HOT SET: Playing with Fidelity (A romantic suspense novel) (27 page)

P
rovidence, determined to mock them, brought the sound of multiple footsteps and loud voices only a few metres behind. Rhys and Kate had been so engrossed, they’d let a half dozen crew almost catch them.

Breaking apart and looking
obvious and guilty, a thoroughly sloshed group clomped down the slope and greeted them both heartily, Marcus and Nadia among them. Being under the influence had advantages as they had all, fortunately, missed the action. The group stayed chatting for a few minutes before heading downstream, several splashing through the creek and laughing raucously.

Rhys
and Kate watched them until the night swallowed their silhouettes.

“
Look, Rhys, thanks for listening. I’m really tired and am going to bed.” Without letting him respond, she walked quickly away, unintentionally leaving the medallion in his hand.

“
What the hell is going on!” he yelled after her.

She didn’t stop.

Their flight reached Sydney
at 7:00pm the next day. Mark was at the luggage carousel to greet Kate and she threw herself into his arms and kissed him thoroughly. Mark was pleased at her reception and they left quickly. She hadn’t spoken to Rhys all day, despite being so grateful to him for his help the night before but she just couldn’t go near him knowing how little control she had.

Rhys
watched her leave, Mark’s arm around her shoulders but he was getting attention from a photographer and fans who were pressing in for autographs. He flicked on his star personality and gave them what they wanted.

Her medallion
was in his pocket.

Mac had given everyone the weekend off and called a production meeting for 10am Monday
morning. Kate spent the weekend in bed with Mark. They only left the bedroom for food and a walk late on Sunday night for some fresh air.

They reconnected again by making love and talking. Mark’s headaches were absent and work had slowed a little, so he was relaxed. They woke
up Monday morning reassured in their love and each went their separate ways to work, happy.

This time,
Kate was early for the production meeting and everyone filed in slowly, chatting madly. Rhys came in and Kate acknowledged him with only a wave and purposely continued her conversation with Cally, the screenwriter.

Mac and Barry came in and the meeting started. He went through the day’s production notes
.

“
I won’t sugar coat this for you. We’re behind schedule, almost out of money, and we have to build sets we weren’t expecting which will take time. But, we still have a great script and an awesome team... well, the potential to be. Guys, this movie will be a hit, but if we continue like it has, it’ll be dog turd and an embarrassment. Basically, it’s up to you, all of you.

“
I want to see this movie made. Let’s make sure it does and let’s make sure it’s great.”

Fully energized, everyone left the meeting room.

Megan called Amelia on her mobile on Saturday, 13-days
after their last visit with Danny.

“
He found it.”

“
Who?”

“
Danny. He found the server but he’s staying away knowing they’ll move it again. He wants to talk.”

“
No offense Megs, but I don’t want to go back to your Aunt’s.”

“
Don’t blame you. Maybe I can get him out of the house? It does happen occasionally.”

They met two hours later at the small park behind the house. It was about a half-acre in size with six old oak trees lining each side. They were so big their enormous branches reached out to each other, forming a cosy, leafy ceiling. They sat at a picnic table, stained with bird droppings and heavily scratched by bored teenagers immortalising their current crush into the hard wood.

Amelia and Megan sat on one side and Amelia ran her finger unconsciously over the etching ‘PB 4 SV’ and wondered if they felt the same about each other as she felt for
Rhys. Danny sat opposite, looking so disconcerted being outside and fidgeted badly, fingering the HMDI flap on the side of his tablet so that it clicked repeatedly as he closed it. His white skin radiated a blinding glare where the light pinpricked him and he glanced around furtively, eying off the pigeons that cooed and waddled in ever closing circles.

“
Hate birds.”

“
They won’t hurt you, Danny,” Megan said.

“
How do you know? You can’t predict birds. Besides, ornithophobia is a recognised medical condition.”

“
It’s okay, I’ll shoo any birds away, I promise.”

“
Fine.”

Amelia was anxious for
news, “so?”

“
So, like I told Megan, I found it. But it was bigger than I thought and I’ve had to get some underground help – promised one $5K by the way...” he looked expectantly at Amelia.

“
That’s fine.”

Well, there are multiple servers, some international, but there was a repeated pattern through San Diego which makes me fairly sure the mainframe is there. It has some seriously tight encryption that’s taken me and The
Under Wizards days to bust.” He continued to finger the flap; the clicking was getting to Amelia.

