Into Her Fire (Fantasy Heights) Read Online Free

how this crap gets started,” Marla argued. “Ridley has no reason to be jealous. Thomas would not hit that with a truck. The noob-let, though, is a totally different story. He was a robot before she showed up. And look at Josh. It’s like she raised him from the dead. Whatever she’s got, it’s working. It works on Derek, too.”
    Derek glared at her. “Yeah. Make fun of me. That helps.”
    “What? You think this is the first time anyone’s lost their head on set?” Marla asked him. “It happens to everybody. Sooner or later we all run into an Achilles partner we can’t work with, and good chemistry is twice as disruptive as bad. The schedulers have to work around it all the time.”
    Derek shrugged a shoulder, still looking sour.
    On Amanda’s part, she felt a jab of annoyance. No one had ever explained anything like that to her. If she’d known, she might have said something to Beverly that could have kept her and Derek out of trouble.
    Ben said, “If it makes you feel any better, it works on me, too.”
    “Oh, really,” Nicole said. “Do tell. What it is about the noob-let that has you guys all starry eyed?”
    “She’s proud. And completely immune to control.”
    What? What did that even mean?
    Nicole said, “And here I thought it was some sort of forbidden fruit thing, or the fear of a severe beating from Thomas if you touched his property.”
    “That’s just it,” Derek argued. “She’s no one’s property, and Thomas isn’t the one you need to worry about. The girl’s not helpless. Harmless, either. She’s got some seriously repressed anger. The smart ones always do.”
    Anger? What was he talking about? She wasn’t angry.
    Marla rolled her eyes. “Not a one of you can ever resist playing with fire.”
    “Oh, like you can?” Ben challenged. “What about Gail Warnous?”
    “I was under orders, so take it easy on the casting of aspersions.”
    Amanda raised her eyebrows. Under orders from whom?
    Ben scoffed. “Girl say big word. Me poke with metal stick.”
    “Bring it, Blond-squatch.”
    Marla, with a much smaller sword, sprang onto the wooden platform where Ben stood. Derek scrambled out of their way. Ben had no time to ready his weapon. Not that Marla stood a chance. She attempted some sort of elaborate spin move and by the time she tried to slice him across the knees, Ben had his sword gripped in both hands and thrust left to block the blow.
    Marla cried out and dropped her sword, wagging her hand to dispel the sting of impact. “Bastard. That hurt.”
    Just then, Eric arrived, dressed down in sweats and a tank top. The others were on him instantly, firing questions like bullets at an easy, unarmed target: What happened on the boat set? Did someone really attack the noob-let? Where did Thomas go? Why is Dr. Carpenter in trouble? What happened in the Hall? Why is everyone so mad at Steph? When are they firing the last two people on The Reaper list?
    Watching Eric withstand the barrage, Amanda caught herself moving closer to the speaker. She knew the answers to some of those questions, but not all. And she would dearly love to know why Eric hadn’t mentioned any trouble with Steph or Dr. Carpenter.
    She sighed. So much for earning Eric’s trust. Feeling defiant, she left the intercom on and watched Eric try to fend off the others.
    He gave as many answers as he could. Security had carried out the two remaining dismissals that morning. The first one had worked in the IT department. The last was an observer, the former chief’s favorite henchman.
    “The fun part,” Eric said, his tone oversaturated with sarcasm, “is Steph just filed paperwork to dismiss someone else. One more person’s getting fired before this purge is over.”
    “What?” Marla demanded. “Who?”
    “I don’t know, and I don’t think we’ll find out for a while. She told Jerod she wants to sit on it until the Accord meeting and he’s supposed to watch this person in the meantime. It set Jerod off like