Wild Action (10 page)

“But—”

“What do you think, Nick?” she snapped. “That I’m going to cheat and give him the wrong command or something?”

“Of course not. I know what the signal to run looks
like. We were practicing it with him yesterday, remember?”

“Yes. And I also remember that he was running for you.”

“Only now and then.”

“Well, I’ll bet now and then is better than he’s going to do for me.” She looked at the bear and firmly said, “Attila, run.”

Nick watched her hand carefully, and she
did give
the broad run signal she’d taught him.

Attila sat down and stared at the marshmallows she was holding.

“Bad bear.
Stand up.”

Attila stood, but reluctantly.

“Good boy. Now I want you to run,” she said, giving him the signal again.

This time he yawned.

“All right, Nick,” she said, stepping back. “You have a try.”

“Attila,” he said, waving his hand through the air,
“run.”

“Woof,” Attila said.

“See? He didn’t listen to me a damn bit better than he did to you.”

“Maybe that’s because you sounded so half-hearted. Besides, I had
two
shots at it.”

Nick looked back at the bear. “You’re a bad boy, Attila. Now let’s try again.
Run.”

Attila eyed the marshmallows for half a second, then broke into a loping run.

Carly smiled.

Nick swore to himself.

Attila kept loping along for a minute, then circled around and ran back for his treats.

T
HE GROCERIES HAD BEEN
delivered while they were out scouting locations, and with Nick upstairs changing into dry clothes, Carly rapidly began making lunch.

Before calling in the order yesterday, she’d asked him what his favorite foods were and added some of them to her list. At the moment, she was glad she had.

When he’d started talking about not working with Attila anymore, she’d almost had a stroke on the spot. If he decided he’d had enough and packed his bag, she’d really be up the creek, so she was going to do anything she could to make him a happy camper.

Well, not quite
anything,
she mentally corrected herself. She’d been giving things a lot of thought, and her resolve was back to full strength. Even though walking away from him after that hug last night was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, she
had
done it. Which proved he wasn’t completely irresistible. She just had to keep reminding herself of that and she’d be fine around him.

Lunch ready, she fed the cats and the Marx brothers. Just as she was filling the last dog-food bowl, she heard Nick’s footsteps on the stairs. A moment later Crackers greeted him.

“Hi, Crackers,” he said as she glanced over.

He’d changed into his cowboy boots, dry jeans and another of his cling-to-every-muscle T-shirts. This one was the same warm shade of gray as his eyes. She had trouble forcing her gaze from him, which warned her that maybe she wouldn’t be exactly fine around him. But she
would
cope.

“Pastrami on rye,” she said, gesturing toward the
sandwiches. “With a side of dill pickles and black olives.”

When he smiled, she felt decidedly relieved. He’d apparently left his anger upstairs with his wet clothes.

“Add a beer to that and I’ll love you forever.”

His words made her heart skip a beat. Quickly, she turned to get a beer from the fridge, telling herself that words were all they were.

“Want to eat on the porch?” she suggested. It was somehow easier to ignore all those lean muscles when the two of them weren’t in the confines of a room.

“Sure. The dogs would probably enjoy some more fresh air.”

“No, I’ll bet they’d rather stay here and finish their lunch. They know Crackers likes their kibble, and they hate finding feathers in it.”

Following Nick out of the house, she decided that as soon as they were done with lunch she’d remind him he’d promised to give her the rest of his crash course in detecting. But just as she was taking the last bite of her sandwich, he said, “Looks like we’ve got company.”

She glanced down the drive and law Royce headed in the direction of the house, the two boys tagging along after him.

“Maybe I’d better go and put Crackers in his cage,” she said anxiously.

“No, we won’t let the kids out of our sight this time.”

When she looked along the drive at Royce again, an idea popped into her head. “Nick?” She glanced back at him. “We’re going to have to try talking to our prime suspects, right? I mean, that’s a logical move, isn’t it? To see if we can get any clues?”