“
Under Wizards?” Megan raised an eyebrow.

“
So, you got in?” Amelia said.

He smiled
slyly, “yep.”

“
And they kicked you out?”

“
Nope.”

“
How?”

“
I’ve used your friend Bill’s log in.”

“
And?”

“
The question is not what you want, it’s how much…”

“
All of it. They’re going down,” Megan quickly said.

“
I can get you photos and IP addresses of the main contributors. What are you gonna do with the info?”

“
Take it to the cops,” Amelia said.

“
You’ll have to be careful. Considering how complex their network and protections are, they’ll run. You’d be in danger, too.”

Amelia
said, “it’s fine. We’ll do it properly. We just need the info.”

“
First,” Danny said, “we’ll fix payment and I’ll hand over the thumb drive.”

“
Danny, that’s really rude,” Megan spoke.

“
It’s business.”

“
It’s fine,” Amelia said. “It’s worth it.”

“
Here,” said Danny and he pushed his tablet towards her with her bank’s internet banking log in screen showing.”

“
How’d you know where I bank?”

“
Banks are easy next to C-Group. I know your password, too… better change that, by the way. It’s too easy.”

Amelia
grumbled, “Thanks.”

She typed in her details and after changing the password, clicked into the money transfer section and typed in the numbers Danny recited to her and transferred $25,000 into his account. He checked on his smart phone, gave a grunt and
said, “okay. We’re right.”

He plugged a thumb drive into his tablet and after a minute of button pressing, handed it to Amelia.

“Your prize.”

“
You don’t pay for a prize.”

“
Well, this one you do.”

At that moment, a furiously flapping pigeon landed noisily on the table next to Danny, who emitted a piercing shriek and fell backwards off the seat, scrambling madly along the leafy dirt.

“You said you’d shoo them away!” Danny’s voice had risen two octaves.

“
Sorry Danny. Missed that one…”

He
wobbled to his feet and took off like a startled rabbit across the park, the echoes of their laughter following him.

Amelia slid the thumb drive into
the pocket on the inside of her navy, quilted leather Sass & Bide jacket.

“
Now what?” Megan asked.

“
Now, we find the right person to give it to.”

“
That thumb drive is dangerous.”

“
Yep. So we’d better do it quickly.”

It was
a Thursday morning, two weeks before completion of the film.

They’d spent the last four weeks in the studios
working 15-hour days, six days a week and it was coming together. They were canning some really great footage.

Time had been taken off for Christmas and New Years and
Rhys flew to Brisbane while Mira took a few weeks off to see her kids. Kate and Mark went to his mum’s house as usual on Christmas Day and on Boxing Day, they both jumped on a plane to visit Kate’s family for a few days.

Rhys
was reconnecting with Amelia via video chat. She couldn’t explain why, but Amelia hesitated in telling Rhys about Bill. She was desperate to unload to him, to hear his words of comfort, but the opportunity just didn’t come up. Amelia wasn’t sure how he’d react knowing she’d been a victim of rape, so to her sadness, she stayed quiet and kept the conversations light. As usual.

Back on set after New Year’s Day,
Kate and Rhys worked well together, keeping their relationship strictly professional, which wasn’t a challenge away from romance-inducing Central Australia. All was going well at work.

For
Kate, however, at home, it wasn’t.

Mark was exhausting. He swung from loving and sweet to a ranting mad man within the same
hour sometimes. She didn’t know where she stood anymore, how to act, how to treat him because nothing he did was predictable. With his beloved face contorted into an ugly mask, he picked on her food, the house cleanliness, how she dressed, how she associated with; he was emotionally abusive and cruel. Then, he was gentle, kind and considerate by making her gorgeous meals and running the bath for her, telling her frequently how much he loved her, sometimes within minutes of abusing her. It was a roller coaster.

It was obvious he needed professional help but the suggestion would infuriate him
beyond reasoning so she just tried to support him through his moods and was secretly relieved the film took up so much time.

And then, finally, it was time for the dreaded
Scene 27 – the Kiss Scene.

