“Sienna, so good to see you back on set,” Liam said. “We’ve all been worried about you. How are you feeling?”
“A little stiff, but better than I was. Thanks for asking.” Sienna glanced at the cameramen nearby setting up for the first scene of the day. “How has everything been here?”
“A little different without you around, but other than that, it’s the same old stuff. We did several scenes with the extras yesterday, and, of course, there’s a lot more security.”
“That makes sense after having two accidents.” She noticed the cameramen had their equipment facing the beach. “What scene are they shooting first? I thought we were doing the interrogation scene this morning.”
“Apparently someone convinced the navy to give us some live footage for the movie. They’re getting ready to film one of their training exercises,” Liam told her. “They’ll do the close-ups of us right afterward so the lighting is the same.”
“Sounds like we’d better get to makeup.”
Sienna heard the helicopter overhead, her attention immediately diverted. She looked up and decided she could wait and watch. After all, it wouldn’t hurt to see what her character was supposedly doing before she had to stand in front of the camera and try to pretend it was her.
* * *
Craig sat on the floor of the helicopter, his legs hanging into the open space above the landing skid. Through his binoculars, he could see the beach house as well as the cameras already pointed their way. Brent had given the pilot orders to make two wide circles around the property before heading back over the water, where they would make today’s jump.
“Looks like we’re about to become famous,” Quinn said, motioning to the cameras.
“The best you can hope for is notorious,” Tristan quipped back.
“Anyone see anything suspicious?” Brent asked.
Seth was the first to respond. “Nothing on the perimeter of the house.”
Craig focused on the people gathered below. It didn’t take him long to identify Sienna’s dark hair, her head tilted upward to watch them. His hands tightened on the binoculars when he saw who was standing beside her. “I see Sienna. Liam Rickman is standing right next to her.”
“Jealous?” Damian asked.
“Worried,” Craig corrected. “He’s one of the people on her grandfather’s suspect list.”
Jay pointed below as they completed their first circle. “Take a look at the beach north of the house. I see some tracks.”
“Could be from a jogger,” Tristan suggested.
Craig focused on the beach where Jay had indicated. He was still trying to process what he was seeing when Brent spoke. “I don’t think so. They don’t continue past the house.” Brent addressed the pilot. “This time swing wider to the north.”
“Yes, sir,” the pilot answered. He did as requested, giving the squad the chance to see where the tracks started.
Brent pointed again. “Looks like they start on that side street over there.”
Craig studied the area. Several beach houses lined the street, and a long pier sat a short distance away, along with what appeared to be a public parking lot. “Anyone could have parked in that lot over there and made their way up to the house.”
“Not exactly the best place for security,” Tristan agreed.
“Sounds like William is going to have his work cut out for him,” Brent said. He signaled to everyone. “Get ready. Time to go to work.”
Craig put his binoculars in his pack, checked the straps, and prepared to jump out of a helicopter moving at twenty knots per hour.
* * *
Sienna’s eyes widened with disbelief when she saw the first person jump out of the helicopter. “Are they really jumping without parachutes?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Liam said in awe. “Boy, am I glad we don’t have to do that for real. Who would do such a thing?”
“Navy SEALs,” William announced from behind them.
Sienna turned to look at her grandfather, her eyes questioning. “That isn’t . . .”
William nodded, and Sienna’s head whipped around again as she watched with renewed interest. When Craig had said he wouldn’t be able to talk for a couple of hours, she figured he had a meeting or something. Was this really what he did during the day?
She counted the number of bodies that jumped into the water below. Seven. She thought of the men who had been at her sister’s wedding. Brent, Craig, Damian, Seth, Jay, Tristan, and Quinn. Seven men. “Wow.”
“It’s something to see, isn’t it?” William said, putting his hand on her good shoulder.
Liam looked from William to Sienna. “Do you know those guys?”
“I met them briefly when I was preparing for this role,” Sienna said, downplaying her friendship with the squad. “They’re great guys.”
“Looks to me like they’re on the crazy side.”
“Oh, they are,” William answered. “But they’re the kind of crazy you want to have on your side.”
28
“I need a couple volunteers tonight,” Brent said when he walked into the hangar bay where the squad was checking their chutes in preparation for the next exercise.
Before Craig could process the request and the possible conflict volunteering would create with his planned date with Sienna, Quinn spoke up. “I’m in. What am I volunteering for?”
Tristan stood beside him and shook his head. “How is it you’re always the first to volunteer and the first to complain about whatever you volunteered for?”
Quinn grinned at him. “That’s one of the many complexities of the universe. Besides, complaining is an art form I’m trying to master.”
“Right, Quinn.” Tristan shook his head. “I’m happy to help too. What do you need?”
“William asked if we would be willing to do security sweeps of Sienna Blake’s movie set for a few nights,” Brent said. “He wants to make sure no one else can cause Sienna or the movie any more trouble.”