He nodded. “It’s a logical move, all right, but after that run-in I had with Garth Richards last night I’m hardly going to be his favorite person. Which probably means I’m not Sarina’s, either.”

“Well,
I
didn’t put Garth in his place. So why don’t I get Royce to introduce me to them? See where that gets us?”

“Ahh…yeah. Good thinking.”

She wondered why, if it was good thinking, he didn’t look very happy about it. But there wasn’t much time to wonder before Royce and the boys reached the porch.

“The kids have been getting a little stir-crazy in the camp,” he told them. “So they were wondering if they could ride the ponies. They said it’s something they haven’t done before.”

“Except for, like, at birthday parties,” Kyle said.

“I once did a commercial where I rode a pony,” Brock told them. “But when I was just a kid. And I mostly just sat on it.”

“Well…” Carly said.

“I wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on them,” Royce offered.

“Or
you
could,” Kyle suggested, eyeing Nick’s well-worn cowboy boots. “You could help us with the ponies ‘cuz you’re a real cowboy, aren’t you?”

“No, he’s not,” Brock said. “He’s a bear trainer.”

“Well, actually, I
am
from out West,” Nick said.

“See, I told you.” Kyle rabbit-punched Brock’s arm. “When we were in the house, I saw a cowboy hat hangin’ in there.”

“Nick?” Carly murmured, leaning closer so only he would hear. “You remember how to saddle a horse?”

“Of course.”

“Then this is perfect,” she whispered. “You watch the kids, and I’ll get Royce to introduce me to Sarina and Garth.”

Nick didn’t look thrilled about baby-sitting, so before he could object, she turned to Royce and said, “Why don’t we leave the cowboy in charge of Kyle and Brock while you give me a tour of the camp? I really haven’t seen much of it.”

“That all right with you boys?” Royce asked.

“Sure,” they said in unison.

“Can you rope cows and stuff?” Kyle asked Nick.

“Well, we don’t have any cows here, but if we did…”

“You could rope the bear,” Brock was suggesting as Carly and Royce started down the drive.

“I’d better admit I want more than just a tour of the camp,” she said as they walked.

“Oh?”

“Uh-huh. My sister’s a huge Garth Richards fan. And she and my parents will be coming here for a few days while you’re filming. So I thought it would be nice if I met Garth before they arrived and could introduce Lisa to him.”

“Well, the way Garth is, I wouldn’t want to go knocking on their trailer door. We could wander by the kitchen, though. He and Sarina were still having lunch when I left.”

Carly nodded, wondering if Chef Raffaello had recovered from Rocky’s visit. When she and Nick had left with the coon last night, Raffaello had been starting to clean up his kitchen and muttering something about raccoon stew.

He didn’t look
quite
so surly today, she decided as
they reached the kitchen. He was standing behind the buffet table outside the trailer and actually gave her a curt nod.

“They’ve left,” Royce told her, surveying the tables. “Raffaello?” he added. “Did you notice if Sarina and Garth went back to their trailer after lunch?”

“No, they went to feed the bear.”

“What?” Carly said, her heart suddenly hammering.

“Yeah. Garth asked me for some meat and they took off with it. I just hope Goodie doesn’t find out I gave away a roast or he’ll kill me.

“But Garth’s a method actor.” The chef paused, rolling his eyes to give them his opinion of that “And he said the only way he could get himself in tune with the bear’s emotional makeup was to spend some time with it.”

“Carly?” Royce said as she turned and started to run.

“What’s wrong?” he called after her.

But she couldn’t stop to explain. Not when their prime suspects might be in the process of poisoning Attila.

H
ALFWAY DOWN THE HILL
to Attila’s field, Carly slowed to a fast walk and told herself everything was all right Attila was puddling around at the edge of his pond, while Jonathan was talking to Sarina and Garth.

At least, Carly assumed the woman was Sarina— she was so covered up it was hard to be sure. Apparently she took the threat of UV rays very seriously, because she was wearing a huge floppy hat, big sunglasses and a flowing caftan.

