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Nash held his breath, willing Londyn to fake-fight her way out of Troy’s hold quickly before the man got stupid and pulled the trigger.
He didn’t have long to wait until Londyn jabbed her elbow into the man’s gut, grabbed his hand and twisted his arm around, divesting him of the weapon.
She shoved the man away from her and aimed the handgun at him. “Stay back, or I’ll shoot,” she called out.
Troy hesitated for only a moment, then lunged toward her.
Londyn aimed the gun at Troy. A moment later, she pulled the trigger.
A loud bang sounded, followed almost instantly by the crashing sound of one of the lighting fixtures.
“Cut! Cut!” Haynes yelled. “What the hell was that?”
Nash rushed forward and hovered over Londyn, using his body as a shield. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Londyn stared down at the gun she’d taken from Troy and looked past Troy to the lighting fixture that had been destroyed.
“Oh my God,” Londyn said. “That was a live round.”
“Holy shit.” Troy’s eyes rounded as he ran his hands over his chest.
Londyn shook her head. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I didn’t shoot at you, but over your shoulder.”
Troy’s face blanched. “What if you hadn’t missed?”
Londyn shook her head. “Did you hear me? I wasn’t aiming at you. I didn’t miss. I never aim at anything I don’t want to kill,” she said. “Although I didn’t really want to kill the light, it was what I aimed for. If I’d aimed at you, I wouldn’t have missed.” She turned to Haynes.
Haynes scrubbed a hand down his face. “JP!”
The props man rushed into the center of the set. “Give me the gun.”
Londyn handed over the pistol.
“I put blanks in this weapon,” JP said. “The magazine was empty when I started. I very carefully checked the box I took the blanks from and placed them in the magazine one at a time. I know I was right. I even put a mark on the magazine when I finished.” He expelled the magazine from the weapon, dropping it into his hand. “See? I put my initials on the side of the?—”
Nash studied the magazine, as JP turned it over several times. He didn’t see any marks on the metal casing.
JP looked up, his gaze meeting Director Haynes’s. “It’s not there. My mark is not on this magazine. This is not the magazine I placed in the gun.” He turned the weapon over to the side with the serial number. “This is the gun, but not the magazine I loaded specifically with blanks. Someone switched magazines.”
Londyn’s face lost some of its color beneath her dark complexion. She leaned into Nash. “I could’ve killed a man,” she said softly.
Nash slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “But you didn’t,” he reminded her.
“Steve told me to aim at Troy.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t. My grandfather instilled years of training in me. Only aim a loaded weapon at something if you plan to kill it.” She looked up into Nash’s eyes. “I couldn’t aim at Troy like I was told. I shifted my aim to an inanimate object.”
Nash smoothed a strand of her hair back off her cheek. “The lights.”
“God dammit,” Steve Haynes blasted. He turned slowly in a three-hundred-sixty-five-degree circle, his eyes narrowed, his cheeks a ruddy red. “Who the hell switched the magazines?”
When no one answered, the director shook his head. “Someone on this set is fucking with us. When I find out who...so help me, I’ll...” He slammed his fist into his palm.
“You’ll turn him over to the law,” Londyn said. “For attempted murder.” She lifted her head. “This incident needs to be reported to the sheriff.”
“Thankfully, no one was injured,” Haynes said. “But we’re down one light now. It’ll take time to get another shipped out to this godforsaken location.”
“I’ll get right on it,” a man called out.
“Someone call the sheriff,” Haynes said. “The sooner he gets out here, the sooner we can get back to work. At this rate, we won’t finish shooting before the first snow.”
