Page 34 of The Small-Town Seduction Plan

I fling the front door open. “Get the fuck away from the house!” I roar. I grab the guy by the back of his collar, and drag him away from the house.

“Get your hands off me!” he protests, flailing. “This is assault!”

“Then call the sheriff, and tell him I’ll see him at poker night.”

I hurl the idiot through the gate, and send him stumbling into the street. The rest of them have their cameras out flashing, so I circle my truck, reaching in back to grab a little surprise for them.

My chainsaw.

I rip the throttle, sending the blade grinding to life. “Any other of you scumbags want to try your luck?” I holler, crossing back to Avery’s crowded front gate, with the saw screeching in my hands.

The group takes one look at me and scatters.

“He’s crazy!” someone yells, racing down the lane.

“Damn right I am!” I yell. “And I’m only getting crazier with you buzzing around. So you better stay the fuck away!”

9

AVERY

Has Duke lost his mind?

I watch through the peephole in disbelief as he waves that chainsaw around, sending the paparazzi fleeing. But his unhinged psycho killer routine works. Everyone piles in their cars, and hightails it out of there, some of them racing away so fast, they leave sweaters and backpacks abandoned on the ground.

Then, when the road outside the cottage is finally empty, Duke calmly stows away the chainsaw, get in his truck, and drives away like nothing happened.

There’s silence.

I catch my breath, reeling.

What the hell just happened?

I wander back through the house, dazed. First, Duke shows up out of nowhere. I was braced for more angry accusations and blame, but instead, he actually seemed sympathetic: helping me out with my makeshift privacy screens.

Catching me in his strong, muscular arms when I fell…

I shake my head. I have got to stop thinking about that man’s arms. Even if we seem to have a momentary truce against our common enemy (aka, the paparazzi), that doesn’t mean anything’s changed. He still thinks I’m a vapid Hollywood princess – and I’m in no hurry to forgive all his arrogant insults, even if I do feel bad for landing him in the tabloid spotlight with me.

But suggesting we actually go through with Quinn’s crazy fake-dating scheme…?

He doesn’t mean it, I decide. He can’t. He was probably just feeling sorry for me, and got caught up, thinking like he was some knight in shining armor. Once he’s had time to actually think it through, he’ll take the offer back in a heartbeat.

Still, I can’t say I’m not a little grateful, now his chainsaw antics have given me a window to get out of the house. I’m not about to waste my chance, so I quickly go grab my keys and my biggest pair of sunglasses, then hit the road: driving up the coast towards the tip of the Cape.

It feels good to get away.

I’ve been cooped up all morning, hiding in the dark, but now the sun is shining bright through the windscreen, and salty sea wind whips through my hair. I feel myself relax a little with every mile, and even though I’ve still got one eye on the rearview mirror making sure I’m not being followed, by the time I reach the narrow cobbled streets of Provincetown, I’m ready to put this morning behind me, and focus on something else for a while.

Like my next big starring role.

Even though my agent made it clear he doesn’t think I’m good enough to land a prestigious indie part, I haven’t forgotten about Madeline Marrone, the director I want to work with. I really loved her breakout movie, a small indie movie about a teenage girl on a road trip to Vegas to find her birth mom, and after clicking around through interviews and news announcements, I found that she’s planning to make a historical period movie next, a biopic about Amelia Earhart.

I’m determined to land the role. Or at least, get in front of her for an audition. So, I head straight for the local bookstore, to find out everything there is to know about the icon. But when I walk in, I come face-to-face with a magazine rack of tabloids.

And my face staring out from the cover pages.

‘Small-town Seduction!’

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