“Carly, what on earth’s going on?”

She hadn’t realized Royce had come after her, but he was suddenly beside her. So what did she tell him?

Nick had said not to tell
anyone
there was a saboteur on the loose, but surely they could trust someone she’d known for years. And even though Royce was a bit of a gossip, she knew he could keep a secret if he wanted to.

“Are you just going to leave me in the dark?” he pressed.

Since she couldn’t think of an even half-plausible lie, she said, “If I tell you, it absolutely, positively can’t go any further.”

“All right,” he agreed slowly.

“This movie isn’t jinxed. Somebody’s deliberately trying to sabotage it.”

“Get out.”

“It’s true. Nick and I have proof. And I’ve been worried that the saboteur might try to hurt one of the animals, so when Raffaello said that Garth was going to feed Attila…”

“You didn’t really think Garth would…Oh, come on, there’s no way Sarina would go along with hurting an animal. But you figure
they’re
the ones trying to screw up the filming?”

They were getting too close to the field to continue the conversation, so she said, “I’ll fill you in later, okay?”

When Jonathan glanced over and spotted her, she saw that he was managing to look starstruck, worried and relieved all at the same time.

“Carly?” he said. “Mr. Richards and Ms. Westlake wanted to give Attila a treat, but I told them I wasn’t supposed to let anyone get within ten feet of the fence and that nobody who wasn’t working for you was to feed him anything. Did I do right?”

“You did exactly what you were supposed to,” she said, her words making the worry disappear from his face.

“We haven’t
officially
met,” she added, turning to Garth and Sarina and putting on her best smile.

Royce jumped in with, “This is Carly Dumont. She owns half of Wild Action.”

Sarina took off her sunglasses and produced a smile of her own—one that Carly figured would make it into Jonathan’s dreams tonight. “Yes, of course. We know who Carly is. And it’s nice to
officially
meet you.”

“Very
nice,” Garth said. “And you’re obviously the lady who can help me. I want to study your bear for a bit—kind of get under his skin, figuratively speaking. And I just assumed giving him a treat would be all right.”

“Well, I’m afraid we feed Attila a very strict diet,” she said, even though it was an outrageous lie.

When Jonathan looked at her strangely, she gave a little shake of her head, warning him not to say anything.

“That means you should take the roast back to the chef, dear,” Sarina said.

“Oh, yes, I suppose.”

“Too bad you didn’t bring raw chicken,” Jonathan said. “Carly might have let you feed him that ‘cuz it’s his favorite treat.”

She barely heard Jonathan’s words. She was too busy mentally replaying the exchange between Garth and Sarina.

They were going to take the roast back to the chef. So if they
were
the saboteurs, at least it didn’t look as if they’d be extending their efforts to include the animals.

Surely if they’d poisoned the meat, they’d never let it be served to people. But she still intended to keep a careful watch on the animals until she and Nick figured out for sure who was behind all the trouble.

Trying to force away the thought that they might not be able to, she glanced at Garth—and discovered he was looking expectantly at Royce. Then Royce said, “I’ll take it back for you,” and she realized Garth felt that returning the roast himself was beneath him.

“Why, thanks. That would be very nice of you."
He handed Royce the plastic bag he’d been holding, then focused on Carly. “What’s that
thing
for?” he asked, pointing at the cave.

“For Attila to hibernate in.”

“Really? He hibernates even though he’s not living in the wild?”

“Well, when it’s winter in the wild, it’s winter in his field, too.”

“And does he use it for anything else?” Sarina asked.

“Oh, he sometimes naps in it on hot days. It’s relatively cool inside.”

“Fascinating,” Garth said. “This is so fascinating. Carly, could I possibly impose on you to stay here with Sarina and me for a while? So I can ask you more questions?”

“Sure. I’d be happy to help out” And, of course, it would give her a chance to ask a few questions of her own. She just wished she’d had time to talk to Nick about exactly what she should ask.

