“Thank heavens you love me back. I thought maybe, because you like sex, that’s what it might be. You just enjoyed the sex.”
Bethany laughed and then kissed him. When she stopped for breath, she answered him, “I do love the sex. It’s great, but I love you too. I think maybe that’s why it’s the best sex I have ever had.” She hugged him tight.
Seth kept hold of her, bringing her with him as he lay on his back and she draped across his body. His cock slid out of her to lie between her legs. She straddled the top of his thigh and snuggled her face into his neck.
They stayed like that, savoring one another’s closeness, until Bethany remembered the laptop and Jake’s instructions to have it next to the bed.
She whispered, “I have to get the computer.”
He hugged her to him and then said, “Okay, but be quick. I need you close.”
She smiled as she left the bed and retrieved the laptop from where she had left it recording around the outside of the trailers.
It felt good to have Seth love her. It was a relief to admit she loved him too. Now, they needed to sort out the stalker. She put the laptop on the bedside unit where it would stream the video from the outside webcams.
She snuggled back up to Seth. He pulled the sheet up over them and kissed her.
“Do you think the stalker would feel differently if he knew Jake was your brother and that we are in love?”
Bethany raised her eyebrows. “That’s a nice thought—but no. It might not make a difference now. He doesn’t want me in your life. I think he loves you.” She believed Seth would be unaware how a stalker’s mind might work.
Seth stroked along her face with his fingertips and kissed her. “That’s sad. I’m sad that he loves me and he’ll never have love back. Even though it’s a man and I’m straight, I can still understand how desperate he might feel. I would have been devastated if you hadn’t loved me back. Let’s be kind to the guy. What laws has he broken so far?”
Bethany raised herself up on one elbow to look into his green eyes. She smiled at his kindness.
“The guy attacked me, so that’s assault if I want to press charges. He’s threatened me. I never told you what he said. He said to leave you alone or he would tell Jake I was screwing around. His note actually said that.” She continued, “I think he was going to deliver the note, but then I appeared and he decided to warn me off. I bet he never meant to drop the note.”
Seth’s expression turned serious. “I’m not a violent person nor very brave. The thought of violence is hateful to me; but, if he hurts you, I will retaliate. I don’t know how, but I will not be able to stop myself. Maybe I will just beat the living daylights out of him, but he can’t lay his hands on you again.”
She smoothed his hair from his forehead and kissed it. She kissed his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. She kissed his lips and ran her hand over the muscles of his chest and down the flat of his stomach.
“Don’t worry.”
Her fingertips felt the head of his cock, firm, yet velvet soft and it jumped a little at her touch.
Seth held her head to his and kissed her until his erection filled her hand. Her fingers curled around it, holding him tight.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jake didn’t go to bed. He watched Seth’s trailer on the screen for a while and noticed that when Seth carried his sister, obviously to bed, it would be a show for anyone watching. He needed to be reminded that light inside meant people in the dark outside, could see everything you did, if the blind was open. He would have called them except his sister’s body had been shielded, and the lights were thankfully not on in the bedroom.
This set Jake to thinking. Perhaps the stalker had been standing opposite Seth’s trailer watching them, since their trailer was yards away.
Jake thought about this for a moment. Maybe the stalker regularly watched Seth this way. The stalker might know the actor’s schedule and if so that would mean he really was involved in the movie. Jake shrugged. That wasn’t much of a clue because there were heaps of people who might know the schedules.
He made more coffee and sat down to look at the original files for the hate mail case. They contained a complete list of the cast and crew, which also detailed the person’s role or job. Jake looked through it for a while, thinking about the person who attacked Bethany.
They were well-built, tall, strong, and worked out. There wasn’t much to go on facially. In fact, nothing, as only the eyes and the top of the head was visible, in the video that was taken, but the hair looked blond and well cut. Modern, a good cut, Jake thought and ran his hands through his own slighter longer, dark hair.
There had been that smell Bethany described, but in Jake’s experience it didn’t always provide a good clue, so many people used the same stuff these days. He finished his coffee and looked at the list he had made of guys who would need to be very fit, have to work out, and be muscular for their jobs. It felt a little stereotypical to the egalitarian Jake.
He wanted to go outside and look around. He took the alarm off and went out the door. The night air was fresh and everything was quiet under the cloak of darkness. Jake looked at the trailers opposite Seth’s and walked over there. There was a natural sheltered corridor made between them and he went to stand in the entrance. He turned and looked straight into Seth’s trailer at the living end. The light was still on. Jake sighed and looked around him. The other trailers were in darkness, but the one lamp on the path nearby, lit now for crew and actors working on after ten, threw a dim glow at his feet. He saw something vaguely shine down on the ground there and squatted down to check it out. It was a little pencil with an eraser on the end, held in by a band of silver metal. He picked it up by the eraser and walked to where he thought the attack on Bethany had happened. He took out his small but powerful flashlight and shone it around on the grass. There was nothing to see, except a slight flattening of some clover and a small dandelion flower head had been snapped off.
