Page 89 of Romance Is Dead

Natasha stood at the base of the tree, closing her eyes like she could rewind time if she concentrated hard enough.

“Hey, look at me,” Teddy said, shaking my shoulder. “Look at me. Are you sure you’re ok?” He looked frantic, like he couldn’t believe that I’d survived the ordeal unscathed.

“Yes,” I assured him. “I’m ok.”

He nodded, pulling me to his chest and refusing to let me go.

It took the paramedics forever to show up. Audrey wouldn’t stop whimpering, Natasha was panicking—pacing up and down the lawn, loudly wondering what was taking them so long—and Mara kept asking everyone if she could get them anything, as though she was a hostess at the worst party in the history of parties.

Meanwhile, I spent the wait staring at the limb, lying cracked and ruined on the ground. I couldn’t stop thinking about how on earth the set designers would be able to fix it. Or if they’d be able to fix it. I think I fixated on these questions to avoid thinking about how close I’d come to being crushed to death. If it weren’t for Teddy, I wouldn’t be alive.

The ambulance finally arrived, pulling onto the back lawn with its lights still flashing despite there being no vehicles within a ten-mile radius. The driver, a burly man with red hair and a graying beard, hopped out.

“We’re going to have to start giving you guys frequent flier miles.” He chuckled. “Who are we looking at? I heard we have an ankle injury.”

I glared at him. “Probably the woman over there clutching her foot and crying.”

“Copy that.” The two of them unloaded a stretcher and laid it on the ground next to Audrey before taking a look at her ankle.

“Looks like it’s broken, I’m afraid.” The medics helped Audrey onto the stretcher. “We’ll have to take her in for X-rays and fit her with a cast once the swelling goes down. She’ll be feeling good as new in no time.”

“Nothing ever takes ‘no time,’” Natasha snapped. “How long, exactly, until she’s back here filming?”

The medics hoisted Audrey up to prepare to load her into the ambulance.

“I don’t really know,” the medic with red hair said. “But usually it takes six to eight weeks to heal from a break like this.”

Natasha cursed under her breath, but it was nothing compared to Audrey’s reaction. She sat bolt upright, throwing the medics off balance as they struggled to carry her into the ambulance.

“Excuse me?” she said, her accent slipping as she gripped the sides of the stretcher. “Are you serious? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Mara and Natasha froze, staring at Audrey as they registered the sudden shift in her voice. Audrey’s eyes widened as she caught herself, but not before one of the medics noticed as well. He was a young, sandy-haired man who looked like he’d be at home in any college frat house if he wasn’t at work, and his face lit up at her words.

“Hey! Are you Addie Abrams?” He squinted down at her, nearly dropping the stretcher in the process. “Man, you don’t look like her, but you sure do sound like her.”

I gasped. So that’s where I knew Audrey from. Suddenly, I knew exactly why she’d looked familiar to me on the first day of filming.

A few years ago, I’d been asked to star inFound Footage, a film spoofing the uber-popular horror genre. I turned it down, and thank God for that. It wanted to be the next Scary Movie franchise, but instead it had bombed—hard. They’d found debut actress Addie Abrams to fill the leading role, but even though she’d clearly given it her all, the movie was a total failure. The press were particularly hard on Addie, making fun of everything from her weight to the shape of her nose to the way she said the word “bag.”

It was awful.

A few months after the movie premiered, I’d seen a few gossip items about her being seen leaving a plastic surgeon’s office covered in bandages. Clearly, the media coverage had got to her. I’d hoped she would rebound from the fiasco, but then. . . nothing. I never saw her name again.

Now I knew why. She must have changed her appearance, given herself a new name, and adopted an accent in an attempt to start over in Hollywood. Which seemed like an extreme reaction. But the poor girl had been through so much. That must be what she had been hiding this whole time.

A secret that would be a very good motive for murder if it meant keeping her true identity under wraps.

Watching the ambulance disappear down the path and into the trees, new questions wormed their way through my mind. We’d solved the mystery of what Audrey was hiding, but had our killer just been whisked off to safety?

Teddy insisted on driving me back to the hotel. We were quiet on the drive, adrenaline ebbing from the shock of the accident and Audrey’s departure under the wail of sirens. I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep until Teddy gently shook me awake.

As we rode the elevator to our floor and stepped into the hall, Teddy reached for my elbow, pulling me to a stop before I could go any farther.

“Stay in my room tonight.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

He held up a hand. “Not like that. Just. . . I’d feel a lot better if you were with me and I knew you were safe.”

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