Live Love Rewind: The Three Lives of Leah Preston (24 page)

“Try to make things work.”

On her way to Danny’s trailer, Leah passed the company’s huge water tank. Somewhere inside that gleaming square was a nineteen-foot long mechanical monster, engineered to foster nightmares for today’s movie-goers and for generations to come.

But only if I can get my own personal monster to behave
, she thought.

The actor’s immaculate black-and-tan motor home sat at the end of a dirt road. Large and expensive, it was out of place in this marshland. Considering its cost, it would have been out of place almost anywhere in Tilton County.

Leah knocked on the door. Wearing sandals and a white, cotton bathrobe, Danny opened the door. Even dressed as some kind of trailer park lothario, he exuded sex appeal. Tanned and muscular, she could easily imagine legions of women swooning when he appeared on screen.

After all, they’d never experienced the disappointment of an intimate moment with the man.

Before he could speak, she said, “You win.”

His lips curled in triumph.

“Pack your bags, you’re off the movie,” Leah continued. “Jake Gyllenhaal will be here Tuesday for the reshoot.”

Her threat didn’t faze him in the least.

“You want to come in, sugar,” Danny asked, his accent as sweet as Southern honey, “or you want to stay outside on those steps, making up stories?”

He retreated inside, expecting Leah to follow him. When she did, she found him sitting beside the living room’s big front window, his bathrobe threatening to separate at the waist.

Danny said, “Jake isn’t coming, Jimmy isn’t ordering plane tickets, and Bradley Cooper has other plans, too. Given enough time, you might be able to find a name a little further down the totem pole but there isn’t enough time, is there? You don’t have the coin to start from scratch.”

“You don’t have any idea of our financial situation.”

“I beg to differ, love. Gil shared all.” He smirked. “Trying to appeal to my better side, he told me production was about to grind to a halt. Looking me square in the eyes, he told me there were a lot of crew members who’d be going without a paycheck.”

The actor cocked his head, as if wondering why he should care.

“You’re killing your career, Danny.”

“Doing my best to save it.
Jaws
in alligator boots is so Spielberg. The world has moved on.”

Leah placed her purse on the kitchenette’s granite countertop. Shifting her body to block his view, she reached inside the bag. When she turned toward him again, she couldn’t help but notice the opulence around her.

Most of her team members were bunking two-to-the-room at a Stanton Grove economy motel. Gil had stayed there, too. The only people not making a similar sacrifice were the director and the movie’s primary stars.

When she faced him, Danny was standing, his bathrobe open. His body was exposed and his penis was erect.

“You were a pretty good fuck last time,” he said. “At least, I think it was you. You give me a ride, maybe I’ll show up for tomorrow’s call.”

Before she could stop him, Danny pulled her to him. Reaching into one of the bathrobe’s deep pockets, he pulled out a cell phone and took a picture of the two of them. Him, standing tall and aroused, and her, looking shocked.

She didn’t want to think about why he might want such a photo. She couldn’t believe she’d ever found him attractive.

“Can I get a rain check, Danny?” Leah said. “I was drunk when I was at your house. I’m not certain I can pretend to be interested when I’m sober.”

The actor scowled at her.

From outside, Leah heard the crunch of tires rolling over rock. Red flashing lights filled the trailer’s window.

She said, “You might want to get yourself together. I think the cops are here.”

Chapter Sixteen

Tanner’s knock rattled the trailer door. Peeking through the window slats, Danny tied his bathrobe closed.

Leah stepped in beside him. “It’s the sheriff.”

“You know who this is?” Without waiting for Leah to respond, he said, “Another fan boy with a badge. These Mississippi cow-kickers love
King and Country
. They’ve got straw sticking out of their hair but every hick cop in the state somehow thinks he’s the real Chris Stark.”

“Do you see this guy? He doesn’t look like an autograph collector.”

“Watch and learn.” He opened the trailer door. “Can I help you, friend?”

“You Danny Kucera?” Tanner asked.

Comparing the men, Leah was ashamed she’d ever seen a similarity between them. Tanner was a grown-up, too mature to play games with his life. Danny was a prettier, less impressive, boy toy version of the man in front of him.

To Tanner, Danny said, “The one and only. Let me borrow your pen and I’ll give you the sig to prove it.”

“My office is investigating a complaint, Mr. Kucera,” Tanner said. “Someone working here said they smelled the aroma of marijuana coming from your living quarters.”

Danny’s self-satisfied smile disappeared. “Are you serious?”

“I’d like to come in and look around.”

“You have a warrant?”

Leah knew it wouldn’t matter if Tanner could magically produce a warrant to search the trailer. This far from Stanton Grove, he lacked any legal authority to proceed.

But Danny didn’t know that.

“Do I need a warrant, sir?” Tanner asked.

“Which means, no, you don’t have one. Sorry, Deputy Dawg, it isn’t happening.”

“Sheriff. Sheriff Boyd.”

“Whoop-de-fucking-do. You climb back in your four-door while I call my lawyer. But don’t you worry, tin badge. By the time you get your paperwork in order, everything here will be spic and span.”

Putting a finger to Danny’s lips, Leah silenced him. She said, “Mr. Kucera stays here but he doesn’t hold the lease on the trailer. It belongs to me and my production company.”

“May I come in?” Tanner asked.

“Of course. Mr. Kucera has nothing to hide.”

Betrayal written over his face, Danny shifted aside as Tanner entered the motor home. Resting his hands on his gun belt, the sheriff surveyed his surroundings. “Nice digs.”

Looking comically underdressed, Danny trailed behind the other man as he stalked through the building. Opening drawers, Tanner began searching through his belongings.