As Royce started back up the hill, she said, “I didn’t realize either of you were actually in any scenes with the bear.” They certainly hadn’t been in
her
copy of the script

“Oh, we’re not,” Garth said. “Only the children are. But I like to immerse myself in the whole gestalt of any movie I star in. It’s the way I develop the character I’m playing.”

“Yes, someone told me you were a method actor. It made me wonder why you’d want to work with a director like Jay. One who’s into improvisation, I mean.”

“This film was a chance for us to work together,”
Sarina said before Garth could reply. “It’s never easy to find scripts with good roles for both of us.”

“Ahh. And a director who improvises has no problem with method actors?”

“We all have to make compromises in this business,” Sarina said. “Sometimes you even agree to work with people you detest because the part is right. And in this case, for Jay, it was worth compromising to get an actor of Garth’s caliber.”

When she smiled adoringly at her husband, Carly smiled, too. But she already had a sinking feeling that hanging around while Garth “developed his character” would prove nothing but a waste of time.

C
ARLY EVENTUALLY ESCAPED
from Garth Richards’s questioning and got back to the house—hot, depressed about her failure to learn anything from the stars and dying for a shower.

But when she neared the top of the stairs she could hear the shower was occupied. The water was running, and above its gurgle Nick was singing—a cowboy song, no less. Being put in charge of the pony rides had apparently taken him back to his childhood summers on that ranch.

She stood listening to him, her mood improving slightly. Attila wasn’t the only one who responded to Nick’s deep voice. And he even sang on key.

When he stopped and turned off the water, she hurried into her own room. If she looked the way she felt, she didn’t want him seeing her. Oh, she knew she shouldn’t give a darn about how she looked to her
business
partner. But she couldn’t help the fact that she did.

After finding some clean underwear, shorts and a
top, she waited until he’d had time to get out of the bathroom. But she didn’t wait
quite
long enough.

She opened her. door when he was only halfway down the hall to his room—and only half dressed.

“Holy smokes!” he said, stopping in his tracks. “Don’t you know better than to sneak up on people?”

“I wasn’t sneaking up,” she protested, trying not to stare at his bare chest. But those hard muscles were impossible to ignore. And he had the sexiest dark chest hair—not too much or too little, but just right.

She made herself look down, which turned out to be a bad move. He hadn’t yet gotten around to zipping his jeans. When she forced her gaze all the way to the floor, she discovered that even his bare feet were sexy.

“You just get back from your afternoon with
Royce?”

She met his gaze again, and it suddenly dawned on her that he was jealous. The realization started her blood racing. She had absolutely no romantic interest in Royce Chalmers, but Nick couldn’t know that. And if he was jealous, it meant…

Oh, rats, it was too darn hot up here to think
what
it meant. Except that maybe she’d better wait until later to tell him she’d confided in Royce about the sabotage.

“You were gone for hours, you know.”

“Yes, I know. But I wasn’t with Royce much of the time. I…oh, I’ve got to tell you what happened, but can it wait until after I have a shower?”

Nick grinned. “Too bad you weren’t ten minutes earlier. We could have saved on water.”

“Very funny,” she said, marching past him and
doing her best to look cool. But it was awfully hard to manage when the thought of showering with him had started her insides positively steaming.

As Carly closed the bathroom door, Nick mentally kicked himself. What the hell was the matter with him? The woman wasn’t interested. At least, if she was, she was showing no intention of doing anything about it. So why the hell was he making juvenile insinuations?

He’d never acted like a lovesick adolescent around any other woman. At least, not since he’d actually
been
a lovesick adolescent So why was he doing it with Carly? Maybe he
did
find her attractive, but…

“Hell,” he muttered. “Find her attractive?” Her queen-of-understatement routine must have rubbed off on him. The truth was that, somewhere along the way, he’d developed an almost constant craving for her.

