Page 104 of Jace 4Ever
“Let’s not call the PD just yet,” he said. “If they hear this is mob-related they’ll stop a private protection company. Even if it is full of former cops and spies. Just let them go in. Text me the number. I’ll get them in touch with you directly. I’m getting on the first plane out of here tonight. I’m on my way to the airport. Can you get gone?”
“Yes.” I stood from the cot. “Yes, I’ll get back to Johannesburg ASAP.”
“Good. I know we’re both a full day away, but we can call some of the other guys to take over. Chase and Marcus will be good on point if we need them.”
“Okay. My plane has Wi-Fi, so I can always take a Skype.”
“Get going.”
“Shit, Smoke. There’s a detective on this case. He might be good to help us with this. I don’t think he would interfere with the security company if we told him.”
“All right, well. Let’s make that call when we get some information about this. Jace is probably just fine and sound asleep in his bed.”
“Good point,” I said. “I just talked to him before I went to sleep.”
“Excellent. We aren’t going to worry him until it’s necessary.”
“Deal. See you there.”
After hanging up with him, I quickly packed the footlocker, throwing on regular clothes and rolling up my sleeping bag and tucking everything I might need into a backpack. I headed over to the motor pool and found the night manager watching his phone.
“Darshan,” I called.
The man flustered and nearly dropped the phone. I didn’t care if he was watching porn or K-Pop. “Mister Powers. Sir. How can I help you?”
“I need a car to Johannesburg. Like yesterday. If you have a helicopter hiding somewhere, I’ll take that and fly myself.”
“No. No cars. We have another whole day of shooting.” Tom emerged from behind a tree.
“Were you waiting for someone to try and leave?” I asked.
“I knew you’d try it. You can’t go. You’re under contractual obligation to finish this shoot.”
“I am. I am also under a personal obligation to my family and this trumps your shoot and your erased footage. I’m done with this shit, Tom. You have jerked all of us around from the get-go and now I need to get gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere, Nelson. You’re the star of this film and you have a critical part tomorrow.”
“I need to be back in New York because there’s is a fucking hit out on my fiancé. I need to get there and get him safe, get him away from this. I’m sorry that your movie isn’t going to be done, but I’ll get back to you when I know that he’s safe.”
“Call the cops—”
“I’m not going to do that, Tom. I’m just not. I need to see this through and get this sorted. He’s more important to me than just about anything else on this planet.”
“I’ll ruin you.” He folded his arms.
I laughed. It was slightly out of control and hysterical, but it came from my very center. “You’re going to try and ruin Nelson fucking Powers. Really? You think you can do that? I have one of the most successful franchises to my name and a string of amazing films behind me. You could be in that list, Tom. You could be. But you just had to go and erase that shoot, and fuck over every single person in your crew. Everyone. We all want to be elsewhere, we all had plans to be elsewhere. Reshoots should be brief and local. Not dragging our asses a full day from where we were and what we were doing. You can try to ruin me, or anyone else on this shoot, but the only thing you’re doing is ruining yourself.”
He folded his arms. “I’ll call the guild.”
“You do that,” I said. “You go right ahead and do that.”
I started to walk toward the cars in the pool, but Tom grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “No. You’re not leaving. You can’t—You’re not allowed.”
“I can’t?”
He tripped on his words. “You can’t go. I won’t get the, I mean I won’t let you.”
I stared straight at him. “You knew about the hit. You’re in on it.”
