“Merry? Merry?”

No answer from her friend. She could still hear sounds on the other end of the line, but they were all muffled, as if Merry had dropped the phone in the dirt and forgotten about it. But it sounded like footsteps…Rollo? Brianna?

“Hello? Hello? Merry?”

She looked around wildly. Hanging up the phone didn’t seem like the best thing to do. What if Merry came back on the line? She ran to the old metal desk, which held a phone, a police scanner, a desktop computer and a clipboard with a sign-in sheet. Grabbing the phone, she hesitated.

If she called nine-one-one, what would she say, exactly? “I was on the phone with my friend when I heard weird noises and she stopped talking to me?”

Instead she put her phone on speaker and pulled up the contacts list, then dialed Will Knight’s number. He answered right away.

“It’s Lisa Peretti. I think something happened to Merry out at Rollo’s guesthouse. We were on the phone and she said it looked like someone had broken in, then I heard a crash and she stopped talking. I didn’t know if I should call nine-one-one or—”

“I’ll take it from here. I’m glad you called me. Where are you?”

Just the sound of his confident—Merry might say arrogant—voice made her feel less anxious. “I’m at the base.”

“Stay there. I’ll call you with an update as soon as I have one.”

After she hung up, a violent fit of shivers took hold of her. She needed to be with Merry. If she’d gotten hurt because of her, instead of her…again…she’d never forgive herself.

Don’t jump to conclusions, she told herself. Maybe nothing happened. Will Knight would figure it out.

The door creaked open. She leaped to her feet in a panic, as if whoever had broken into the guesthouse had found her here too.

“Lisa? Are you in here? Someone said they saw you head this way?” Jill peered around the edge of the door.

“I’m here. Need a little space, please.”

“Absolutely. Just wanted you to know that I got ahold of Finn.”

“He’s training today. Off-site somewhere.”

“Yes. No cell service, but I got him on the dispatch channel.”

“I’m sorry, why would you do that?” Even though part of her longed to talk to Finn about this, she didn't want to add fuel to what the tabloids were saying.

“Finn wanted to know if anything unusual happened. I’m under strict instructions. This isn’t exactly unusual, in our world? But I can see it is for you.” Jill’s walkie-talkie crackled, but she turned it down. “Anyway, he gave you a message. He said do not, under any circumstances, return to the guesthouse tonight.”

A sharp pang of guilt shot through her. Why hadn’t she told Merry to leave the second she’d called? It hadn’t occurred to her that someone might show up at the guesthouse that quickly.

“He told me to book a hotel room for you and keep it top secret. Except from him.”

Lisa pulled her lower lip between her teeth. Did she trust Jill to keep anything top secret? Hell no. She was done with being naive and allowing herself to be a pawn in someone’s game. “Thank you, that sounds great.”

Jill nodded and pulled out her smartphone, tapping at it so rapidly Lisa could barely see her fingers. “Done. Must be nice, having a man like Finn watching out for you. He’s a good one, always has been. Known him since he was a kid. I texted you the reservation.”

“Thank you.” Just then her cell phone crackled back into action. “I have to take this, Jill.”

“Are you coming back to the set?” Under Lisa’s incredulous stare, she backed down. “Just a love scene shooting tonight. We should be fine.”

As soon as Jill was gone, Lisa clapped the phone to her ear. “Hello? Merry?”

“No, this is Will. Merry’s…uh…well, she’s asleep.”

“Asleep?”

“Yup. Best guess is, someone shot her with a tranquilizer dart, got a closer look and realized they hit the wrong woman again, then took off.”

“Oh my God. I can’t believe it. But Merry’s okay?”

“She’s okay. She’s in the backseat of my Chevy. She probably won’t be too happy when she wakes up.”

“Because of what they did?” A series of awful scenarios flipped through her mind.

“Because she’ll be at my house. She’s not injured enough for Urgent Care. And I can’t get into her place. So she’ll be sleeping it off at Chez Knight.”

Lisa released a long breath of relief and rolled her shoulders.

“Obviously this means someone still wants to find you, Lisa.”

“I know. I have a plan. Will, there’s a…um…a turtle there, in a cage. Did you happen to notice if he’s okay?”

A long pause, followed by his amused answer. “Turtle looked just fine. Deputy Knight, reporting in.”

“Thank you, Will. Call me when Merry wakes, up, will you? After she finishes yelling at you?”

“Will do.”

Lisa grinned as she ended the call. What she wouldn’t give to see the sparks that would erupt when Merry woke up in Will’s company.

She checked the time. It was close to evening. Finn would be back at the hotshot base soon. All her stuff was still in Finn’s guesthouse though it didn’t amount to much. A bag of Suzanne’s clothes. Her portable safe. She’d drive back and pick up the essentials, say goodbye to Sparky, then hit the road before she ran into Finn.

She couldn’t see Finn. If she did, it might be too hard to leave. But she had to. There really was no other option. Neither the base nor the guesthouse was safe anymore, and she definitely didn’t trust Jill’s hotel offer. She could just picture the headline. Nurse’s No-Tell Hotel Nookie.

