Page 126 of Nanny for the SEALs

He used the knife to move aside the part of the dress covering my shoulder. “What’s this?”

I glanced over. He was pointing at a small brown spot on my collarbone. My birth mark.

“Amirah doesn’t have that,” Ernesto told me. He turned to shout to the front. “Something’s wrong!”

“Just wait,” Oscar insisted, “we’ll get her to the compound and then take a closer look…”

Ernesto tore off my floppy hat and sunglasses. He squinted at me, his yellow eyes becoming small, and then going much, much wider.

He figured it out,I realized.

Ernesto sneered angrily. “You’re not Amirah. You’re animposter.”

49

Rogan

The film set was chaos.

Asher was back in the film trailer while Brady and I ran around the set. Most of the dust had settled, but enough of it remained in the air that everyone was coughing. People walked around like zombies, covered in dust and clenching their eyes shut. Somewhere behind me, the director was yelling at anyone who would listen.

Heather, I thought as I searched the area she was last seen in.Heather, please be here, where are you Heather…

Guilt and dread spread within my chest with every passing moment. She wasn’t here. She wasn’t back at her trailer. Nobody else on set had seen her. And Cooper wasn’t answering his radio.

Brady was right. We never should have put her in this position.

“Heather!” I shouted, cupping my hands to my mouth. “HEATHER!”

A groan came from my left, then I heard it in my earpiece. A flash of hope filled me as I ran over there, circling behind a pallet of bottled water.

Cooper was on the ground, a hand pressed to his ear. One of his legs kept stretching out and then folding at the knee, like he didn’t know what he was doing.

“I found Cooper,” I said in the radio as I fell to the man. “Cooper. Are you okay? What happened?”

I helped him into a sitting position. There was blood on the back of his head. “We need medical attention!” I shouted.

A police officer and the set nurse came running over with a backpack full of medical supplies. They tended to Cooper while he blinked and got his bearings.

“I was leading her away from the dust,” Cooper gritted out, “when something hit me. Someonehit me. That’s all I remember.” His eyes focused on me. “Rogan, I’m sorry…”

“It’s our fault, not yours.” I gave him a reassuring pat, then returned to the film room. Jimmy Cardannon was inside, shouting into his own radio.

“Pedro is safe? Good. No, this wasn’t a fuckingaccident,”he was telling someone. “Demo crews don’t just mistakenly get the wind direction wrong. Those industrial fans were positioned intentionally. This wasplanned.”

“I’m checking the footage,” Asher told me, “but the dust obscured everything.”

The door slammed open and Brady aimed a finger at Cardannon. “You son of a bitch. You did this!”

“My client was in danger too,” Cardannon shot back at him.

“Your client is safe. Ours isgone. What did you do with her!”

I put a hand in front of Brady. “I don’t think he had anything to do with this.”

Brady shoved me away roughly. “This is your fault too. I told you we shouldn’t put Heather in this position. Itold you, Rogan, and you didn’t listen to me!”

I didn’t have anything to say, because he was right. Every word was like a dagger into my gut.

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