Yet, when she reached out, caressed my cheek in soft affection and said, “I worry about you, Griffin Stone,” I knew I’d made the right decision. She was a good woman. Few people might think that, doing what she did, but I saw her heart. And I thought it was a good one. Much better than mine.
“Send me what you have.”
She nodded and stepped back. “I’ll send over the last tape once we’ve manipulated it. Along with the others.”
Always taking care of her people.
“Are you going to drop them?” she asked. “I just want to know what I’m facing here.”
“I won’t fuck you over. I’m sending them to Rita Steadman and if that last tape doesn’t make her want to leave the prick, I’ll blackmail her. I’ll tell her those tapes will go public. But I won’t do it.”
At least … I didn’t think I would.
I didn’t want to screw over Dakota, but I wasn’t sure what I was capable of anymore.
Dakota seemed assured, though, and left me to it.
When the front door closed behind her, I slumped against the armchair. I should think of my next move with Steadman. If I couldn’t get anything out of him through Dakota’s, then I needed another way in. I’d start with his personal life.
Wife, gone. And hopefully she’d take half of everything he had in the divorce.
What next, though?
Jane’s voice whispered in my mind. “I love you, Ash.”
I couldn’t get her out of my head.
I needed her out of my head so I could concentrate.
Instead, I heard her whisper again. “I love you so much, Jamie. Keep going. I want this.”
I groaned and closed my eyes. If I let myself, I could drown in the memories.
18
JANE
It was so hot, the asphalt within the studio lot had a haze over it. The air outside was dry and thick, causing sweat to bead across my skin. Despite the heat, I hurried across the lot with a fresh cup of hot coffee in my hand. Coffee was a necessity of life, after all.
Behind me was a massive hangar on a studio lot within the grounds of one of the six majors: Chimera Studios. Inside that hangar were several soundstages, with multiple sets I’d helped design for Patel’s musical.
Butterflies flapped around like crazy in my belly as I hurried toward my car. I’d been at the lot since 5:00 a.m., making sure the sets were ready for the first day of filming the next day. Patel arrived not too long after, which surprised me considering he was probably hungover. It was just a pop-in visit to see how things were going.
Now that he was gone, I had an hour for lunch, and I was taking it before someone stopped me—
“Margot!” a voice called across the lot.
Damn.
I turned toward the hangar. Luke, Patel’s PA, stood in the doorway waving me over. Grumbling under my breath, I hurried back across the lot and stepped inside. Sliding my sunglasses up into my hair, I smirked at the way Luke bounced on his feet as if readying to take off on his next mission. I swear to God, he made me feel old; the kid had so much energy.
“Sandy wants you.”
Sandy was the production designer, Vale was the construction coordinator and Joe was the the head of the art department. Sandy and I worked closely together and delegated work to Vale and Joe.
Pushing aside my irritation, I nodded. “Where is he?”
“Second soundstage.”
The first stage we passed was one of several sets for a prison interior. The fake prison felt pretty real as I walked past the visitors’ room. It would. I’d helped design it based on my time spent in the visitation room at the state prison. It hadn’t been easy working on that set. In fact, I’d fought back a lot of painful memories.
“Margot!” Sandy called from the second stage. It was bigger and hosted several prison cells. The production designer stood next to my assistant, Lea. “We’ve got this old poster of Kate Upton in Berrio’s cell, but Leo says it should be in Pax’s.”
“It’s Pax’s!” I called back. “It was in Pax’s this morning. What is it doing in Berrio’s?” What the hell?
“Someone’s been messing around with the set! They’ve moved things. I don’t have time for this shit. Can you come over here and sort this out?”
“It’s my lunch break. Lea knows what she’s doing.” I was all about giving my trust to the assistants in the art department, since that’s where