After a rough morning, I managed to pull myself together in time for the afternoon shoot. Jennifer was on set, thanks to Samford tattling, and she was running a tight ship, so no one was fighting. Hendrix stayed at my side, glaring at anyone and everyone who came close. He especially seemed to hate Laster. Not that Laster was even attempting to come close to me. He’d gone to Samford for advice on his faces and had been yelled at for his efforts. Instead, he was now making his creepy expressions in a mirror held up by a member of the camera crew.
I finally gave up and turned to Hendrix. “I’m going to go talk to him. This is ridiculous.”
Hendrix bristled visibly but nodded. “Stay where I can see you.”
My eyes immediately squinted into a glare and my hands went to my hips. “Can we establish that I’m a woman and not a child?”
Heat flashed in his eyes and was gone so fast I thought I’d imagined it. Until he spoke, low and slow, making sure I heard him. “We established that you’re all woman last night, Darby. You don’t have to doubt that I know that.”
Heat pooled in my cheeks and at my core. Knowing that he was thinking about it, too, made me want to run off with him and do it again. Which was just stupid.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to move away from him, instead of moving towards him like my body wanted to.
I motioned towards Mark, the camera guy being forced to hold a mirror for Laster, to get out of there while he could and took the mirror from him. He looked thankful and didn’t let me second guess my decision. He was gone before I really even had a grip on the mirror.
“Hey, Laster. How’s it going?”
He looked over at my shoulder and I turned to see what he was looking at. Hendrix. A scowling Hendrix, at that. “Is it bring-your-boyfriend-to-work day?”
I laughed. “Not my boyfriend. My bodyguard.”
He instantly turned to face me full on and rested his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”
I shifted away from him casually, so his hands would drop from my shoulders. “Just something Jennifer wanted. Anyway, how are you doing? I saw Samford being an ass to you earlier.”
“He was just being a jerk, as always. Anyway, let me show you what I was thinking of doing for this coming up scene.”
I hated myself for feeling guilty enough to need to talk to him. I didn’t want to watch his creepy faces, but I hated the idea of him being upset with me. I stood there for the next fifteen minutes while he showed me what he wanted to do and I stood back, utterly creeped out. It was like he’d been possessed by Aaron. His movements were eerily similar and his faces were spot on. It was the stuff from nightmares.
Finally, shooting was starting and I made my way back to my normal seat to watch. I wanted to try to read over a few more of the changes Samford wanted while they shot.
I’d just sat down and grabbed my script when a screeching sound rang out through the studio. I looked up to see what it was just as I was hit hard from the side and sent flying into the floor. I thought I heard a loud crashing sound as I hit the ground, but it could’ve just been my head rattling around.
“You okay? Darby, open your eyes. Tell me you’re okay.”
Hendrix. He sounded frantic so I opened my eyes to see why and was surprised to find him on top of me, cradling my head. The length of his body was pressed against mine and I couldn’t help the smile that lifted my lips.
“Hey.”
He grinned down at me. “Hi. You scared me.”
I looked past him and saw the entire crew gathered around us. I made a shocked sound and looked back at him. “What happened?”
He slowly sat up and pulled me with him. “Anything hurt?”
I still had bruises all over my body, but I healed quickly and they didn’t really hurt anymore. The only thing hurting was my shoulder. I rolled it and groaned. “Did you hit me?”
Jennifer stepped forward and held my hand. “He saved you. The light above your chair fell. Thankfully Hendrix was fast enough to get you out of the way. You could’ve been killed, Darby.”
I looked behind them and, sure enough, there was a crushed light fixture, one of the large ones, on the ground. “Holy shit.”
Hendrix pulled me the rest of the way to my feet and then pushed me towards Jennifer. “Can I trust you to stay with Jennifer while I go check out the catwalk? I want to see if that light was tampered with.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Didn’t we talk about you treating me like a child?”
“We talked about a lot of things.” He looked at Jennifer. “Do me a favor and don’t let her out of your sight.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Just go.”
He gave me a look that had my toes curling in my shoes, all heat and anger. I should’ve been thrown off because I’d almost been crushed and because Hendrix was more growl than he was man, but I liked it when he looked at me like that. It was exhilarating.
Jennifer looked at me when he was gone and raised her eyebrows. “Did something happen between the two of you?”
I shook my head, too hard. “Of course, not.”
Her eyebrows became pointed arrow heads. “It did! I would ask if I needed to get another man for the job, but he’s obviously good at his job, despite wanting to screw your brains out. He just saved your life.”
I stared at the light on the ground and shivered. He had saved me. A little bit of hero worship worked its way under my skin and I couldn’t help but search him out with my eyes.
“You’ve got it bad, huh?”
I jerked back around to Jennifer and shook my head, slower that time. I wasn’t going to admit that I was lusting after Hendrix to anyone, much less Jennifer, who wouldn’t hesitate to play matchmaker. “No. I can’t believe that light fell. When’s the last time they were serviced, I wonder?”
“Jennifer, take Darby to your office and don’t let anyone in.”
I looked up to see Hendrix on the catwalk, a disturbing look on his face. “What is it?”
“Just go. I’m going to look around and then I’ll be there.”
