Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Kole dropped to his knees beside her and methodically went through her suitcase, checking to see if the stuffie had migrated somewhere else during the trip to the set. She ignored the fact that he touched her lingerie and personal things like two boxes of tampons. None of that mattered.
“Gabby? Are you sure you packed him?”
“He was the last thing I put in the suitcase. I double-checked to make sure he was in there before zipping it up like I always do. I locked it, and he was safe inside,” she said numbly, feeling tears course down her cheeks.
Gabriela held herself together only by sheer force of will. She stared into the overflowing suitcase that seemed so empty now. “I can’t function without PupPup. I can’t sleep without him.”
“I want you to call your housekeeper and have her look in your bedroom.”
She seized her phone and called. The kind woman was gone for several minutes as she looked everywhere. PupPup wasn’t in the bedroom.
“He’s not there,” Gabriela told him and sank into a chair.
Gabriela couldn’t keep her eyes from closing in grief. PupPup had slept with her for years. A present for her fourth birthday, she loved him so much.
“A child’s toy,” she said, stating the truth, sure no one would sense the depth of her pain from that description.
“A stuffie is a precious thing.”
Rage flaring, Gabriela opened her eyes to glare at him for making fun of PupPup’s disappearance. To her surprise, he looked… sad. Like a splash of cold water on the fire blazing inside her, Gabriela’s anger vanished.
Silence fell between them.
A knock on her door made Gabriela jump. Kole held a hand up and walked forward to answer the door. He returned with a thick pad of paper. “The latest version of the script, according to the young man that dropped this off. He was just handed the copies to deliver and just arrived here on his moped, so he didn’t see anything. I’ll go find out where the security office is. Lock the door behind me.”
Quickly, she sprang to her feet to follow him to the door. He cupped her face for a moment before he disappeared through the door. Gabriela locked it and returned to try to lose herself in the script changes. Her arms felt so empty. Finally, she grabbed a decorative pillow from the couch and squeezed it to her chest.
Finally able to concentrate, Gabriela immersed herself in the script. There were subtle changes, but most would be simple to memorize. She dedicated time to learning the scenes that were completely revamped. To her relief, it didn’t seem like they were back to starting at ground zero, but simply making a few targeted alterations.
Her phone buzzed, dragging her attention away, and Gabriela looked at the screen to see a message from Kole. She hopped up and opened the door for him.
“Did you find anything?” she asked.
“I found where the footage is stored.”
“Great. Could you tell who’d been inside?” she asked, hearing the hopefulness in her voice.
“Turns out, it’s stored nowhere.”
“What? They assured me the cameras were operational after the previous stuff was taken,” she said, feeling her face heat with anger.
“They’re operational. They film but it isn’t saved anywhere. The pictures display in the security office. It’s one of forty screens. If the guards don’t see it, there’s no proof.”
“That makes zero sense.”
“I agree.” Kole walked to his duffle bag and messed with the zipper for a minute before sliding it open. He pulled out a few small items and a medium-size camera lens. “I’ll record the entrance, inside and out from now on, after I change the lock to something only you and I can open.”
She moved forward to peer into his bag. It was filled with equipment. “Why didn’t they take that?” she asked.
“It’s too heavy to carry without struggling and they couldn’t get it open,” he suggested.
“Do you even have clothes in there?”
“An extra pair of jeans and a T-shirt.”
Gabriela kept her eyes on his face. No underwear? Didn’t he wear underwear? She didn’t need to know that. He was walking around with all his dangly bits, well, dangling. She pushed that mental image out of her mind.
“You have stuff in there to change a lock and you don’t have underwear?” she demanded.
“Some things are important to take care of you. Others aren’t.”
The twitch of his lips gave his amusement away. It was absolutely the last straw. She bent her knee and turned to pull off her stylish sandal. Launching it at his head with a primal shriek, she needed to hurt him as much as she was hurting inside. When he dodged the missile easily, she switched feet and threw the other one.
Kole deflected the footwear with a swipe of his arm. “Little girl. That’s enough of that.”
“Don’t call me Little girl. I don’t have a Daddy. Not even a pretend one here on set, obviously. Now, my stuffie is gone. And I just found out the people that are supposed to be protecting me have fake cameras out and no one even cares.”