At a break in filming, Josh dropped into his chair and let the hair and makeup crew fix him up as Kris approached. His friend was clearly bothered, shuffling and nervously rubbing one of his arms as he slowly approached. “Hey, man!”
“Hey.”
Josh waved everyone but Kris away and, as soon as they were out of earshot, asked, “You okay?”
Kris pushed out a slow breath. “Oli thinks your laptop’s been…compromised or some shit. He says to leave it as is, don’t touch anything, and he’s gonna reach out to the agency, give them the name of someone who can help. Assuming everyone signs off and the contracts can be set quickly, Oli says they can meet us at yours tomorrow.”
That did not sound good. “What the hell does ‘compromised’ mean?” Josh asked, frowning.
Raising an eyebrow, Kris asked, “What part of our friendship makes you think I’d have any idea, dude?”
A sigh escaped him as he rubbed a hand across his chin, the only place free from any makeup. “How?”
The only response he got was that arched eyebrow.
“Fair,” he conceded. “Tomorrow?”
“Oli says they can be at yours by 10am,” Kris said with a nod. “And change your password. Oli’s orders.”
As the car pulled up past the hospital and turned down the road that led to the Bridle Path, Beck Kendall levelled a look at her brother in law. He had referred her to some sort of talent agency and helped her sign a contract and NDA quickly. But somehow in all that he failed to mention whoever this client was they could afford to live in the Bridle Path, the richest neighbourhood in Toronto. If she thought Burlington was expensive, the Bridle Path was utterly unattainable. From what she heard, one of the houses there even had a damn golf course in the backyard. Who the hell needed a golf course in their backyard? Probably some rich studio asshole with more money than sense.
“Oliver,” she muttered, watching the mansions out the window. “Who the hell is this client?”
“You’ll see,” he replied, grinning to himself as he followed the road.
Beck huffed a laugh. “Starting to think I should’ve left the contract at the first rate instead of making it more reasonable,” she said to herself. The first rate in the contract had been…a lot. About five times what she would normally charge. She made Oliver put in a more reasonable, but still high rate before she would sign it. Looking around, she was starting to regret that choice. Whoever this rich asshole was, he could afford the extra. Holy shit.
The car pulled up to a gate and Oliver rolled down his window to request entry. Beyond the gate Beck saw so many trees it was practically a forest, and a weird looking building poking through the green. It was short, flat, and lifeless. Honestly, it resembled a nuclear bunker more than a house or a mansion.
They came to a stop out front of a large door with a golden knocker in the centre and glass panelling all around it. The entrance to the soulless cement bunker. Oliver hopped out of the car and Beck followed him to the door, a little surprised when he just opened it and walked in.
“Shouldn’t you knock?”
Oliver grinned, ushering her inside.“Nah, they’re expecting us.”
Somehow the inside was almost worse than the outside. Despite the excessive plant life, it reminded Beck more of an office building than a place where people lived. At a stretch you could argue it looked like a hotel, but that would be reaching. Everything was white, sharp angles. Silver handrails everywhere. It was too pristine to be lived in. When she looked up, the various floors all had the same white paint and silver guardrails. It reminded her of photos of open plan office lobbies. Who the hell had designed it? Oliver led her through the building, but she couldn’t stop staring at the ridiculously boring features.
“Is this a house or an office building?” she asked.
“I told you!” a voice shouted in front of her. “I told you, Kris!”
Beck most certainly did not jump. And she definitely did not scream.
When she realised what was happening, she blinked in surprise. Josh Tanner was standing in front of her, smirking. Josh Tanner. The actor. Six foot two, all muscle, dirty blond hair, light scruff on his jaw, a friendly smile, the bluest eyes, and holy shit did he ever fill out those jeans. Yup, he was hotter in person than in the movies. And here she was in grubby jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. She was going to kill Oliver. Shit.
“Sorry,” he said, ducking his head to hide his grin. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”
Beck looked down at his outstretched hand and back up to his face, then down to the hand again. Right, he expected her to shake it. “It’s okay,” she said, accepting his hand. “Your house, not mine. Shout all you want. Beck Kendall.”
“I’m -.”
“I do leave the house to see movies sometimes,” she said, smirking back at him. “I know who you are, Mr. Tanner.”
The colour that rushed to his cheeks was the last thing she expected. Did she just make Josh Tanner blush?
“It’s Josh,” he muttered. Maybe the flush to his cheeks was from exercise? “Not Mr. Tanner. So what’s Oli told you?”
“Sweet fuck all,” she muttered, glaring at her brother-in-law. Why in the hell did Josh Tanner of all people need her help? What, he wanted to consult on a new role? Then it hit her that she had said ‘fuck’ in front of a total stranger. An incredibly hot and famous total stranger. “Oh, uh, sorry, I didn’t -.”
“It’s fine,” he said, still smiling. “Heard somewhere that swearing makes people trust you more.”
Oliver laughed. “I think Beck’s said that to me. I can hear it in her voice.”
Now it was her turn to fight the burning in her cheeks. Luckily another man stepped forward and held out a hand. Almost as tall as Josh Tanner, he had red hair and friendly brown eyes. “Kris Jensen. Nice to meet you, Becky.”
