“Then,” she dabbed the corner of her eye with the back of her index finger. She was laughing so hard she was crying. “There was the time when Nick disappeared for lunch. He was supposed to bring back lunch for everybody…he came back with no lunch,” she shook her head, “a black eye and a split lip. He says he fell. I think he hit on the Capri Montgomery
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wrong woman and her boyfriend, or husband, knocked him out. He was gone for like two hours. Explain that to me.” She kept laughing.
Dysfunctional didn’t begin to describe their crew. At least, at the end of the day, the show always came together. Fortunately they recorded in advance so any real setback usually didn’t impact having at least one show ready to air by Saturday morning.
“So they just disappear for long periods of time without explanation, huh?”
“Usually just lunch. You haven’t noticed?” She watched the expression on his face. She was sure he had noticed something. It wasn’t as if they didn’t vanish a few days a week. Either one or two of the camera men would be gone. Jerry was usually off doing what everybody assumed he was doing with Michelle. He never really tried to hide his disheveled appearance when he returned from lunch.
Although Michelle always seemed to have herself pulled together perfectly. No matter. She didn’t care who was shagging whom, or where the other guys skirted off too just so long as they were back in time to work. She was holding up her end of the responsibility and she expected them to hold up theirs. What they probably hadn’t realized was that Warren had very much asked her to keep production moving forward. She didn’t think that was supposed to be her job. From her understanding the director was in charge, and should have no problem keeping everybody on track. Then, of course, she saw the behind the The McGregor Affair
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scenes chaos that nobody else got a chance to see and she understood why Warren had entrusted her with the responsibility.
He had told her to be sure not to let on that she was keeping an eye on things for him. She felt like a spy…wouldn’t that be an adventure? She had traveled the world so much that she could have done something covert, something fun and exhilarating like espionage.
She could be like the female James Bond. She tossed around the thought for a few seconds before deciding she would probably hate such a profession. Being shot at wasn’t on her to-experience list.
“Where’d you go to?” He took her hand in his. She realized she had gone off into her own world once again. She used to do it often as a child. She would be on some exotic dig with her parents, fantasizing about being an ancient Egyptian princess, roaming the chambers of the temples. She had always had an active imagination. As she got older she learned to keep it at bay—at least a little.
“I was just thinking that I should think about being a spy.” The look on his face and the sudden release of her hand told her he was not happy with that idea. “Don’t worry; it took me all of three seconds to realize I wouldn’t want to get shot.” He sat back in his chair. His eyes were cold, his expression stoic. She wondered what he was thinking. The man had no sense of humor at all. She wasn’t serious, and even if she had been, so what?
Did he think she couldn’t do it? She could…provided nobody started shooting at her. She was good with climbing, okay with self defense, Capri Montgomery
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knew enough languages to get by on most continents, and she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. The only trouble she would have would be the guns. With her luck and her aim she would probably end up shooting herself while trying to escape. She nearly laughed at the thought. If she did work for the government, then God help whoever her partner would be because she would probably shoot him too. The one thing her father had always told her was that she couldn’t hit the side of the barn if they put it four feet in front of her. She didn’t think she was that bad—but maybe she was.
“What’s the matter?” She tried to reach for his hand and he pulled back. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” he mumbled before standing. “I should get back to my room.”
She stood. “Gavin if I did or said something to offend you, please tell me?” She wasn’t an idiot. She could tell when somebody was suddenly angry with her. What she couldn’t figure out was why he had become so distant.
“London…Never mind.”
“Gavin, please? What did I do?”
He reached out, the backs of his fingers gently brushing against her cheek and she turned into the embrace. She closed her eyes, letting the feel of his skin against her face lull her into bliss.
“I shouldn’t like you,” he said in a voice low and unreadable. “I shouldn’t let myself like you.”
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And just as abruptly as he had begin his slow caress he stopped, turning sharply and fleeing the room before she could utter another word.
“What was that about?” She mumbled. He had said he shouldn’t like her, which meant he did like her. She liked him too, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. Getting involved with a coworker was not a good idea. She had been there, done that, and took home more than the t-shirt. The few months—ten to be exact—of relationship was so not worth the post breakup stress. She had vowed not to put herself through that again, but with Gavin things were different. She found herself wanting to take the risk—and that scared her the most. What if it didn’t work out? She didn’t think she would lose her job over it. She was, after all, the host of the show…but then she was part owner in her business and look how that turned out…no, she needed to stick with plan A. Plan A meant not dating anybody who worked with her ever again—no matter how drop dead sexy he was.
She shrugged off Gavin’s sudden dismissal of her and set about spreading the essential oil laden body oil onto her body. While she was curious as to what she had done or said that got his shorts in a wad, she wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. She had her own problems to deal with; she wouldn’t take his on to her plate as well.
