AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterFifteen
Adam rolled over in bed and peered at the alarm clock. Almost ten. He was accustomed to keeping strange hours on a shoot—he stayed up most of the night, slept in the morning, and went to work in the afternoon—but he’d never shared his schedule with someone else.
Now, he found himself thinking about Bee first thing and wondering if she was awake yet. He was tempted to text her and see if he could pick her up and drive her to work—for no other reason than he didn’t want to wait for her to get to the library before he could see her again.
He couldn’t wait to finish tonight’s shoot so he could be alone with her. So he could watch her study the captain’s letters and journals, her lips pursed in thought and a little crease between her eyebrows.
So he could hear her smooth voice floating in the darkness. So he could sit across from her at the candlelit table as she took all her little containers out of the dinner basket—including some special dessert that she’d made just for him.
He pushed to the side of the bed, dragging his hands through his hair. He was dreading leaving Bliss Cove, but he was also already planning to get back up here to see her again. LA was only five hours away, so he could easily drive back when they were finishing the postproduction work.
If she’d want him to.
He got to his feet and stretched, scanning the messy trailer. Piles of clothes, papers, dirty dishes. Given what he knew about Bee and the library, he’d bet her apartment was as neat as a pin. Just like her.
Grabbing a garbage bag, he stuffed the old pizza box and fast-food wrappers inside, then tossed in the contents of the trash bins and hauled the bag out to the dumpster. He washed and dried the dishes, scrubbed the counters, and stacked all of his papers and notebooks.
He cleaned the bathroom, collected the dirty clothes in a laundry bag for washing, and changed the sheets and towels. He put all of his books back on the shelves, taking extra time to organize them in alphabetical order, and vacuumed the carpet.
By the time he was done, his mother could have used the trailer as a medical exam room. It was about as nondescript too—unlike Constantine, who’d hired a feng shui expert to decorate the interior of his own trailer, Adam had always thought of his trailer as nothing more than a mobile hotel room.
His phone buzzed with a call from Dan, the show’s producer. After an exchange of greetings, Dan got to the point. “Clyde texted that he’s not happy about you embarrassing him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He said you contradicted him in front of his fans,” Dan explained. “Said itput him in an awkward positionor some crap like that. Made him look bad.”
Adam groaned. “Are you kidding me?”
“Look, you know Constantine,” Dan said. “He’s jealous of the attention you’ve been getting since you started appearing on camera—speaking of which, we have a stack of new fan mail waiting in the office for you—and while you’re great for the show, we can’t deal with Constantine being both pissy and jealous. So do whatever you need to do to keep him happy. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
He assured the producer that the rest of the shoot was going according to plan before ending the call. Dan was right—and Adam really didn’t need a pissy Clyde to complicate things further. He’d get back on the star’s good side as soon as he could.
He showered, shaved, and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt before heading outside. Although he always had work he could do, he suspected Bee wasn’t at the library yet. And he didn’t like the idea of being there without her.
As he headed out to his car, his phone buzzed with a call from his father.
His stomach knotted. He hadn’t spoken with his father in months. Bruce Powers had been more than just “disappointed” by Adam’s fall. He’d been outright disgusted.
“Has anyone contacted you about Thornwall yet?” Bruce asked.
“No.” Adam frowned. “Why? Laura told me the other day that George Klein accused Thornwall of stealing his data.”
“It’s a lot more than that,” Bruce said, and there was a note of relish in his voice that Adam had never heard before. “Three others have come forward saying that Thornwall had threatened them if they didn’t give him access to their work, and rumors are that even Thornwall’s own colleagues are about to turn against him. The university has put him on indefinite leave. Which means you should expect some calls and emails soon.”
Adam tightened his grip on the phone. He’d been called in front of the disciplinary board, but he’d resigned before the start of any official investigations or hearings.
It would have been his word against Thornwall’s, and he’d known his parents didn’t want the Powers name tangled up in legal proceedings. So he’d forced himself to resign.
“You think I’ll have to give a statement again?” he asked his father. “Or to testify at a hearing?”
“Possibly. I’ve fielded a few calls about you, people asking what you’re doing now and where you’re living. Keep an eye on your messages in case anyone contacts you. Looks like Thornwall is in for a shitshow, which might help clean you off.”
Adam bit back a surge of irritation. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“That’s not how it looked. But this could be your only chance to get out of the hole you’re in, so pay attention. Don’t miss a call or email.”
