Page 50 of Secrets in the Deep

“So you couldn’t—I don’t know—call or text to let me know you were okay?”

“Obviously not.” Did the woman have amnesia?

Her mother’s jaw dropped. “What has gotten into you these last few weeks? You’re usually so…”

“Obedient?” Emily stepped back outside and headed toward the costume trailer. Would her mother follow her there too?

“Careful,” her mother corrected, the woman indeed following her. “And kind. And…I don’t know. Just…Emily.”

So, in other words, obedient.

“It’s Ryan, isn’t it?” her mother huffed. “That man is doing exactly what he did last time. Leading you astray.”

She spun toward her mother. “This may come as a surprise to a woman who already knows everything, but no, Ryan is not thereason I can barely look at you right now. It’syou. It’s because of whatyoudid.”

“You’re still hung up on that phone thing? It was five years ago.”

“You think the fact that time has passed makes what you did okay?”

“I think the fact that you wouldn’t have achieved a fraction of the same success if Ihadn’tinterfered makes it okay.”

Unbelievable. This woman was unbelievable. “Nothing could ever make what you did okay, and thefactthat you don’t understand that is the real problem here. I’m going into the costume trailer.Don’tfollow me.”

“Emily—”

“Bye, Mom.”

Her mother growled and turned before storming away.

Shewas angry? Really? Argh, Emily wanted to scream. She was about to walk up the steps when loud voices behind the trailer had her pausing.

“You want me to ask the studio to pause production? Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m not crazy. Your main actor got chased through the woods with a knife.”

Ryan…

Roscoe laughed. “Preston didn’t get chased through the woods with a damn knife. He was drunk and high! The idiot hallucinated.”

“Boys.”

Emily frowned at the third, unfamiliar voice. Slowly, she stepped around the trailer to see Ryan, Zac, Roscoe, and, according to his badge, the town sheriff.

The sheriff lifted his hands. “Ryan, you get no say in whether they keep to his schedule. If the studio wants to continue shooting, that’s their choice.”

“Even if we don’t think it’s safe?” Ryan growled.

“Yes.”

Ryan’s gaze suddenly cut across to Emily.

She gasped and stepped back behind the trailer.

Was Ryan just being cautious? Or did he really think Preston had been attacked in the woods last night?

12

Ryan leaned back on the couch and ran his fingers through his hair. Fuck, he was tired.