Jennifer got a grip on my arm and tugged me away, not taking my resistance seriously. “Come on. You heard him.”
I groaned in frustration at being led around, back and forth, like a show dog. I pulled my arm away from Jennifer and walked ahead of her into her office. My mind was all over the place, but it was all boiling down to a shocking level of frustration. Nothing was working out the way it was supposed to and instead of proving that I didn’t need Hendrix, I was being proven wrong left and right. Even though the light falling was undoubtedly an accident, it just reaffirmed to Jennifer that she’d made the right decision.
“Darby, calm down. You should be thanking everyone and everything for that man out there. He just kept you from having your head bashed in. Why are you still fighting this so hard?”
I threw my hands up as she closed and locked her door. “I don’t like being bossed around. I came to LA to get away from that. He’s infuriating. I’ll think he’s tolerable for a few minutes and then he bosses me around again.”
She gave me a blank stare. “Really? That’s the best you’ve got? He saves your life and you complain that he’s bossy?”
I turned my back on her and crossed my arms over my chest. When she said it like that, I sounded stupid. I walked as far away as I could and then pretended to read the emergency exit plan taped to the wall. I didn’t want to talk to her. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I was frustrated beyond belief. At Jennifer, at Hendrix, and mostly at myself.
“You’ve got to get over your hang up with being bossed around. That’s just life sometimes, Darby. You don’t think I get bossed around? I deal with it constantly. We all do. Everyone has someone bossing them around. At least Hendrix is doing it to save your life. You should stop giving him such a hard time and thank him.”
I spun around to face her and blew out a rough breath. “I am thankful that he saved my life! Obviously.”
“It’s really not that obvious.”
The doorknob rattled and we both turned to see Hendrix standing in the doorway. He looked just as grave as he had on the catwalk. When Jennifer let him in, he moved to my side and frowned. “It was tampered with. Big time. Is your chair always right there?”
My pulse quickened and I nodded. “If we’re shooting on this set, yes. It’s out of the way.”
He put his hand on my back. “I think that was the evidence we needed, right? Obviously, there’s someone attempting to hurt you here.”
Jennifer narrowed her eyes at me. “That is obvious, isn’t it, Darby?”
I barely resisted making a face at her. “Are you sure it wasn’t just an accident?”
“Pretty fucking sure. Half the bolts were removed and the wires hooked to it had been cut. Someone did that with the intent of hurting you. I noticed that there’s one camera that faces that way on the set. I need all of the tape from it for today so I can try to see who messed with it.”
Jennifer nodded. “Sure, anything you need.”
Samford burst in the door behind Jennifer, waving a sheet of paper around. “This isn’t going to work, Jennifer! While it may have seemed like a good idea to have Darby here, it’s not working out. Look what I just found on my set!”
She snatched the paper from him and sent him a scathing look. “Calm down, Samford. We’re handling it.”
I watched as she looked at the paper and her face went pale. Hendrix moved closer and looked at it over her shoulder. I was officially the only one who hadn’t seen it, so I crept closer. Only, when I did see it, I wished I hadn’t. Someone had captured a picture of me standing in the middle of the street, looking absolutely terrified. It was the day I’d had to jump out of the way of the rusted old van.
“Where is this from, Darby?” Hendrix’s voice sounded deeper and gruffer than usual.
I touched the picture and then snatched my hand back. “The day I was downtown and had to jump out of the way of the asshole driver. I… The angle… This picture had to have been taken by whoever was driving the van.”
“Look at the back.” Samford took the glossy photo from Jennifer’s hands and flipped it over.
In messy handwriting, someone had scribbled a message. Jennifer’s voice shook as she read it out loud. “You got lucky this time, but there will always be a next time. It won’t end until you do. It isn’t over until you’re bleeding out like the pig you are.”
I turned away from the group of them, all of their eyes on me. It suddenly felt like the room was way too small and all the oxygen was being sucked out. I cupped my hand over my mouth and did the trick I’d seen one of the interns doing. I blew into my hand, pretending it was a balloon I was expanding. I focused all of my energy on that and started to feel normal again. That is, until I turned back around.
Hendrix took the picture from Jennifer and placed it face down on her desk. “I’m going to call my contact at the LAPD. This needs to be fingerprinted to make sure we can’t end this the easy way. Samford, Jennifer, you’ll need to stick around to supply fingerprints so they can cancel yours out.”
“And where the hell is she going? We’ve got a movie to shoot here.”
In the blink of an eye Hendrix had cornered Samford and seemed to be barely restraining the urge to hit him, if his balled up fists were any indication. “You can keep shooting your movie, but she’s not going to stay here today. Not until I get a chance to look over the tapes from today and see if anyone on your set tried to kill her. If you’ve got a problem with that, you can take it up with me. Not her. Not Jennifer. Me.”
Samford grabbed at the doorknob beside him and jerked it open. “You’re not the boss around here, you Neanderthal.”
Jennifer rolled her eyes and turned to face me. “I agree with you not staying on set today.”
I was past the point of arguing for the day. “Okay.”
She came closer and wrapped her arms around me. “It’s okay, Darby. You’ve got a Neanderthal keeping you safe.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as Hendrix snorted.