Jake was convinced the stalker had stood between those trailers to watch Seth. He looked around. How had the guy avoided being caught on the video stream until he was upon Bethany? Then he noticed the hedgerow running at a right angle to the path. He walked down to it using the path. He looked along the hedgerow and saw the garden seat and the litter bin. Walking past them to the end of the hedgerow, he realized that although you would have to walk on grass and it was muddy and potholed in places, there was a clear way to the two trailers that he had stood between and where he had found the pencil. Jake nodded to himself. He couldn’t put surveillance everywhere and the perimeter of the surveillance he had was adequate, when the alarm program was on, but it was evident this was the stalker’s route.
He walked, considering what to do next and glanced absently into the full litter bin. Lying on the top was a magazine. It was glossy and slightly rolled as if it had been carried recently. Jake picked it up. He didn’t know why, but it sparked a memory. He couldn’t bring it to mind and went back to his trailer carrying the magazine to look at in the light there. He was confident that no one could have passed him to reach Seth’s trailer, but then he couldn’t let the idea go how someone might have used the back path and he hadn’t seen them. He messaged Bethany.
She surfaced from a light sleep, when her cell phone lit up and made its distinctive musical sound assigned to messages from her brother.
She reached for it and looked at the message.
Alarm was off for a few minutes. Is everything okay in there. No one crept in?
Bethany swung her legs off the bed. She went around the trailer checking. It took a few moments and then she messaged back.
All clear.
She turned off the living area light as she went back along the short hall and into the bedroom. When she snuggled back up to Seth, he woke and kissed her.
“Bethany,” he whispered and she kissed him.
“Go back to sleep.” He held her close and she closed her eyes.
* * * *
Over in his trailer, Jake looked at the screen again where the video from the webcams showed nothing going on. He took his laptop with him into his bedroom and placed it on the bedside table where he could see it. He checked the night watch alarm program to be sure it was turned on and smiled at his own obsessiveness. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.
The pencil he found by the trailers was in an evidence bag next to his computer. Tomorrow he would think about that. Jake had tossed the magazine down on the bench seat next to the trailer door. He hadn’t given it another glance because of his worry that maybe somebody had crept into Seth’s trailer in the time he had the alarm off.
He thought about it now, as his eyes grew heavy. He would look at that in the morning too.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Seth and Bethany woke up at the same time. The sun streamed through the window onto their faces and her cell phone rang. She rolled away from him to answer it.
He followed her and pressed the length of his body along her back. His hand slid over her hipbone and down between her legs.
She pushed her bottom back into him as she said, “Hello, Jake. How are you?”
“Bethany, I have a pencil here I’m guessing the stalker dropped after writing the note. It will be worth checking out. I also found a magazine in the litter bin last night. I don’t know why it’s familiar, but its Stunt Weekly. I figure a stunt man would have the kind of physique the guy who attacked you last night had. One of us has to guard Seth today. Ask him what his work day looks like.”
Bethany was enjoying the feel of Seth’s hand resting against her inner thigh, but she moved away and sat on the edge of the bed.
Seth sat up too. “What is it?”
“What do you have to do today? Are you scheduled on set? If so, Jake or I need to be with you at all times.”
“I’m not required on set at all.”
Bethany spoke into her cell. “Did you hear that?”
Jake answered, “I did, so that makes things easier. We need to talk and with Seth too. Should I come over?”
She looked at Seth as he trailed his fingers up and down her arm.
“We’ll come to you. Give us ten minutes. Is the alarm system off?”
Jake turned and sat down at the table where he could watch the streaming video.
“It is now, I’ve just switched it off since you’re coming over here. Get a move on,” he told her affectionately.
Bethany hung up and placed her cell phone next to her laptop. She leaned back and kissed Seth.
He held her head to keep her still to return the kiss, but she drew back from him. “We must get up and go talk with Jake as soon as…”
Seth pulled her back and kissed her again,then smiled.
“Okay, I’ll just take a shower.” He leaped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.
Bethany dressed; she would shower in her trailer. She needed clean clothes.
* * * *
Seth walked out of the shower. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair was wet. There were still tantalizing drops of water glistening on his chest.
Bethany watched him put on his clothes and run his hand through his wet hair.
Then resolutely, she picked up her laptop and jacket. She and Seth left the trailer and went over to the trailer where Jake waited for them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jake made coffee as Bethany looked at the little pencil in its evidence bag.
“You found this where?” she asked him and sat down next to Seth.
Jake handed them both cups of coffee and sat down opposite them at the table.
“On the grass between the two trailers that face yours, Seth.” He looked pointedly at Seth before continuing, “Do you know people can see straight into the trailer when the light is on and its dark outside? I had a great view of your muscular backside last night. I would have been really annoyed if it had been my sister’s.”
Seth looked alarmed and glanced at Bethany. “Sorry. I just get used to no one being around. As for the trailers opposite, I’ve never seen the blinds up on either.” He gave Jake an apologetic look.
