Page 59 of Holy Sinner

“He means that we found evidence that someone poured that blood out in the forest last night, and that also means that the blood they found in Jane’s room could have come from the same jug.”

Alana’s eyes round. “Oh, holy fucking shit. So that means that Jane could still, I mean,” she lowers her voice to barely a whisper, like she’s afraid someone might overhear us even though the only sounds around us are of birds chirping and the whistle of the wind through the trees, “Jane could still be alive?”

Grant lifts a shoulder like he doesn’t really care if Jane is alive or not. “She could be, but that’s not the point with what we found. Someone is trying to make it look like Kit did this.”

“H-how do you know that?” I ask, hating the quiver in my voice. I thought I was different, stronger and maybe for the time that it took to scare Jasmine, I was. But right now it feels like I’ve gone right back to the person I was when I met Grant and Rafe.

“Let’s call it a hunch,” he says softly.

“Why would someone want to do that to Kit?” Alana whispers. She’s still keeping her voice down and I grab her hand. “What happened, Kit? Is it… I mean, the photos. I thought that coming here was supposed to stop everything. Do you think it’s the person taking the photos?”

My words catch in my throat. The photos. I hadn’t thought of them with everything that has happened in the last day but the second Alana brings them up, I feel my chest get tight.

“I dunno, they-I don’t think so. They can’t be. Why would they go after Jane?” I ask and Grant motions for us to follow him.

“Thirty minutes is up, let’s move out.”

“Gladly,” Alana mutters and grabs my hand. “Let’s get out of the woods. It’s creepy here. I feel like I’m being watched. Don’t you?”

I duck my head and pick up my pace. I hadn’t felt that way but now I do. “I hadn’t given it much thought,” I tell her honestly. “The only thing I was thinking about was trying to find something. Proof that we-proof that Jane is okay.”

“And the jug that you found did that, so this is a win, right?”

Grant scowls and I feel the weight of his hand against the small of my back as he comes up on my other side. “No, it’s fucking not. All it tells us is that someone is setting Kit up for the fall and killing people to do it.”

I grip Alana’s arm tighter. “That’s insane.”

“And what part of things lately haven’t been that?” Alana asks with a little laugh and I know she’s trying to keep things light. I know that she’s referring to the movie and the way that I’m dating Grant and Rafe. My life looks completely different than I could have ever imagined even six months ago. She’s right. Things have been insane and that’s assuming that my boyfriends aren’t serial killers obsessed with me.

Alana swats my arm. “Tell me that I’m wrong.”

I give her a tight smile. “I can’t, actually.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

RAFE

Jasmine is shifty today. I watch her out of the corner of my eyes while I’m in hair and makeup. She’s talking to a few of the extras and crew, definitely one of the lighting guys. I don’t know what they’re talking about but it’s big from the way that she’s flitting from person to person.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Jasmine is trying to get allies on her side. Not surprising, from what Kit said she did to her. Jasmine’s not very smart if she thinks a few extras and lighting guys are going to be able to do a damn thing to save her if I blackball her. She’s a diva, a real fucking bitch that any director is going to clock all on their own without me so much as saying a word, but there’s no fun in that.

If Kit went after her then the gloves are off. At least, enough to have some fun with her while she scrambles for power. But that’s a lie, isn’t it? I’m not doing this for “fun.” I’m doing this to create a distraction. Not by me, of course. Jasmine is going to cause the distraction I need. She’s already on the ledge, she just needs a little push to turn everyone’s attention from Kit to her.

If they can come up with a conspiracy theory that Kit offed Jane, then they can do the same when it comes to Jasmine.

“Okay, you’re all done!” The stylist working on me gives me a sunny smile that I don’t return. I just nod my thanks and stand from the chair before she launches into a round of bullshit questions that I’m not going to answer. I amble over to the refreshments and snag a bottle of water. I take a sip and make a show of not looking Jasmine’s way, not even when there’s a clatter and I see a few of the extras at her feet picking whatever it is that she’s dropped for her. Looks like the prop she’s supposed to use in this scene. It’s a puzzle made of rings, a metaphor for the love triangle Rosa is in with her idiot boyfriends. Art imitating life though, right? I’m one of Kit’s idiot boyfriends.

The extras hand the puzzle pieces to Jasmine and she smiles prettily, the way she knows she should, at the extras who eat it up like the clueless pawns they are. A woman like Jasmine is stacking her pieces for use later. If they aren’t careful, she’ll pin Jane on them just because she can. That suits me, though, I hope she does when it all hits the fan. There’s a flurry of activity when the extras are called over for their time in makeup. I keep my eyes off Jasmine but I know she’s close and when I move closer to the set she joins me. Only the cloying scent of her floral perfume announces her before she speaks.

“What happened to Jane?”

“Now why would I know the answer to that?”

Jasmine moves, the tip-tap of the heels she’s wearing sound closer. “That’s not what everyone is saying about her.”

“You should know better than to listen to what everyone says.” I take a sip from my water bottle and wait for Jasmine to respond. She clears her throat and sidles close enough that I can feel the warmth of her against my arm. She’s working herself up to say something.

“They know it’s Kit and I know it, too. She did it.”

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