Page 66 of Camera Stays On

“What? No.” Bea pushed her away.

Sawyer came into the room, startling me momentarily. “She tried to run and got caught in a bear trap.”

“Run?” Darius shook his head in confusion. Sawyer didn’t elaborate.

“Well, can we blame her?” Juliet snarled. “There’s a murderer sleeping upstairs with us. I’d try to run too if I didn’t have protection.” Her eyes drifted to Sawyer, and her anger slid off her face, replaced with a look of pure satisfaction. Had they finally hooked up?

I doubted it. Sawyer still hadn’t changed and continued to track dirt everywhere. He looked like he’d rolled around in the woods.

“It doesn’t matter how it happened. We just need to get her cleaned up and mended.”

“Bro, she needs a fucking hospital. You can see the bone,” Mick argued. “Why did you fuck with our cars?”

“We need to finish the movie,” Sawyer said, not acknowledging the extent of Bea’s injuries. He turned and glared at me. “I didn’t want more trips to the mall when we’re on a deadline.”

“Fuck the movie, man!” Mick yelled and pulled back his fist. Sawyer pulled the gun from his waistband.

Mick froze, his eyes widening.

“I said, fix her up here,” Sawyer ordered, his voice deadpan. Mick swallowed, then dropped his arm.

“Right, okay.” Mick disappeared, returning a few minutes later with towels and a bowl of water. Juliet took them from him and began cleaning Bea up. She grimaced. Her face was flushed, and she was shivering despite the sweat pouring from her body.

“We need to get her something to reduce her temp,” I said, forcing myself to table Sawyer’s snide remark about Andi and me going shopping as the reason he tore our vehicles apart. Everyone was trying to help, even Gavin. They propped her feet, cut her pants, and were attempting to keep her comfortable as Juliet and Mick worked on the wound. I left the room to go look for pills.

Handing off a bottle of fever reducer I’d found in the kitchen to Mick, I excused myself to go find Andi.

“She’s fine. I saw her this morning. Stay down here and let her rest.” Sawyer caught me in the hall and nodded toward the living room. He put his hand on his hip in warning and begrudgingly, I returned to Bea.

He didn’t join me, and sometime later, when Bea asked for water, I saw through the kitchen window that he’d gone outside. Dressed in a black tuxedo, he was dragging three jumbo-sized black trash bags to the firepit, where last night he’d forced us—again, by gunpoint—to burn Lux’s body. I stared for a long moment. What the fuck was going on?

Remembering my task, I got the water and hurried back.

“We need her out!” Juliet screeched as I handed Bea the glass. “She’s gonna kill us all.”

“Andi’s not even here right now,” Darius argued.

“You think she set the trap?” Mick scoffed. No one was in the mood for Juliet’s bullshit.

“Of course I do. She can’t let the public find out she murdered Lux. We all knew Bea was gonna try to run. Why do you think she hasn’t shown her face yet this morning? I know she can hear us!” she screamed so loud there was no doubt anyone upstairs heard.

“I’m here,” a whisper came from the hall. Andi’s voice—a mere whimper, followed by sniffling—caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look toward the door. Slow, heavy steps reverberated across the floors as Andi stepped in, dressed in her wedding dress.

Her eyes were glued to the floor, but slowly lifted. Her expression was grim.

“I think Sawyer still wants us to make the movie.”

It took me a moment to absorb her words. Make the movie? Someone was dead. I glanced around the room. The silence was deafening. Whether it was from confusion or fury, I was unsure.

She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, and the loud sniffle seemed to break everyone from their trances.

“What would make you think that?” Darius spoke, but his words came out small and unsure. We knew that Sawyer had trapped us here. There were no running vehicles and no phones or internet. The only way out was to go through the woods, which we now knew was filled with traps.

That was why she’d put the dress on, I realized. She knew this just as much as everyone else. We weren’t getting out until we did as he said.

We were going to make the movie.

Chapter 28