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Chapter Five
Sorry didn’t seem like a good enough response, but Gavin was ready to make the apology anyway. He was a professional and he should have never let her words rattle him the way they had. No, he should have never forgotten that she could be just as guilty as anybody else linked to this production. But he had forgotten—or more like he had let his guard slip because she didn’t seem like the type of person who would risk global security for money. From his experience in the military and in government service he had learned the ones who didn’t look like the type usually were the type—they just hid it well. Still, he couldn’t believe she would do it—or more like he didn’t want to believe she could do it.
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The more he spent the night thinking about her words the more he realized she probably wouldn’t have said that she should have been spy if she were one, or if she suspected he were after one. Unless she was trying to throw him off her scent, in which case she probably would have said anything.
Whatever his thoughts, he needed to stay on at least one person’s favorable list. She was the most talkative so far. He could get information from her that he couldn’t get from a piece of paper in some government file folder. And, she had spent lunch hours with Grant, which meant he, too, had discerned that she was the best person to get in with in order to find out needed details. What he needed to know now was what she had told Grant during their conversations. Had something she said got him killed? Had something he said to her got him killed? He knew the man fairly well. He knew he was a sucker for a pretty face, and a man who always thought women were the weaker, damsel in distress, type. Even if he had gone into this case suspecting London, those long hours of friendly, conversational lunches would have lowered his defenses. He had been on th
e show’s crew for several months. Gavin had only been there a matter of weeks and already he was letting his guard slip and that was something that wasn’t in his usual persona.
When he spotted London by the base of the waterfall he decided to push aside his pride and go apologize. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, she was the woman he needed to help break this case wide open Capri Montgomery
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before things went from bad to devastating. If he didn’t talk with her he had no chances of finding out what she and Grant had conversed about.
He needed answers, and he wasn’t going to get them without her.
She looked agitated; he had noticed that the moment she turned and saw him coming her way. Okay, so maybe he would have to do some groveling and begging for forgiveness instead of just a simple apology.
The second thing he noticed about her was that she was keeping her distance from the crew. Why?
“London, I wanted to apologize for last night.”
“Forget it,” she nearly bit his head off. That wasn’t the exact response he was hoping for.
“It’s just that—”
“Really, McGregor just forget it. I have bigger problems right now.” She turned to walk away from him, though he didn’t know where she thought she was going to go since she turned in the direction of the solid mass of rocks that pretty much signaled a dead end direction.
He wrapped his hand around her slender arm and turned her to face him. The action caused her to stumble into him and she immediately put her hand out to catch herself. The heat from her touch burned through his shirt to his chest, a chest that was now very much aware of how much it would like to be naked underneath that touch.
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The moment she regained her balance and looked up into his eyes the force of her anger hit him hard.
“What’s going on, London? Talk to me; please?” She exhaled sharply. “You didn’t notice the equipment did you?”
He looked around at the usual, camera, lighting, reflectors, makeup, nothing out of the ordinary from what he could see. He was mid mentally processing the scene when she clearly felt he had taken too long in figuring out what was bothering her.
“The camera,” she stated with less anger and more…he wasn’t sure, but he thought the tone in her voice was laced with fear. “It’s an underwater camera, Gavin.”
“Okay.” He dragged out the word with great trepidation. He still didn’t see the problem, but he had the feeling she thought he should.
“They know I don’t do underwater shots, yet that jerk director over there set it up—without telling me! And I can’t believe Warren went along with it.”
“Applebee is probably…” He stopped the moment her hand went up to shush him.
“Please stop calling the man Applebee? Call him Warren. Call him boss. Just please stop with the Applebee already.” Edgy was an understatement. She was a wreck. He intended to find out why. By all accounts he should have been the one upset given the fact that he was supposed to be the resident safety consultant, which Capri Montgomery
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meant he should have known about any changes before they happened, not after. Keeping secrets from him already meant they trusted him less than he thought. Or maybe they just didn’t like him. He speculated it was a little bit of both.
“I told Warren when I took this job I didn’t want to do any shows where the water was over my head. I don’t mind being in a kayak. I don’t mind being on a boat. I do mind diving, snorkeling, whatever they want to call today.” She waved her hand frantically in the direction of the water.
“You can’t swim?”
“A little,” she shivered. He didn’t mistake that shiver for anything other than what it was—fear. “I learned some when I was a little girl. I was getting good with it too, but then…” she let her voice trail off before looking up into his eyes. “I hate this job.” He knew she didn’t hate the job. She might hate today’s shoot, but he could tell she loved the job she was doing. Currently he wasn’t interested in pointing out the inaccuracy of her statement; he knew she would figure that out once she calmed down. Right now he wanted to know more about what she hadn’t said. “Then what?” He wanted to know more and since she seemed to clam up he figured he would have to ask for the answers he wanted.
