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“I've got to hand it to him. Jake is a genius at getting those shots to land. You come across as a fun, funny, and damn competent narrator.”
"What's in the other version?" Frankie asked, her brain finally catching up.
Lorena's face blanked and she looked back at the screen. "Oh, I think it's just some backup rolls…"
"Lorena. Don't bullshit me. Play the other one."
"Shit," the other woman muttered, but she still clicked open the other file.
As Frankie watched a recut of the show she'd just seen, her rage jumped from simmer to boil. The "tension triggers" she could almost understand from the viewpoint of the show. She hated that he'd put her in compromising positions, but she could see why he'd done it. But this… This lit a fire in her gut.
On the screen were most of the same shots she'd just watched, but they were interspersed and overlaid with clips and voice-overs of Dom, mansplaining the process and every "mistake" she'd made.
As the episode unwound, Frankie felt each scene cut to her father like a lash.
Lorena was no idiot. She was picking up on the tension radiating from Frankie and tried to alleviate it. “These were just insurance rolls for the production office.”
“But if they didn’t like me, these would be the other choice.”
Lorena’s voice and shoulders fell. “That’s right.”
As more of the episode played, Frankie’s worst nightmare came to life on-screen. She looked like a bumbling idiot. She knew that television often spliced together misleading clips to create a story, but all of these things had happened. She had tripped over the pile of two-by-fours, and thrown her hammer during demo only to have it bounce uselessly off the wall.
Hearing her father’s criticism overlaying the damning video solidified that kernel of doubt she’d harbored in her heart. She fought the voice in her head every day, that voice that said maybe she couldn't handle the pressure. Maybe she wasn't ready to take over the family business. She certainly didn’t need to be battling for her pride in the court of public opinion as well. The more she watched, the harder it was to keep the tears trapped inside. Her own father didn’t think she could pull this off.
He didn’t trust her skills or her judgment and had deliberately made a deal that would keep her working off her debt to him forever. Each word Dom spoke slashed her confidence and pride. It didn’t reach her heart though.
That was already shredded by Jake’s betrayal.
She’d opened herself up to him, and he’d exploited that trust.
Frankie slapped at the keyboard to make it stop and pushed away from the console.
“Where are you going?” Lorena warily leaned back in Jake’s chair.
“To go kick some asses.”
* * *
She walkedthe property hunting for Jake. Crewmembers dodged out of her way and averted their eyes. No one wanted to be the one to catch the anger that was flowing through her like hot lava. She could only imagine what her face looked like. The smashed boxes of glass tiles on the pallet that had been delivered yesterday only fueled her angry rampage.
She strode toward the event space where half of Enzo's crew was working on landscaping around the new platform patio. Jake stood next to Trina, talking quietly while she captured the physical labor that went into making a space beautiful on camera.
As Frankie passed a bit of brush they had cleared, a telltale hiss and crackle of dried leaves alerted her. She looked down just in time to see a snake slither across her path. She squeaked and jumped back a solid three feet, before grabbing a rake from one of the guys. Stunning the snake with a smack to the head, Frankie then scooped him up on the rake and launched him into the vineyards down below.
"Not fucking funny, Ryland," she yelled as she kept walking toward him. Trina now had the camera pointed firmly on her.
"Oh, come on. I didn't have anything to do with that snake." Jake laughed.
"Sure you didn't. I told you I hate snakes and all of a sudden one crosses my path while you're filming. Fuck you. I may be gullible but I'm not stupid."
"I never said you were stupid or gullible. Maybe you could stop yelling at me and tell me what set you off."
"You want to know what set me off? This bullshit." Frankie waved her arm to encompass the whole house.
“What bullshit? You’ll have to be more specific.” He actually grinned at her, as if her rage was funny.
Frankie dropped the reins on her temper and let it have its head. “Your list of bullshit is that long, huh? You need a refresher? Let’s start with this.” She chucked the rake at him, and he dodged. "What other little 'tension triggers' did you set up for me to stumble into?"
