Page 61 of Crossing the Line
The pit of photographers was every bit the hell Xavier had predicted it to be. Hairy guys in t-shirts and ball caps clamored for the Sinners to look this way and that. “Now just mother daughter.” “Now just Waverly.” Snap. Snap. Snap.
It was like watching a solar system of stars explode at the same time.
Xavier waited just off camera with Kate while Waverly turned this way and that, smiled here and then there. One of the photographers made a move to lean over the barrier hidden behind printed movie graphics forThe Dedication. “Remember me, cupcake?”
Xavier rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. Douchebag Joe had decided to make an appearance. Despite being physically hindered by the sling, his personality was still in full noxious power.
“Hey! Remember me, Waverly? You too good to look at your old pal?” Joe leaned precariously over the barrier.
Xavier took a step closer. “Just give me a reason,” he muttered under his breath.
Waverly continued to smile and pose as if Douchebag Joe didn’t exist in her universe.
Which didn’t go over well with the photographer. “Hey! Fuck you anyway! I’m sending your stupid ass my medical bills, ya fuckin’ bitch.”
Xavier stepped up just as two event security guys appeared.
“We’re going to have to ask you to leave,” said the one built like a brick shit house.
“That’s bullshit,” Douchebag Joe screeched. “This is freedom of the press!”
He leaned all the way over the barricade trying to shoot around Xavier and the other two guards. “Do not cross the barricade, sir.”
“She’s just being a cu—”
He was cut off when the skinny shadow of Arnie kicked Joe’s knee out from under him. Joe went down like a ton of bricks taking the barrier with him. He was hauled away, shouting threats of lawsuits before he could even regain his feet.
Waverly, who had seemed oblivious to the exchange, suddenly left her mark and crossed the carpet to Xavier. She stopped in front of Arnie.
“I remember you. Arnie, right?”
He nodded his shaggy head.
“Thanks for the help, Arnie,” Waverly said.
He held up the camera hesitantly. She gave him a nod and then blew him a kiss. Behind the camera, Arnie turned the color of an heirloom tomato as he grinned and snapped away.
The talent manager, a haggard looking man in a rumpled suit whose glasses kept steaming up from the sweat pouring forth from his forehead, finally signaled to Kate that it was time to clear the carpet. Kate and Xavier led the way to the first TV host. Each camera crew commandeered a tiny radius of the carpet with a camera, a host, a floor manager, a producer, and talent manager. It was pure chaos off camera, but Xavier could tell it was all par for the course with Waverly.
She breezed through two interviews with charm and grace, and on the third, Liam “surprised” her. They provided a united front on camera, just two friends proud of a project. Together they laughed off rumors of a romantic relationship, and Waverly scored points when one particular host kept pressing on that front. Waverly tugged Liam’s wife up on the elevated scrap of stage and told a behind-the-scenes anecdote about the happy couple.
They had just moved as a unit to Simon Shipley’s perch on the carpet. The pleasantries had just begun when Xavier’s team came to life in his ear.
“Suspect spotted. West side in the crowd.”
“Keep eyes on him,” Xavier ordered quietly. He gave a nod to the undercover on his right. Darius was one of Xavier’s contract employees who did surveillance work when needed. He breezed in at just under five-feet nine-inches but was built like a body builder. Darius sidled off the carpet onto the walkway that was cordoned off behind the movie posters and took off toward the call.
Kate caught Xavier’s eye and he gave her a curt nod.
“He’s on the move. Heading toward the theatre,” came the voice in Xavier’s ear. The tone was calm, blasé even. But Xavier knew every member of his team was primed and ready to go.
Something wasn’t right, Xavier’s mind scrambled for possibilities. There was no way Ganim could just stroll down the carpet and grab Waverly. He wouldn’t make it past the pit without being detained.
The sound of the explosion had him diving for Waverly. He snatched her off the stage and had her down on the ground under him in less than a second, yanking Kate and Liam’s wife down with them. “Get down,” he yelled. But his command was lost in the second explosion, this one much closer.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Panic filled the carpet as people screamed and ran. The TV cameras panned the chaos as the crowd across the street broke through the barricades to escape the acrid smoke, snarling traffic.
