Chapter Nine

Bethany opened her eyes. It was morning. She saw the heavenly, blue sky through Seth’s bedroom window. She stirred only slightly against him, not wanting to wake him before he had to be up for work. She needed to get back to her own trailer before Jake was awake.

Bethany moved stealthily away from Seth’s body and pushed the quilt, warmed by her body, up where she had been so the space would not wake him. She watched him for a few seconds. It was okay that he was still asleep.

She wanted to kiss him. Instead, she silently slipped on her crop top and skimpy shorts. She picked up her leather jacket and glanced back down the trailer.

She looked for something to leave a note on for Seth and then decided she shouldn’t. She quietly left the trailer, wondering if her heat signature as she exited would send a beep to Jake on his iPad, or if hers would be loud enough to wake him from her room.

There were a few people around. In the distance, she could hear filming going on.

She had not asked Seth when he needed to be on set, but it couldn’t be an early call or he would have received it by now.

Bethany was silent as she entered her own trailer. She went quickly to her bedroom to put on her bathrobe and look as if she had just gotten up. Jake was nowhere to be seen. She made coffee, thinking he might have gone out already. She poured coffee and then checked his bedroom.

He was in bed. As she opened his door, he groaned slightly and sneezed.

“Damn it, I’m sick. I feel dreadful. You’ve given me your virus.” He struggled to sit up and Bethany tucked a pillow behind him.

“You said you already had this virus. I’ll get you some aspirin and then you go back to sleep until after lunch. We’ll decide then if you’re fit to drive back home.”

Jake nodded pathetically. “My headache is so bad, I feel like throwing up.” His eyes suddenly caught sight of his iPad propped up on the bedside unit.

“Hell, there’s an alert message. I can’t believe I missed an alert.” He grabbed up the iPad and checked the program messages.

“If Brandt hears about this I’m toast. Did you know? There are two, oh my God, I missed two.”

Bethany sat on the side of her brother’s bed.

“It’s okay. I dealt with it. It was just Seth getting some air. You probably missed it because you’re sick. I told you that virus was nasty. You’ll feel out of it today. Go back to sleep and try to shake it off. I’ll deal with everything.”

She stood up and went to the kitchen. She returned with aspirin, water, and a cup of coffee on a tray.

Jake shook himself. “Sorry Bethany,” he said miserably.

Bethany grinned. “Go back to sleep.” She put the iPad on the floor by his bed and handed him aspirin and the glass of water.

Jake swallowed the tablets and then dropped back against his pillows. He looked like a kid with his hair stuck up and his nose red. Bethany smiled at him. She loved her brother dearly. They got on so well together and she couldn’t imagine working with anyone else.

“I’ll bring a box of Kleenex in for you,” she told him.

Jake was already asleep.

Bethany brought the box of Kleenex into Jake’s room, put it within easy reach, and then went to take a shower.

She stood in the water spray, letting it simultaneously soothe and wake her. She washed her hair and then stepped out to wrap herself in a big, white towel. She cleaned her teeth with her power toothbrush.

In her bedroom, she used her body lotion sparingly and moisturized her face with a tinted cream so she didn’t have to wear foundation while she worked. She lined her eyes with grey eyeliner and brushed a little charcoal colored mascara on the lashes, before finishing with a slick of pink lip-gloss.

Bethany hardly ever blow-dried her hair. She ran her hands through the damp strands, fanning it over her shoulders so that it would dry as she drank coffee and checked up on emails. She knew if the main laptop had been booted it would have sent a message back to the Black Agency and she’d have to explain what happened with the alerts. Fortunately, it hadn’t been booted—which was her mistake really—but would cover the missed alerts. She could file her report saying the same thing she told Jake.

“Which actually is the truth,” she said as she typed the report up. “No one need know Jake slept through an alert.”

She finished her coffee, standing in the morning sun on the low steps of her own trailer and looking across at Seth’s trailer. He hadn’t stirred yet according to the surveillance cameras. Bethany frowned a little. She got out her cell phone and called the assistant director to ask about Seth’s schedule for the day.

From his tone of voice, Bethany deduced that the AD was not happy about her checking up on the actor. Bethany explained that she didn’t want to disturb Seth. She had to fit in around his schedule and thought the AD was the best person to ask so she could do the job she was hired for to the best of her abilities.

This placated the assistant director and he emailed her Seth’s entire shooting schedule. Bethany looked quickly along it and discovered Seth would be called at 10:00 a.m. and then work until possibly three the next morning in a night-for-day shoot.

Bethany was pleased she let him continue sleeping. She glanced at her cell phone. It was already 8:45 a.m. She wondered if Seth might get breakfast before he started work. If she woke him in fifteen minutes, he could shower and grab a bite to eat.

She set the iPads to silent so Jake would not be disturbed, but left the watch program running and recording the happenings around Seth’s trailer. She set her smartphone to see the camera IP before putting it in her back pocket. Exchanging her Guardian pistol for her Smith and Wesson 642 revolver, she locked the Guardian in its special concealed compartment in Jake’s car.

* * * *

After walking over to Seth’s trailer, Bethany gave a little knock on the door. She walked quietly into his bedroom.

Seth was still sleeping. He looked gorgeous. Bethany stood in the doorway watching him for a moment or two. Suddenly the cell phone on his bedside unit chirped. Like a flock of birds, the chirping filled the bedroom. Seth sat up and looked around, startled.

Bethany watched him realize it was his cell phone, reach for it, and shut off the alarm call.

He looked at her and smiled.

“You made me sleep properly for the first time in months.”

He got out of bed. Grinning, he turned toward the bathroom. “I need to shower. Please be here when I get out.”

Bethany grinned back at him. “I will be. I hoped you could have breakfast with me.”

Seth looked back around the bathroom door before sliding it closed.

“That will be great.”