Brent passed the papers he held to everyone. “Here’s an updated training schedule. Amy was able to adjust our plans for this week so we could use a couple security sweeps for training, but there are a few gaps I’d like to have volunteers fill in, starting with tonight.”
“I’m game too,” Damian said, followed by similar comments by the rest of the squad.
“I’ll take tomorrow night,” Craig offered, aware that Sienna would be working late.
“Do you have a particular time you want us to do these sweeps?” Quinn asked.
“The set security team will do their last sweep at twenty-two hundred. We’ll take over then,” Brent said. “I’d like to send an extra sweep in around oh two hundred. As part of our training the next night, we’ll give our new guys some practice reading heat signatures while we set up motion detectors.”
“Will we have to retrieve the motion sensors before morning?” Seth asked.
“No. It’s a private beach.” Brent gave him a wicked grin. “In fact, I thought we could have a little game of laser tag one night after we make sure the area is clear.”
“I’m always up for some target practice.” Quinn grinned back.
“Of that I have no doubt.”
* * *
Sienna looked skeptically at the car parked a short distance away. The basic black sedan looked harmless enough, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the last time she had tried a stunt with a car in it. Why did this one have to happen on her first day back?
“Are you okay?” George asked.
“Honestly, I’m not sure about this.”
Marcus put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve taken every precaution. The car was checked out completely before they brought it out. We even had the stunt guys take it for a test drive this morning to make sure there weren’t any problems.”
“Okay.” Sienna took a deep breath. “I’m supposed to look terrified anyway, right?”
“Actually, yeah.” Marcus nodded. “You’ll see the car coming
toward you, and you’ll dive to the left.”
“Let’s get this over with.” Sienna forced herself to stand and walk across the pavement to her mark. This would be her last scene for the day, and then she would be able to spend some time with Craig. That thought put a smile on her face despite her pounding heart.
“Sienna, terrified, remember?” Marcus called out to her. “Not happy.”
“Right.” Sienna tried to push her personal life aside and turned to look at the car again. She closed her eyes, letting herself remember the terror of the car heading straight for her before. Her breathing quickened, and she opened her eyes to focus on the perceived threat.
“Better,” Marcus said. “And action!”
As Marcus had promised, this time when the car came racing toward her, everything followed as outlined in the script. They shot the scene from several angles until finally Marcus gave them the words they all wanted to hear. “Okay, that’s it for tonight.”
Adam approached when Sienna started toward wardrobe. “Hey, Sienna. Do you want to grab some dinner?”
“No, thanks, Adam. I already have plans.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Same guy?”
“Yes, with the same guy.” Sienna breezed past him and called over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See you then.”
* * *
Craig waited by the entrance to the restaurant Sienna had chosen for dessert. Her shoot schedule had taken her work day well past the dinner hour, but neither of them had wanted to miss the opportunity to spend time together.
A text message from George alerted Craig to their arrival, and he approached the hostess to ask for a table for two. She picked up their menus, the door opened, and Sienna entered.
Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and he could see her fatigue in how she carried herself. “Hey, there.”
“Perfect timing. She was just about to seat us.” He motioned for Sienna to follow their hostess, who led the way to the booth Craig had requested in the back of the restaurant without any sign of recognition.
“How was your day?” Craig asked as soon as they were both seated.
Her eyebrows arched up. “Enlightening.”
“How so?”
“You never said you were going to jump out of a helicopter today.”
Craig stared at her with disbelief and a sense of uneasiness. “How did you know that was me?”
“Grandpa told me.” She seemed to sense his concern and added, “Don’t worry. He didn’t tell anyone else.”
“It’s not that big a deal, but we don’t usually go around announcing who we are to people. Sometimes we have security issues we have to deal with.”
“Do you do this sort of thing often?”
“We’re always training for something.” His shoulders lifted. “Physical training and target practice are usually part of our daily routine. Other skills we rotate through pretty regularly.”
“Like jumping out of helicopters.”
“Helicopters, planes, boats. If it moves, we probably jump out of it.”
She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Let’s not add cars to that list, okay?”
“Okay,” Craig agreed amiably. “Tell me about your day. I gather everything went all right.”
“Yeah. It was hard working with Liam, though, after everything Grandpa was talking about. And I felt like I was looking over my shoulder to see if Bruce might be anywhere around.”
“It’s normal to feel paranoid, especially after what happened.” Craig thought of his earlier conversation with his squad and decided it couldn’t hurt to give her an extra sense of security. “Your grandfather is pulling in a lot of favors to make sure your set is secure. I don’t think you’ll have any more problems.”
“I hope not. I almost didn’t survive the first two.”
“Then you don’t have a choice but to stay safe.”
She ran a finger along the edge of the menu she had yet to look at. “You make it sound so easy.”
“The simplest things in life usually are. They only get complicated when people think about them too much.”
