“Dad,” I said with a sigh.

“Okay, so no. See, I’m learning.”

If I thought my dad would be able to do anything about this, it might be something I wanted him involved in. But I’d already talked to Remy. He didn’t believe me. Having my dad swoop in was not going to make Remy want to hire me again or give me a good reference. Plus, I had a plan.

Dancing Graves

INT. LORD LUCAS’S LAB—NIGHT

SCARLETT perches on the windowsill outside her father’s lab, the place she had seen BENJAMIN sneaking into. He pulls a small leather pouch from his belt, looks around, and dumps the contents into the vials on the table, damaging any chance one might have been the cure. Scarlett growls and he turns.

SCARLETT

You betrayed us.

BENJAMIN

No. I’m trying to help.

SCARLETT

I don’t believe you.

SCARLETT lunges at him with a rusty metal fence post and drives it through his shoulder. She stands over him as crimson blood spills onto the marble floor. EVELIN appears in the doorway and gasps. Scarlett yanks the post from Benjamin’s shoulder and turns slowly, blood dripping off the tip.

EVELIN

It’s me, Scarlett. Don’t do this.

SCARLETT advances on her.

Thirty-Four

As I pulled down the dirt road that led to the camp, I saw the first set of security guards up ahead. They were stationed at a row of barricades. I stopped, powered down my window, and waved.

“Hi, Lacey,” the one on the right said as he moved a barricade for my car to go through.

“Hi. Thanks.”

I drove through and parked in the first small lot next to a black car with duct tape on the bumper. I narrowed my eyes. I’d been in it only once, but I knew that car. It was Donavan’s. Why was he here? Especially when he should’ve been at school. I jumped out of my car and walked quickly to my trailer. He wasn’t there.

Past the trailers, before the path that led to the filming in the trees, was a small amphitheater surrounding a fire pit and stage. That’s where I saw two guys standing and talking. Grant and Donavan.

Was Donavan “interviewing” him? Did he think Grant was a suspect, after all? I looked at my phone. I was supposed to be sitting in a makeup chair right now. I sent Simone a text: Give me ten minutes.

I knocked on Amanda’s trailer door. She answered, and when she saw it was me, a hopeful expression took over her face.

“You want to help me with something?” I asked. If she was being truthful about not trying to sabotage me, she could prove it to me now by backing me up with Grant.

She hopped down the two steps and shut the door behind her. “With what?”

“Follow me.”

As we got closer to the guys, I heard Donavan speaking in slow, measured sentences. He had his notebook out and was holding his phone up too, as if he was recording the conversation. “And do you feel others have helped you get to where you are today?”

“Absolutely. I wouldn’t be here without a long list of people.”

He was conducting the interview.

Donavan’s back was to me, so Grant saw me first. He smiled. “Lacey, Amanda, hey. Say hi for the recording.”

“Hi,” I said as we reached them. I tried to catch Donavan’s eye, but he was focusing all his energy on his notebook and phone.

“You look hot, Lacey,” Grant said, and Donavan’s jaw twitched.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked.

“Your tutor wants to know about acting. He’s going to write a piece for his high school paper.”

“I just have one more question,” Donavan said.

“Okay, shoot,” Grant said.

“How would you feel if I shared the following statement on my social media?” He cleared his throat. “‘Grant James, helped by many over the years, doesn’t believe in helping others. He watched from the sidelines as his costar’s reputation got trashed’?” Donavan’s face showed no emotion. He had asked the question in the same measured calmness he had asked the one before.

Grant’s face, on the other hand, became stone.

Amanda let out a startled cough and I just stared at Donavan. I couldn’t believe he was doing this, and doing it so well. I knew it must’ve been hard for him.

“That’s a great question,” Amanda said.

Grant crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you expect me to do? I’m not exactly in a good position to help anyone else.”

“You still have millions of loyal fans,” Donavan said. “A few nice posts about Lacey online would go a long way.”

“My publicist tells me exactly what and when to post.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Grant didn’t respond, meaning Donavan was right, Grant wasn’t told what to post. At least not all the time.

“Nobody tells me when or what to post either,” Donavan said. “So I guess I know what I’ll be posting today.”

“I’m sure you and your hundred followers will find a post about me shocking.”

“Between all my platforms, I have two hundred thousand followers,” Donavan said.

“What?” I asked in shock.

“I had a review go viral,” he said. “So most of my followers are very specific ones. Ones who would appreciate this new bit of information about Grant James.”

Amanda laughed a little next to me. “Let me guess. Can I guess?”

Grant looked at her. “Am I missing something?”

“‘Grant James Goes Down in Flames,’” she said.

Grant’s head whipped back to Donavan so fast that I was surprised he didn’t black out. “That was you?”

Donavan handed his phone to me as if he knew what was coming.

I stepped in front of him. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I said to Grant.

“Are you all blackmailing me?” he asked.

“Just giving you a little motivation to be a good person,” Donavan said. “I have a different, much better statement I’d rather share with my followers: ‘Grant James breathes the life into Lacey Barnes’s career and revives his own along with it.’ Together they are power.”

“You’d say that?” Grant asked. “To your mob of Grant James haters?”

“And I would actually mean it. I could throw in something about how Lacey said you were an excellent kisser too, if you’d like.”

I almost scoffed at that, because I said nothing of the sort, but I clamped my mouth shut. Donavan was seconds away from succeeding at this.

Amanda chimed in. “Can you imagine the praise you’ll get forever if you help launch a career? Lacey will do big things after this, mark my words. And it will be because of you.”

It was obvious that everyone in this group knew that the way to appeal to Grant’s mercy was through his ego. Except him, maybe.

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Lacey,” he said. “You’re cool. It’s just that I need to prove myself with this movie, and if you don’t hold up your end, I kind of want to distance myself from you.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m not a fan of things going wrong either.” I looked at Amanda, waiting to see if she was willing to confess yet.