Scratch the friendly. She tried to hide her distaste for the name with a firmly pasted on smile, and reached out for his hand. “It’s Beck, not Becky,” she corrected.
“You’re gonna have to work to recover from that, man,” Oliver laughed, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“He can start by not calling me Becky ever again,” she grumbled. Every time someone called her ‘Becky’ it reminded her of her school bullies. Not a pleasant memory. She much preferred Beck. It felt more like her anyway.
“Sorry,” Kris said, grimacing. “I didn’t mean any offence. It’s…not a very usual name.”
“Is ‘Beck’ short for anything?” Josh Tanner asked.
Beck blinked at him, realized she was being shirty, then allowed herself to relax and smile. “Surprisingly, it’s ‘Rebecca’. But don’t call me that either.”
“Deal,” he said. “Laptop’s this way.” He gestured down another lifeless hallway. “Started acting weird on set the other day.”
Trying to focus on Josh Tanner rather than the boring building he was living in, she moved to walk in step with him as he led the way. “Define ‘weird’.”
He sighed, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. “I don’t know. Just…the mouse pointer thing was doing its own thing. It was slow as hell. Email closed itself.”
“Okay, so what were you doing before it started acting weird?”
The boring hallway opened up into what she guessed was a living room. Not that it was obvious - her only clue was the TV. Apart from that it looked like any other room she had seen so far, including the hallways. There was also what appeared to be a dining room table, chairs, and a minifridge. On top of the dining room table sat a closed laptop. Who the hell had designed this monstrosity of a building?
“I was on set, filming,” he said, gesturing to the couch. “It was fine up to that point.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver and Kris sit on the only other couch and turn on the Xbox.
“Any downloads you might’ve done?”
Josh Tanner shook his head. “No, none. I barely use the thing, except to email my daughter.”
“You don’t message her?” Beck asked. From what she remembered hearing, his kid must’ve been around ten. Why the hell would a kid that age be using emails to communicate with her dad? Most adults even preferred messaging, let alone what a kid would prefer. Not to mention she was pretty sure he was younger than her by at least a year or two.
“Long story,” he muttered, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Beck nodded and continued down the list in her head. “What about emails? Anything with links?”
“Nothing.”
Pushing out a breath, she glanced down at the laptop, then back up at him. He looked torn between annoyed and worried. Had it been too personal to ask about his daughter? Had she overstepped? Shit. “Who has access to it? Is it password protected?”
“I’m not an idiot,” he muttered with a wry grin. “It’s password protected. And I suppose anyone on set would technically be able to access it by just going into the trailer.”
Stop insulting him, dumbass! “Sorry, standard questions,” she said, offering him an apologetic smile.
The grin he gave her in return didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s okay. Keep going.”
“What’s the password like? How many characters?”
“Oh, it’s Mackenzie-oh-six,” he said, the smile becoming more genuine at the mention of his daughter. “It’s my daughter’s name and birth year.”
Beck felt her eye twitch and took a deep breath to stop herself from saying something stupid about the terrible password. “I….” Nothing helpful was willing to come out of her mouth.
“You’re in trouble, man!” Oliver laughed.
“Shut up, Oliver,” Beck hissed at him. Turning her attention back, she smiled at Josh Tanner and reminded herself that not everyone has had an education in security. “Okay, so…that’s a bad password.” There wasn’t really a way for her to sugar coat that.
“It’s long,” he grumbled. “And it’s got numbers.”
Nodding, she said, “Yeah, in theory it’s not bad - good length, not just letters. But your daughter’s name will be on a list of common words. If someone’s doing a brute force attack or even a guess, it’s not hard to connect the dots.” Pulling her laptop out of her bag, she put it on the table and opened it. “Let’s update your password. I can teach you how to make it good and easy to remember.”
“I just changed it yesterday,” he complained, lolling his head back to look up at the ceiling.
“I’m not even going to ask what it was,” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “Promise this’ll be painless.”
He sighed, then grinned down at her. “Okay, teach me, wise one.”
Josh tossed his controller down onto the table as Kris’s character hit him with a grenade launcher on the giant flatscreen. The sneaky jackass caught him as he briefly left his cover to retrieve a health pack.
“And then there were two,” Kris muttered, focussing on finding Oli.
“Asshole,” Josh shot back, smiling. It was his own dumbass fault and, if he was being honest with himself, it gave him more time to study the woman sitting at the dining room table working on his laptop.
From what little he had seen of her so far, she was pretty sharp. And, hell, just plain pretty. Cute even. Sparkling green eyes, brown hair pulled into a braid that hung a little below her shoulder, and about a head shorter than him. And not remotely impressed with who he was. That was a first. She was currently hunched over the table, chewing on her lower lip and muttering to herself as she worked away. Yeah, definitely cute.
“Tanner!”
Josh jumped a little and turned to see Oli grinning widely at him. Busted.
“You ready to get your ass kicked again?” Kris asked, a matching grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. “Or do you wanna keep being weird?”
“Just give me the damn controller,” he sighed.
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