“Now you sound like a philosopher.”
“Nah. Just someone who has listened to that lecture dozens of times from my mother.”
Sienna smiled, and some of her weariness seemed to fade. “Sounds like a smart woman.”
“She is.” Craig imagined for a moment what it would be like to see his mother and Sienna in the same room, and his lips twitched at the thought. “She’d like you.”
“You think so?”
He smiled fully. “Yeah.”
“Does this mean you want me to meet her?”
“I don’t know when we would find the time with our crazy schedules, but yeah, I’d like that.”
“I’d like that too.” Sienna hesitated and then added, “She’s not anything like my dad, is she?”
“Not at all.”
She let out a sigh. “Good. I haven’t been trained to withstand interrogations like you have.”
“Believe me, I’ve never had better practice than I did when I met your dad.”
“Oh, I believe you.”
* * *
Bruce stared at the man across from him with disbelief. What had begun as a publicity stunt and a ploy for him to gain employment had taken a complete left turn and was going in a direction he didn’t want anything to do with. “You realize I can’t let you go through with this.”
“What are you going to do? Stop me?”
“Yes.” Bruce squared off against the other man. “I may not be working for the Blake family now, but they’ll listen if I tell them what you’ve been up to.”
“You aren’t going to tell the Blakes or anyone else. If you do, I’ll tell everyone you’re the one who tried to recruit me to help you sabotage Sienna’s movie.”
“I did no such thing!”
“My word against yours. In fact, I’ll likely come out as the hero when I explain how I found out you were the one planning everything.”
“And I’ll make sure the authorities know you’re just trying to cast suspicion elsewhere.”
“You forget I’ve been acting my whole life. I can make people believe anything.” He looked Bruce dead in the eye. “And I’m not the one who has a criminal for a son.” He took a step closer, the greed in his eyes now more evident than ever. “Don’t think for a minute you can stop me.”
“You’re insane.”
“I’ve played that character before, but I’m perfectly sane. I know what I want, and I’m going to get it.”
29
Craig activated the screen in front of him, identifying two of his teammates moving along the beach from the south and three others converging from the north.
“You see them?” Damian asked from his position behind him. They had been given the boring task of standing watch on the street side of the house while monitoring for heat signatures.
“Yeah.”
Brent’s voice came over their communication headsets. “What do you see?”
“Two from the south; three from the north.” Craig estimated their speed and added, “You should intercept in three minutes.”
“Tristan and Quinn, fan out. Place your motion detectors along the base of the deck,” Brent instructed. “Jay and Seth, you take care of the front yard and parking lot.”
“What about us?” Damian asked.
“Keep track of everyone’s movement. It’s good practice.”
Craig looked back at his screen, counting out his team members. Now that Brent had given orders to everyone, he could identify Seth and Jay moving up the hill along the side of the house.
When he looked back to the beach side, he saw two clustered together beneath the deck, another heading toward them, and one more on the side of the house opposite where Jay and Seth were climbing up the slope.
“Brent, where are you?”
“You should see me heading toward you.”
“W
e may have a problem. I’m showing six heat signatures, not five. Repeat, we have a visitor.”
“Where?”
“He’s heading toward Tristan and Quinn.”
“Tristan and Quinn, go silent and disappear. Let’s see what this guy wants.”
Craig heard both of them click into their microphones to confirm they received his orders.
“Craig, call out their distance.”
“Fifty yards,” Craig began, calling out the mystery figure’s progress at ten-yard increments. “He’s angling toward the northeast side of the deck. Ten yards . . . five yards.”
Craig fell silent, waiting impatiently. Could this be Bruce or Liam? Was there someone else involved whom they hadn’t managed to identify? Or was this some random fan who had the bad sense to try to sneak onto a movie set?
Quinn’s voice was the first to break the silence. “Hold it right there.”
Craig could see the newcomer freeze momentarily. A split second later, he took off the way he had come.
Both Quinn and Tristan pursued him, catching up to him within thirty yards. One of them dove after the man, forcing them both onto the ground.
“I’m heading down there,” Craig announced to Damian.
Craig half expected Damian to insist he remain on surveillance with him, but he nodded in agreement. “Go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on things here and make sure we don’t have any other unexpected visitors.”
“Thanks.”
Craig took off at a jog down the sloping side yard and onto the beach where Tristan, Quinn, and now Brent were leaning over a prone figure. Quinn had his hand on the man’s head, and Craig could see a flash of white in the moonlight. He took several more steps before he identified the white as a bandage.
“What happened?” Craig asked when he reached them.
“Our friend here hit his head on a rock when I tackled him,” Tristan said.
“Is he okay?”
“He’s unconscious, but his breathing is steady.”
Brent motioned to Quinn. “Call for an ambulance.”
Quinn did so while Craig moved closer and shined his flashlight on the man. “That’s Bruce Parsons.”
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