Jake sighed. “Okay, let’s talk about the pencil. I know it’s a common brand, but can you remember anyone using one? Not many people do. We are usually keying into our phones or tablets.”
Seth thought for a few minutes and then said, “I don’t think so.” He picked up the little evidence bag and looked hard at the small, thin, black pencil. “It looks like it fits into a notebook. You must have seen them. They have spirals at the side, or the top and the pencil slides down between the spine of the notebook and the outer binding. You are right—they are a common brand. I’ve seen them around in the stationary cupboard of the administration office. They come in six packs.” He shrugged.
Jake took the evidence bag from Seth. He put it next to the one on the table containing the note dropped the night before by the attacker
Bethany shuffled a little closer to Seth so that her calf touched his. He looked at her lovingly and Jake watched with interest. After a few seconds of silence, he got up and brought the magazine over.
“Stunt Weekly, we don’t have to be geniuses to figure out who would read that. This must be significant. It was in the litter bin by the hedgerow. I keep thinking I recently saw someone reading that very magazine, but I don’t remember where or who.” Jake shrugged then and picked up his coffee.
Bethany stood up. “I have to take a quick shower and change.”
She left them to it and Jake looked at the magazine again. “Maybe it’s not important,” he said and yet he still felt deep down that it was.
* * * *
Bethany came back to the kitchen, her damp hair wound up in two tortoiseshell hair clips. She wore clean clothes and smelled like herbal shampoo as she sat down again next to Seth. He took her hand under the table.
She said to Jake, “I think we should flaunt ourselves out there again in front of everybody. Let’s get the guy angry enough to show himself.”
“That could be time consuming. We might not be ‘out there’, as you put it, at the same time as him.”
Seth wasn’t smiling. “It could be dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to either of you.
“We’ll be fine unless he starts carrying a gun. I think we should flush him out. I can’t dismiss the possibility it may be a stuntman. I will request permission to question them all. For now, let’s go and get breakfast. I’m starving,” Jake said.
Seth grimaced. “Must we? The place will be packed today. They’re only shooting one scene on a closed set. They are filming a love scene between my character’s brother and his ex.”
Jake leaned back. “All the more reason to go out to breakfast. Our perpetrator might be out there to goad.”
Seth sighed.
Bethany agreed, saying, “Let’s go.”
* * * *
They walked down the path together and approached the marquee, where a queue of people stretched out of the door. Bethany linked arms with Jake, and Seth walked by their side as they joined the lineup.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Niall arrived at the canteen only a moment after Bethany, Jake, and Seth. Two of his colleagues were with him. Seeing the queue of people there, they hesitated.
“Niall, let’s go into the nearby town instead. There’s a small tea shop which started doing breakfasts to cater for the cast and crew.
Niall looked pained. “Come on guys. It will only take a few minutes, whereas it takes ages to find a parking spot in town.”
They shrugged and talked about the next job they had. They were all stunt people and discussed the safety measures for the new scene.
Niall was only half-listening as he watched Bethany lean into the guy she lived with and then curl her fingers around Seth’s hand for a few seconds. Niall’s gut clenched. She didn’t get the message then.
He turned to his companions, “Sorry guys. I feel a bit under the weather. I’ll
leave you to it for the day.”
His colleagues gave him a surprised look but he walked purposely off.
* * * *
It took Niall a few minutes to reach his own trailer. He burst through the door, feeling obsessed with what was happening. He hadn’t felt this bad when Seth was seeing Sara Smythe. Maybe it was just the thought of someone treating the actor so badly that he fixated on. Maybe his own love for the man was breaking his heart.
He opened the lid of his laptop. It sprang to life when he pressed ‘enter’. Niall launched the Bluetooth program that was paired with his cell phone, and transferred the video from his cell phone to it. He checked out the AVI file of Bethany and Seth in bed. He saw way more than expected of Seth’s face and the woman’s figure. Even he had to admit she was hot. Probably because she is into the gym, being a personal trainer, he thought.
Niall watched it a couple of times. Then he used his alias of The Stuntman on his favorite social network sites to post the video outing Seth with a secret lover. Niall felt physically sick when he finished his last post, where he speculated that the hate mail was not far wrong since this mystery woman was already in a relationship.
He stood and walked up and down his trailer. Then he went to the bathroom and vomited. Going back to his living area, he sat on the bench seat by the trailer door and thought about what he did.
Niall’s heart beat faster than usual and he felt as if he had done Seth an immense injustice. He signed back into all his social network accounts and deleted his posts. When finished, he felt slightly better.
Chapter Forty
It was too late of course. Many of Seth Carbery’s fans had picked up the posts and perpetuated them by copying the information or sharing it onto other sites before Niall deleted his posts. Some enterprising troublemaker actually captured a still of Bethany’s backside.
The movie’s PR team monitored Seth’s followers and was onto the posts immediately. They sent a runner to find Seth.
The Last Time Page 11