“You can’t do that,” Danny protested.

Tanner looked at Leah for permission. She nodded her head.

“I’m not saying I haven’t smoked a little weed now and then,” Danny said. “I got a little high a few times but so what? I’m out.”

In the kitchen, Tanner pulled open a cherry wood utensil drawer. “Aha.” Triumphantly, he lifted Leah’s oregano baggie into the air.

Instead of being afraid, Danny looked irritated. “The make-up girl held out on me. She swore she’d rolled the last of it.”

Tanner asked him, “You know the penalty for marijuana use in Mississippi?”

“For what’s in that bag? Three, maybe four ounces? You bet I do.”

Leah’s heart sank.

“For what you’re holding, I might be given a fine,” Danny said. “Probably not, though. It’s a misdemeanor, tops. If we go to court, my lawyer will stand in front of a judge, not me.”

“Yeah…well….”

Leah said, “Check his bathrobe pocket, Tanner.”

“Tanner? You know this badge?”

Tanner brought out Danny’s cell phone.

“That’s mine.” Danny reached for it but the law officer held a hand to his chest, keeping him at bay.

“Check the photos,” Leah said.

Thumbing through the photos in the phone’s memory, Tanner’s expression darkened. “What’s this?”

“I was just having fun,” Danny said.

“You think this is fun?” There was nothing comical on Tanner’s face. He turned the screen, revealing the latest picture. “With my fiancée? Standing there with your dick out?”

Danny’s mouth snapped shut. 

“He exposed himself to me,” Leah said. “I didn’t want him to but he did. I came in to talk to him and there he was, naked.”

A timid tap sounded outside of the trailer door.

Leah asked, “What’s the penalty for indecent exposure?”

“Hey, Danny?” Sounding oddly subdued, Clinton LeForte waited on the outside steps.  “Leah? Have you guys patched things up?”

“Jail time is going to be the least of his problems,” Tanner said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Danny asked.

Releasing his gun belt, Tanner set it on a padded bench. He unbuttoned the blue shirt with its badge and emblems. “You stepped way over the line.”

“Come on, man,” the actor said, a quaver in his voice.

From outside, LeForte said, “Because...ah, because the entire crew’s waiting at the tank. If we could go ahead with the next scene...just, ah, a few establishing shots with you, Danny, in and out of the water, I promise....”

“Step outside, Leah,” Tanner said. His fists were clenched and the muscles on his forearms filled the short sleeves of his undershirt. “I don’t want you in here for this.”

“Coming, Clinton!” Danny cried, slipping ahead of Leah and onto the trailer’s landing. His bathrobe flapped as he hurried to take the director’s arm. “Let’s finish this damned picture. I want to go home.”

Tanner started after him, stopping only when Leah blocked his path. “Slow down, tiger. Don’t break my star.”

“Just a little.”

When she refused to move, his shoulders slumped. Tanner took a deep breath, calming himself.

Leah said, “I can think of something to do that’s much more fun.”

*

From
To Protect and Service
:

I felt something bite me on the shoulder, hard. The sting was so sharp, so unexpected, it lifted me out of my sleep.

A mottled brown and nasty-looking insect was sitting on my skin, drinking my blood. I took a sloppy swing at it. It lifted into flight, buzzing in irritation, before disappearing into the Cypress trees surrounding the swamp.

The
swamp
?

Right the first time. The goddamned swamp. Sonsev’s men had dumped me there, naked and drugged.

My arm was curled around a chunk of rotting timber, an unexpected lifeline in this piece of nowhere. I had no memory of how I’d found this chunk of wood, no idea how I’d kept myself from drowning.

Survival instincts, I guessed.

Black, brackish water licked at my lower body. From my last little adventure in this part of the world, I imagined my legs were covered with leeches. I didn’t have the strength or desire to find out if I was right.

For now, it was the least of my mysteries.

The last thing I remembered, I was crouched in the forest behind the Russian’s compound. It was dark, the Southern kind of dark, the sky covered with clouds and offering no hint of stars or any suggestion of the moon. My night vision goggles had a built-in infrared illuminator or I’d have been blind.

I’d heard the snap of a twig behind me and everything stopped, memory included.

Somebody had hit me but who? Gregor or Schatz? Someone else?

Once I was unconscious, why had my attacker let me live? Sonsev had made it clear, I was to be killed on sight. Gregor had already tried to shoot me. Schatz had tried to cut my throat. If he’d used his revolver, I’d have been dead but Schatz loved to wield the blade.

I felt for my Bowie knife but it was gone. I wondered if the German had it. Schatz may have murdered his uncle, raped his half-sister, and swindled his parents out of their home and savings, but those were family issues. There was no denying, the man knew the value of a good knife.

Once I got out of here, I was going to have to get it back.

I heard a soft splash of water has something nudged through the surface of the marsh. When I turned around, I saw the black eyes of a nightmare.

Papa Logarto was swimming toward me. He was on the hunt.

Nineteen-foot long, he was bigger than most of his kind and possibly the smartest alligator in the history of the world. The meanest, too, from what I’d learned.

Finding him was one of the reasons I’d come to Mississippi in the first place.

At this moment, he was the likeliest reason I’d never leave.

*

Sitting on the roof of the star’s trailer, Leah and Tanner had an impressive view of the water tank. As the mechanical alligator rose out of the water, the stuntman launched himself at its mouth.

Standing behind the director’s platform, Danny peeked in their direction. Leah waved his cell phone at him.

Tanner nodded at the stuntman in the water. “Give me a chance, I could do that.”

“Would you want to?”