Just get out of town. Right now, before Finn gets back.

Decision made, she ran into the parking lot and found her Mercedes. Her last remaining possession, really. She drove out of the Fire and Rescue compound without so much as a glance back. It never paid to look backwards when you couldn’t go that way. The best thing to do was move on.

She drove away from the base toward the highway. The sun was setting beyond the hills, the pine trees along the road casting long shadows. They made her think of the vast forests she used to watch from her tower, day after day, looking for smoke.

She’d just spotted smoke—metaphorically speaking. And she wasn’t going to hang around waiting to get burned.

* * *

You could cut the tension in the crew buggy with a butter knife. The crew was exhausted from their training in the hills. Baker was snoring in the far backseat—a deep, rattling, snorting sound that kept everyone else awake.

Not that Finn could have slept anyway. He’d called Lisa as soon as they’d gotten within cell phone range but gotten no answer. From Jill, he learned that Lisa had never checked into the hotel. He tried texting and calling Lisa several more times, but she never picked up.

He had no idea where she was. And a constant knot in his stomach made him want to rip someone’s face off.

Possibly his father’s. Or Annika’s. Definitely Gemma’s. How could they pull a stunt like this?

It was nearly nine by the time they reached the base. Finn worked his way past the other hotshots, who were waking and stretching and groaning from the road trip. He jumped to the ground and hurried to open the side door, where the gear was stored. He was probably sorer than anyone else, but he was also the least likely to complain. He didn’t want Sean booting his ass off the crew.

He flung open the door and grabbed a duffel in one hand, a gas can in the other. The quicker he could get this damn buggy unloaded, the quicker he could track down Lisa.

His phone rang. Will Knight, calling him back. He held the phone between his ear and his shoulder while he continued to unload the truck.

“Any news?”

“Got a lead on a suspect. Mrs. Murphy at the bookstore noticed a strange car idling on Constellation Way earlier.”

“Mrs. Murphy is your best lead?”

“She actually wrote down the license plate number on the book she was ringing up. I have someone tracking down that purchase now.”

Finn snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“We’ll get him. This shit is getting on my nerves.”

Finn was way past nerves and onto “tearing shit apart.”

“How do you know it’s just one guy? What if there are more?”

“We haven’t noticed any other suspicious strangers in town. And by ‘we’ I do mean Mrs. Murphy.”

“Goddamn it, Knight.” He tossed an empty gas can into the storage area with a clang. “Why not fire the entire police department and hire Mrs. Murphy?”

“Why would we do that when she gives us tips for free?”

“I’m not laughing. And Lisa isn’t answering her phone. Have you heard from her?”

“Not since I picked up Merry. But Mitch at the Arco station spotted an early-model Mercedes heading north.”

“Keep me posted.” Teeth clenched, Finn hung up and slammed his fist into the side of the crew buggy.

He should have locked Lisa inside somewhere until he got back.

When he turned around, Sean was glaring at him, arms folded across his chest. “You just punched the buggy. Get out of here.”

“I’m sorry, man. I’m worried about Lisa, she’s—”

“I said get out of here.” Sean’s rugged face softened. “We got this. Go do what you need to do. We got a couple days’ downtime. Just keep your phone on.”

He pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead. The scars on his face throbbed, which meant he was tired. “Okay. Thanks man.”

“Call us if you need anything.”

After managing a sort-of smile, he practically ran for his car.

On the windshield, he saw a note from Annika. “Call me. It’s F-ing urgent. A.”

She’d also left messages on his phone, but if she was actually going old school and leaving a note, she really wanted to talk to him.

He got in his Tahoe and plugged his phone into the car’s sound system. “Did you do this, Annika?” he asked as soon as she picked up.

“You owe me. We had an arrangement and you messed it up. I had to get creative.”

Only in Annika-world did that make any sense at all. Finn rubbed his forehead, where a headache was forming with little midget hammer blows.

“It’s going great, Finn.” Her glee resonated across the phone line. “We’re one of the most searched on Google. Gemma’s dying, she’s so excited. I have some more ideas about how this can go. Can you come by my hotel?”

“You’ve gone too fucking far this time.”

“What are you talking about? It’s publicity. I’m sure that nurse understands. It’s for the good of the movie.”

He reached the end of the road that fed into the highway and jerked to a halt. “Just tell me this. Did my dad have a hand in this?”

“Why are you being so mean to me?”

“Do you know where Lisa went?”

“Oh, is she missing? That’s a great twist for the blogs.”

With a growl, Finn hung up on Annika and prepared to turn left, toward Jupiter Point. Then he hesitated, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Lisa wasn’t there. He knew it. She’d probably decided that she was a danger to her friends, and that they couldn’t keep her safe anyway. She was probably back on the run. Going north.

But she had an old Mercedes, and he had a new Tahoe. And he was so jacked up on rage against everything connected to Hollywood that he could drive until dawn if he had to.