In the film, it
was set soon when Stephen is reunited with Isabel in camp after falling in the underground river. She’d memorised the lines, not that there were many, and Kate was waiting on the stage feeling just a little nervous, but hiding it by chatting to Jane. She hadn’t told Mark what was happening that day, didn’t feel it was necessary considering how cranky he’d been that morning. This time it was over her using the last of the cereal. There were days it was intolerable.

Rhys
was a half-hour late and Mac was peering at his watch pointedly. Mira was still on holidays so Frankie was trying to find him. Rhys and Kate were supposed to be blocking the scene and she wanted to rehearse kissing him before the camera got involved. People were standing in groups mumbling, everything was done and now they were waiting for the star. Kate looked around again and breathed out noisily.

S
uddenly, the stage door was flung open and Rhys hurried in with some loud apologies about traffic and tunnels. Rolling eyes, people moved into position as he crossed the floor. Kate stood with her hands on her hips watching him approach, ready to rib him for holding up production.

He was flustered
and in his haste, as he’d predicted to Kate all those months before, his brain had in fact disengaged from his feet. He hurried past a coil of heavy black cable and caught his toe on it.

W
ith a yelp, he crashed forward head first into a pile of thick cardboard props leaning against the back of a stage. He rolled onto his back just as the pile teetered precariously… then tipped like dominos. Rhys held up his hands uselessly as mountains of set backgrounds crashed heavily on him, hiding him completely under board, cardboard, backing foam, a broom and finally in slower motion, a plastic plant on a trellis. All that remained of Rhys was a shoe.

It was the funniest thing
Kate had ever seen.

Laughter
exploded from her. She watched as the pile wriggled and curse words spit from under it, making her laugh harder and she held her sides as tears slid down her cheeks. Stage hands rushed over to help him and the boards parted and Rhys’s face appeared through the gap like a prairie dog out of its hole. He saw Kate and the entire room laughing at him, scowled then yelled orders to get the crap off him and a moment later was standing amidst a destroyed set looking both highly embarrassed and majorly pissed off. By this time Kate was sitting on the floor almost comatose and unable to breathe.

Rhys
clomped over to her, a large piece of duct tape flapping from one elbow and foam dust coating his hair, face and shoulders.

“
That wasn’t funny.”

His response was even more laughter and
Kate curled up at his feet trying so hard to gain some semblance of control.

“
That wasn’t funny,” he repeated.

“
Oh God, yes it was.” She wiped her eyes.

“
Can we get going please? And thanks for the help by the way.”

“
Any time!”

Mac was
choking and trying to look authoritative. He had to avoid looking at Rhys to do it.

Cough
. “Right, let’s get rehearsals going then.” Splutter.

Rhys
held out a hand to Kate helping her to her feet. She took deep breaths and started to control it but then took one look at him and started all over again. Rhys wasn’t impressed.

He
stalked into the fake tent while dusting down this hair and jacket and ripped the sticky tape off. He lay down and Kate took position outside still trying to recover.

She took a deep breath, lifted the tent flap, saw him on the bed and lost it again
. Seeing her doubled over, Rhys let out an annoyed grunt.

Fortunately
, no film was being used because it took another couple of minutes for Kate to calm down and she was standing outside the tent again ready to go. She walked in and let out a breath.

“
Stephen?”

Rhys
struggled into an upright position.

“
You’re alive!” and she broke into a little sob then stepped up on a small block to get her closer to Rhys’s height. Her face changed to show her anguish.

“
I thought… I thought that when you went over the edge…” she covered her face with her hands.

“
Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Rhys stood from the bed and let out a noisy breath as he straightened to display his ‘pain’. He went to her and wrapped his arms around her.

“
It was nothing more than a water slide. I’m okay.”

“
But… I thought I’d lost you,” and she lifted her head in preparation for the kiss, took one look at his face… and burst out into a loud guffaw and a very unladylike snort.

Rhys
looked away.

“
Oh Rhys, you should have seen it. That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“
Glad I can be a source of amusement for you.”

“
Oh, that was so good.”

“
Have you thought I may have been hurt?”

“
Nah, your tough head can handle a bit of cardboard. The icing on the cake was the plant. It fell in slow motion. It couldn’t have been better choreographed if you’d tried.” She wiped her eyes.

They heard Mac’s voice.

“Nice you two think it’s so funny but we’re out of time. We’ll just have to run it with the blocks you’ve done.”

Kate
’s laughter stopped dead. No rehearsal?

“
Into costumes everybody.”

