“Are you even listening to me?” she asked, her tone somewhere between anger and tears.
She winked with the eye the uniformed men couldn’t see from their vantage.
Och.
Broch smirked.
Clever girl. Ah ken whit yer up tae.
He raised a hand and glowered at her. “Wifie, shut yer mouth afore ye feel the back o’ mah haun.”
Catriona turned her head as he watched her squelch a laugh. The line he’d used he’d heard watching Braveheart. Catriona thought the film would make him feel at home and he’d watched it six times.
He felt his cheeks grow hot at the memory. It still made him uncomfortable she’d caught him crying over the murder of William Wallace’s wife.
Bit t’was sae sad—
Catriona tugged on his shirt and brought him back to the present.
“Oh, big man. Does it make you feel tough hitting women?” She swung at him, punching his chest with the side of her fist.
Ouch.
He grabbed her by both arms and roared. “Ye shrew!”
“Hey!” The smaller armed man stepped toward them and, without taking his gaze from Catriona, Broch grabbed the end of the man’s rifle and jerked it from his hands. Abruptly changing direction, he swung the butt of the weapon, splintering it against the side of the man’s head. It broke in to long thin strips and he held the flimsy piece remaining in his hand, fascinated.
That’s odd.
Catriona hiked up her dress and jerked her gun from the homemade lace holster on her thigh.
Broch’s tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth.
That micht be the sexiest thing ah’ve ever seen.
Catriona trained her weapon on the remaining gunman. The man dropped his rifle to the floor, threw up his hands and yelled out.
“Konrad!”
The sound of the weapon sounded hollow as it struck the floor. Broch looked at the hunk of rifle remaining in his hand and realized it was made of a material Catriona had introduced him to soon after his arrival.
Plastic.
“Whoa, wait, whoa, whoa.” Konrad pushed his way through the crowd toward Catriona.
“Cat, stop, put down the gun.”
Catriona scowled at the hunk of broken plastic in Broch’s hand and lowered her own gun. She turned to Konrad as he appeared beside her.
“This was a stunt,” she said matter-of-factly, but he could see her anger simmering behind the deceptive serenity of her words.
“I didn’t sign up for this,” said the standing uniformed man, staring at his fallen friend.
Konrad panted, out of breath. “Yes, it was a stunt. They’re actors.” He turned and held his hands over his head. “They’re actors, everyone. False alarm. A little theatre gone wrong. Nothing to worry about. I had a little adventure planned for you, but it appears I forgot to tell the studio’s security team.”
A ripple of nervous laughter ran through the crowd and the piped-in music returned. The crowd murmured and returned to their cocktails.
Catriona rubbed her temples. “Forget the security team. Now it’s going to involve the studio’s legal team.”
Konrad looked at the man on the ground. “Did you kill him?”
Broch leaned down and slapped the unconscious actor’s face. The man groaned.
“Na.” Broch grabbed the man’s hand and hoisted him to his feet.
Catriona studied the cut on the side of the man’s forehead. “You’re okay. It isn’t bad.”
The man put his hand over the wound, scowling at Konrad. “You didn’t pay us enough for this shit.”
Konrad grimaced. “I’ll make it up to you.”
A woman screamed from the back of the room. “There’s a man on the floor in there!”
Konrad glanced in that direction and then caught Catriona’s eye. “There’s a third guy coming from there.”
Catriona sighed and tugged Konrad’s sleeve. “With me.”
Broch, Catriona and Konrad made their way through the crowd until they reached the panicked woman on the opposite side of the room. She stood outside a door painted to look like part of the wall. The fact that it had been cracked open ruined its camouflage.
“It’s okay, it’s all fake,” said Catriona to the woman. She tapped Konrad’s arm. “Tell her.”
The woman continued. “But I really think he’s dead. I peeked in there after the man took the girls—”
Catriona spun to face Konrad. “Took the girls?”
Konrad offered a lopsided grin. “He was supposed to take Jessica and a random.”
“Jessica?”
“Jessica Scout. The actress who plays the second victim.”
“So she’s in on this stunt?”
He nodded.
Broch opened the false door. A man dressed in black assault garb lay on the ground of a thin hallway.
He squatted down and felt the man’s neck with his fingers.
Nothing. He pressed harder, thinking he must be wrong, but found no sign of life.
“He’s dead.” His fingers moved to a hole in the chest of the man’s padded jacket. The area around it was damp. “Stabbed ah’d say.”
Standing, he felt something sticky on the fingertips he’d used to balance beside the man. He glanced at them to find them red. Squatting again, he located a small pool of blood beside the man. The man’s hand rested in it like an island.
He lifted the man’s wrist to show Catriona the pinky had been snipped clean away.
Catriona gaped and turned to Konrad. “Is this part of your stunt?”
Konrad shook his head, his eyes wide. “No. I swear. This isn’t me.”
Mason appeared and pushed past the others to peer inside the door. Broch watched the blood drain from the boy’s face as he spotted the actor’s mangled hand.
“Close the door,” said Catriona.
Chapter Twelve
Rune walked to the curb outside Maddie’s house and put his hands on his hips. He had a plan. He just wasn’t sure how he was going to accomplish it or how he was going to get
