempted to shoot.

  Nico scanned the beachful of extras from the shelter of a palm tree as he tugged Lainie closer. “You’ve got a knack for making lemonade with life’s lemons, you know that?” Lainie pulled him farther from the crowd, having waited long enough to get him alone after her ordeal with Paul. Now that she’d seen her attacker hauled off to jail in a police car, swearing on his mother’s grave that he hadn’t really planted any bombs around the hotel, her heartbeat had finally returned to normal. The police had also arrested one of the girls who worked in the coffee shop after she admitted to dating Paul and writing the note Lainie had found on her desk.