“I was doing something stupid…I was about eight I think. My dad had told me not to run off. We were in Ireland on another one of their great adventures. I wanted so much to be like them—wild, The McGregor Affair
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adventurous, not afraid of anything. So I figured if they could go exploring on their own then so could I.” She shook her head. “I was so stupid. They weren’t alone. They had each other. If anything went wrong they had each other.” She shook her head. “Young and stupid…but I can guarantee you it never happened again. I stuck close to them on every adventure after that.” He knew she hadn’t gone to college so all of her adventures had been with her family. They funded their own expeditions, and stayed as long as they wanted. She’d had a good life from what he could tell.
“What happened?”
“There was a folk tale about a magical forest…oh I didn’t believe in magic, but I did know that a lot of the mystical folk tales were part true, part embellished. I always had the feeling that people covered the truth in the lies so that nobody would ever discover what lay hidden inside. If you want to hide something, do it in plain sight because nobody would ever think to look there.” She pushed a stray curl out of her face and tucked the silken strands behind her ear.
“Anyway, I went off into the forest in search of a stone tablet that supposedly dated back to the sixteen hundreds. I thought I could find it, take it back and show my parents that I was worthy to call myself a McGowan. That I was worthy to be their daughter.”
“London, your parents—”
“Love me? I know. But back then I just wanted so much to make them proud and I was sure that was the way to do it. Anyway, Capri Montgomery
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being Ireland, being unsettled times where you have one group at war against another, and another…well I stumbled upon a small terrorist group—rebels is what they called themselves. I knew almost immediately that I was in trouble. I looked at the guns and I just knew.
I saw danger; they saw gold. They lowered me down into a well and left me there while they hit my parents, and the government up for money. They wanted ammunition too. I don’t need to tell you that I wasn’t important enough for the government to give weapons to a band of terrorists.”
He hadn’t read anything about that in the files they had on all of them. How could they leave that bit of information out? He knew the government when it came to investigations he could read a report and find out what a suspect had for breakfast when he was a child; there was no way this detail should have been left out.
“Anyway, my parents hired an American who was living over in Ireland at the time. He was former military and they said he was the best of the best. He found me after two days. I was waist deep in water that just seemed to keep rising. By the time he found me I was treading water trying to keep my head above it. I’ve been afraid to go underwater ever since.” She shook her head. “I know that’s stupid. I’m not afraid to go in the water, just under it. I should have known Warren wouldn’t keep his promise to me. It’s an adventure show. What kind of adventure show can you have without a dive?”
“You’ll be okay. You’ll get through this.” The McGregor Affair
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She shrugged. “They have snorkel equipment that they assure me will allow me to stay underwater longer. I’d feel better with a dive tank…but I’m not certified and they’d probably get fined or something if they let me have one.”
He nodded. She would probably sink straight to the bottom too.
Those t
anks were heavier than people thought. It took skill and training to get used to them. The snorkel gear would suffice in these waters. It was deep enough to submerge in, deep enough to explore, and certainly deep enough to drown in if she panicked.
“They want you to swim to the inside of the cave don’t they?”
“Yes.” She shivered again. “Under the waterfall, into the cave. I would love to see it, but…I don’t think I can do this.”
“You’ll have the film crew with you.”
“Ha! Like I’d trust anybody here to help me if I got into trouble down there. And why can’t I just walk around and go under the fall that way…just like everybody else?”
Ratings, he imagined, was the motive behind Applebee’s sudden change in direction. At least he hoped ratings were the motive and not something more sinister. The sudden change, coupled with everybody else carefully walking under the fall and sticking to the dampened rocks as they made their way into the structure meant he would be walking in too. He figured the director would want to be set up on the inside of the cave with the other camera so that they could get shots of London as she swam in and surfaced.
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They would obviously start on their journey into the enclosure long before London and the other cameraman would. That would leave a lot of time for somebody on the outside to make contact with a buyer.
Perhaps there was a buyer lurking in the lush tropical forest around them. London had said she thought she saw somebody hiding in the woods in Alaska. Maybe that’s how they made contact. But who was the enemy here? Unless London was lying to him he doubted very seriously that she would put herself through an emotional hell just to gain an opportunity to make contact in secret. He wasn’t mistaking the fear in her eyes, in her voice and in her body. Of course she could have just been a good actress. That would mean she and the cameraman were in on it together. He doubted that too, but he wouldn’t rule anything out.
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