Carousel Book Six, Chapter 59

Emmett’s celebration over conquering his eternal tormentor disappeared the moment we went back On-Screen. Now he was the cool, calm, and calculated leader of the blackmailers again.

Miss Kitty took the axe and started swinging it, just teasing Daphne, and there was nothing that could be done about it. She had nowhere to run.

She grabbed for her handbag, where she kept her weapons.

“None of that,” Emmett said. “Drop it over the edge.”

Daphne looked afraid, but more than that, she looked furious, like she was more upset about being bested than she was about her death. But in the end, she did comply and dropped her handbag over the edge.

“No hard feelings,” Emmett said.

Miss Kitty swung the axe again. This time it wasn’t just intimidation or a tease. This time, she took blood.

Not much blood. It was a cut across Daphne’s hand, a defensive wound. Daphne cried out in pain, but it was more like the sound a wounded lioness would make than an injured woman.

While we were Off-Screen, I had managed to tell Kimberly my plan.

I reached over and held up my hand, and she gave me the gun that Emmett had thrown into the water several scenes earlier, the weapon with a trope on it that would force the user to miss every shot but would guarantee Incapacitation from fear.

Situationally useful, but mostly kind of a pain. Guns are great for intimidation, but missing every shot would make your character look like a doofus.

That was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I held the gun firmly, since there were enemies around. I could see where the cameras were pointed. We were all On-Screen, but there were at least seven cameras that were relevant to the current scene.

Well, I couldn’t see the cameras. I could see that some areas and viewing perspectives had cinematic lighting, and others didn’t. It was pretty obvious after a little practice figuring out where the cameras were, which is how I knew that a camera was picking me up as Carousel prepared for what I was about to do. It was so perfectly coordinated.

I ran around to the other side of the altercation, holding the gun up and pointing it at the blackmailers.

“Stop,” I said. “Get away from her.”

I was humiliated just doing this, but I did my best to perform as a very confused man in love.

“Don’t you understand who she is or what she is?” Emmett screamed. “She is not Rachel Hutchins, don’t you get that? By her own admission, she killed those poor people, Rachel’s parents. What do you think you’re doing?”

He had a really good point, but I was doing a thing.

“I don’t care what she did. I don’t care, Daphne,” I said. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said, weaker than she normally did, but that was because of her injuries.

With my Moxie working and hers failing completely now, I thought I would finally be able to catch her in a lie. But as she said, “I love you,” my Moxie said she was telling the truth.

So she really was crazy, and not just insane.

“Drop the axe,” I said. I knew the gun couldn’t hit them. They knew the gun couldn’t hit them. But the audience didn’t, and our characters wouldn’t.

I stared at Emmett, wondering if he would command his wife to drop the axe, or if he would find some excuse not to, maybe play a brave boy.

We were locked in a staring contest. He was trying to be tough and angry, but I was trying to be desperate and dumb in love.

Dumb wins a game of chicken nine times out of ten, and Emmett was smart enough to know that.

“Go ahead and drop it,” Emmett said.

“But honeydew, we have her. She killed Bambi, she tried to kill all of us,” Desiree said. I couldn’t remember if that was the first line I had heard her speak since the reveal, but her delivery was very interesting. The way she spoke, the way she intonated, she was playing someone who was mentally unstable, too.

It made sense from her tropes. Perhaps she was the wild card of the group.

“Sweetheart, just listen to me,” Emmett said. “It will all be okay.”

Still, Desiree didn’t drop the axe.

“Don’t you see? You already killed her,” I said.

That intrigued them. They looked at me, confused.

With one hand, I held the gun out, and with the other, I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the now-empty cigarette pack.

Daphne had poisoned the cigarettes inside, and as one of my contingencies, I had soaked those cigarettes in rainwater and then poured them over the blade of the axe.

The realization of what had happened dawned on the blackmailers’ faces around the same time that it did Daphne’s.

She dropped to her knees, aching, moving the muscles of her injured hand.

“Do you have the antidote?” she screamed out, asking me, but she should have known I didn’t.

“I’m so sorry!” I screamed. “I’m so sorry!”

I wasn’t trying to play my character as stupid, just as having realistic emotions. And I figured he could feel sorry for the poison while not actually wanting her to survive. Whether that would come across in the final cut or not, I didn’t know.

I also didn’t know if she was pretending to be suffering from the symptoms or if somehow I had access to the trope that the original bottle of poison had, but Daphne was getting worse quickly.

Truthfully, this wasn’t the strongest part of my plan. The rain would likely have washed off the blade of the axe, but this was a story where you could poison people by planting tainted cigarettes and waiting for them to smoke them, so a little rain versus my Savvy might not hold up.

“Go ahead and drop it,” Emmett said, realizing that Daphne was poisoned. “She won’t be able to do anything.”

Desiree nodded and dropped the axe toward me.

I started walking toward them, yelling, “Get back!” I inched my way toward Daphne, but I wasn’t too keen on getting close to her. I just needed to appear like I was.

I kept a healthy distance while screaming at the blackmailers to back away.

Slowly, they did, stepping over the coils of chain and rope and whatever furniture remained on the roof.

I got closer to the axe while maintaining a buffer between myself and Daphne. Now it was time for the hard part. I had to fire the gun to incapacitate them, just as a distraction.

But that didn’t end up being necessary.

We had a wingman in tow.

“Silver Fox, can you hear me? Silver Fox?” The radio in Emmett’s pocket started to go off. All three of the blackmailers suddenly turned their attention toward the radio.

That was the distraction I needed. I reached down and grabbed the axe, tossed it into the air over the heads of the blackmailers. It must have gone fifteen or twenty feet toward the storage shed.

Kimberly was quick, and she caught the axe out of the air. In one smooth motion, she brought it down on the last remaining ropes attached to the metal pole that anchored all of the patio furniture.

She cut through it.

Suddenly, all of that furniture that had been hanging off the side of the building was free to fall. Except it was tied to the furniture and cables up on the roof, so it started pulling all of those along with it as it fell.

Unfortunately for the blackmailers, they just happened to be standing amongst all the chains, rope, and furniture, exactly at the place where I had backed them into by wielding the gun.

As the furniture started to go over the side of the building, the ropes tangled in the feet of Emmett, Desiree, and the cook and dragged them over, kicking and screaming.

They tried to climb out of the wave of rope and furniture, but they weren’t fast enough. It would appear that none of them had Hustle that could beat my Savvy either.

Emmett hung onto the side as long as he could, staring at Daphne. Apparently, what he saw pleased him. He smiled and let go, dropping off the side of the building.

I was glad for that. My ego needed some repair after being fooled by Daphne all storyline long.

Off-Screen.