Book Six, Chapter 59: Tangles

Emmett’s celebration over conquering his eternal tormentor disappeared the moment we went back On-Screen. Now he was the cool, calm, and calculated leader of the blackmailers again.

Miss Kitty took the axe and started swinging it, just teasing Daphne, and there was nothing that could be done about it. She had nowhere to run.

She grabbed for her handbag, where she kept her weapons.

“None of that,” Emmett said. “Drop it over the edge.”

Daphne looked afraid, but more than that, she looked furious, like she was more upset about being bested than she was about her death. But in the end, she did comply and dropped her handbag over the edge.

“No hard feelings,” Emmett said.

Miss Kitty swung the axe again. This time it wasn’t just intimidation or a tease. This time, she took blood.

Not much blood. It was a cut across Daphne’s hand, a defensive wound. Daphne cried out in pain, but it was more like the sound a wounded lioness would make than an injured woman.

I locked eyes with Kimberly. It was time to implement my plan. As much as I was rooting for Emmett, this story wasn’t about him.

I reached over and held up my hand, and she gave me the gun that Emmett had thrown into the water several scenes earlier, the weapon with a trope on it that would force the user to miss every shot but would guarantee Incapacitation from fear.

Situationally useful, but mostly kind of a pain. Guns are great for intimidation, but missing every shot would make your character look like a doofus.

That was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I held the gun firmly, since there were enemies around. I could see where the cameras were pointed. We were all On-Screen, but there were at least seven cameras that were relevant to the current scene.

Well, I couldn’t see the cameras. I could see that some areas and viewing perspectives had cinematic lighting, and others didn’t. It was pretty obvious after a little practice figuring out where the cameras were, which is how I knew that a camera was picking me up as Carousel prepared for what I was about to do. It was so perfectly coordinated.

I ran around to the other side of the altercation near the roof access door, holding the gun up and pointing it at the blackmailers.

“Stop,” I said. “Get away from her.”

I was humiliated just doing this, but I did my best to perform as a very confused man in love.

“Don’t you understand who she is or what she is?” Emmett screamed. “She is not Rachel Hutchins, don’t you get that? By her own admission, she killed those poor people, Rachel’s parents. What do you think you’re doing?”

He had a really good point, but I was doing a thing.

“I don’t care what she did. I don’t care, Daphne,” I said. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said, weaker than she normally did, but that was because of her injuries.

With my Moxie working and hers failing completely now, I thought I would finally be able to catch her in a lie. But as she said, “I love you,” my Moxie said she was telling the truth.

So she really was crazy, and not just insane.

“Drop the axe,” I said. I knew the gun couldn’t hit them. Emmett knew the gun couldn’t hit them. But the audience didn’t, and our characters wouldn’t. He had thrown this gun across the room before. It had seemed like he wanted us to have it then. Now I understood why. If he had a gun in his hands, Daphne might have sliced and diced him. Without the gun, she left him to die of poison. Clever.

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I bet he was regretting that now.

I stared at Emmett, wondering if he would command his wife to drop the axe, or if he would find some excuse not to, maybe play a brave boy.

We were locked in a staring contest. He was trying to be tough and angry, but I was trying to be desperate and dumb in love.

“Dumb” beats “tough” in a game of chicken nine times out of ten, and Emmett was smart enough to know that.

“Go ahead and drop it,” Emmett said.

“But honeydew, we have her. She killed Bambi, she tried to kill all of us,” Desiree said. I couldn’t remember if that was the first line I had heard her speak since the reveal, but her delivery was very interesting. The way she spoke, the way she intonated, she was playing someone who was mentally unstable, too.

It made sense from her tropes. Perhaps she was the wild card of the group.

“Sweetheart, just listen to me,” Emmett said. “It will all be okay.”