Shit
.

An hour later, both Kate and Rhys were in costume and in position. Kate paused outside the tent getting into character, all laughter gone. “Ready, old girl?” she whispered. She took a deep breath and exhaled then looked to the left to Mac who nodded Barry called out the preparation commands.

“
ACTION!”

She stepped through the canvas gap.

She looked across the small space to Rhys lying on a cot on the opposite corner of the room and let out a noisy breath.

“
Stephen?”

Rhys
lifted himself onto his elbows with a theatrical grimace. He was wearing an unbuttoned blue shirt, the bandages that covered his wound were wound tightly around his torso, a spot of ‘blood’ on his left side where the bullet supposedly went in. His hair was loose with a few strands lying across his brow and his sideburns.

“
Izzy.”

“
You’re alive!” she broke into a little sob.

Kate
stepped onto the little block and covered her face with her hands.

“
I thought… I thought that when you went over the edge…”

“
Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Rhys stood and groaned, placing a hand on his bandages before moving awkwardly towards Kate and he put his arms around her. He pressed her head to his shoulder. A camera on a beam swung over their heads and came in close.

“
It was nothing more than a water slide. I’m okay.”

Kate
lifted her head as the script commanded. Rhys leant in a bit closer.

She caught his eyes and t
he bottom of her stomach hit the floor. This was it, it was about to happen.

Then, i
t was as though they were back in the desert, standing on the bank of the river wrapped in each other’s arms. All the carefully repressed feelings of attraction that time and distance had suppressed returned in that split second of closeness. The world outside their embrace fogged out.

She said,
“I thought… I thought I’d lost you.”

He had lowered his head
further and their faces were only a few centimetres apart. She stared paralysed at his eyes. The world stopped. Her head emptied. Her breath caught and her legs disappeared.

Rhys
started to say something before realising he’d forgotten his lines. “I…”

Stuff it
.

And he dropped his head
towards her lips, so eager to finally kiss her. But Kate, reacting out of instinct, she bent backwards away from his mouth. Rhys followed her and both stopped.

Mac, seeing
Kate’s reaction, opened his mouth to call “cut!”, when the word halted in his throat.

Kate
and Rhys were standing as though frozen in time. She was still bent slightly backwards at the waist, her long, curly hair hanging like a veil behind her. Rhys was leaning forward, his left hand on her back, the other on her hip. Their lower limbs were almost pressed together, their lips slightly parted and barely an inch distant, their breath mingling, eyes open, holding each other’s gaze. They were a graceful, leaning tower captured in the moment. The room was silent; 40 people watched, enthralled.

Then
, there was an almost imperceptible movement and somehow Kate and Rhys met in the middle. And their lips caught. And held.

The camera
s rolled on.

Rhys held her, fully in character, and waited for the measured pause, just like the script said. Then Kate lifted her head and her eyes locked into his.

His mouth fil
led with water and he swallowed, parting his lips involuntarily. The only thought in his head was how beautiful she looked just at that moment. A bolt of chemistry slithered through his bloodstream, making the fine hairs on his back shiver and lust hit his stomach. He stared down at her, holding her eyes and the unparalleled desire to kiss her overcame all the professionalism he’d spent years cultivating, all the respect he felt for her, all the people standing there watching them and most of all, the camera capturing the scene with its greedy black eye. Nothing else existed.

She moved away but he followed like a puppet, his entire focus on her
. He could feel her breath carrying across his lips, he could smell a feminine, soapy scent and all he could see was her eyes. His head swam, his hands went clammy and he moved forward and their lips caught. And held.

His mind registered two words before totally shutting down:

“Ho-ly shit”.

Rhys and Kate held their lips locked together for a few seconds, eyes closed, feeling the gentle, heady pressure of soft skin against soft skin. Neither could believe for a moment they were finally kissing and as though to test the theory, with perfect timing, both opened their mouths and deepened the caress, pulling their entire body into contact, the sensation exquisite. Like the undulating tide, they moved their mouths gently over each other’s, connecting wholly.

Rhys
’s hand left Kate’s hip and moved slowly up her arm and with both hands, cupped her face, tilting her head backwards so he could take even more from her mouth. His hands moved into her hair, tangling with the black strands at the back of her head, holding her in place. His mind turned into a fog with the driving need to be so near her, he was within her skin.