Regardless of that, he was damn well going to stop being an idiot around her. Tugging on a T-shirt, he headed downstairs—where there wouldn’t be the sound of the shower to make him imagine her naked.

“Treat!” Crackers demanded the moment he walked into the kitchen.

He got some sunflower seeds from the cupboard and put them in a bowl. Then, since either Harpo or Groucho or Chico—Zeppo was the only one he had a positive ID on—was panting a mile a minute, he put down fresh water.

By the time he got around to getting the jug of iced tea and a beer out of the fridge, Carly had appeared.

Her hair was wet and hanging loose. It would have given her that innocent look she sometimes had except for the fact she was wearing another pair of
shorts that would stop traffic and a sleeveless shirt he hoped she’d button a little higher if old Royce showed up again.

That was something else that never happened to him with other women. He wasn’t the jealous type, but his blood boiled every time he saw the way Royce looked at her.

She smiled, and he erased all thoughts of the cameraman from his mind.

“I could use about a dozen ice cubes in that tea,” she said.

He dug a couple out from the freezer, then followed her onto the porch. The Marx brothers immediately found shady spots on the lawn and got busy sleeping. Dogs, he’d discovered, were big sleepers.

“So?” he said after taking a swig of beer. “Did you meet Sarina and Garth?”

“Oh, Nick, I not only met them, I spent the entire afternoon with them. But it did us no good at all.”

He listened as she proceeded to tell him the whole story.

“And after all that time,” she concluded, “I have no more idea whether they’re really our saboteurs than I did last night. It was like I got handed an opportunity on a platter and completely blew it.”

“No, you didn’t blow it. In fact, it sounds as if you did everything right. When you thought Attila might be in danger, you went straight to check on him. And when you had the chance to spend time with Garth and Sarina, you grabbed it.”

“But I didn’t learn anything.”

“Well, you could hardly expect they’d say, ‘You know, we hate Jay so much that we’re trying to ruin this movie.’”

“No, of course not. But when I asked them leading questions, I couldn’t tell whether their answers were the truth or lies.”

“Hey, they’re actors. They make their living by being convincing liars. So if it
is
them…”

“Yes?”

He shook his head. “It makes things a little tricky, that’s all.”

“So what do we do?”

“Wait and watch. And if there are any more incidents, we try to find out who was behind them.”

“You think there might
not
be any more?”

“It’s possible.” He finished off his beer, then sat watching her while she mulled that over.

She didn’t look convinced there was even a chance, which probably meant her detective instincts were pretty good. Unless their saboteur decided he was at risk of getting caught, why would he stop?

“There’s something else I have to tell you,” she said at last. “I told Royce that the ‘jinx’ was actually someone trying to sabotage the movie. And that Sarina and Garth are our prime suspects.”

“I thought we weren’t going to tell anyone,” Nick said, trying to keep his annoyance from showing. He didn’t like the fact that he was jealous of Royce, and he sure as hell didn’t want Carly to realize he was.

“Well, when I got so upset about the roast, he knew something was up. And when he asked me what, I couldn’t think of any way to avoid telling him.

“But what about
your
afternoon?” she added quickly. “What did you do after the boys had their pony ride?”

“Nothing. Just came back and had my shower.”

“No, I mean, they couldn’t have been riding for all that time, so…”

“Yeah, they were. They were having a ball, and I hadn’t seen you come back to the house, so I just let them keep at it. We went down to the camp, and their mothers took pictures of them on the ponies. Then I let them ride along the perimeter of the woods.”

He paused, noticing Carly’s worried expression. “What? I didn’t let them gallop the ponies or anything. Hell, they could hardly stay in the saddles, let alone
go
faster than a walk.”

“No, I knew you’d make sure the ponies were fine. But what about Kyle and Brock? How did they seem when they dismounted?”

“Oh, a little weak in the knees, but that never lasts. I could tell they’re really into the acting stuff, though. When they headed back to the camp, they were trying to outdo each other walking bowlegged.”