by Nikki Wilson
“Look, I know things aren’t going well with your mother, but Duchess is still getting some bad publicity, and we really need to try to recover from that interview.”
“I know, but it was just a lesson that we should have kept her in the shadows even longer. We should keep her doing concerts and nothing else.” That made sense to her.
“That’s not going to work anymore, Katie. That ship has already sailed, so to speak. Now people are begging for Duchess to make all kinds of appearances.” Kyle sounded tired.
“That’s not feasible, and it’s not just because of my mother. You know why it won’t work,” Katie cautioned. “Plus, I still need to find a venue for the benefit concert.”
“I know, but she’s going to have to do something.” He sounded desperate, and Katie felt a little bad for him. After all, he had been with her from the beginning. If he said it had to be done, it probably did.
“Fine. Send me some proposals, and I’ll see which one she can do.”
“I knew I could count on you!” Kyle exclaimed, and Katie couldn’t help smiling.
“You’ll owe me,” she bantered.
“Maybe I could take you out to dinner. That should cover it.”
“Just dinner? There’d better be some chocolate involved as well.”
“Of course,” he answered. “Can anyone eat dinner without having chocolate too? I didn’t think that was possible.”
“That’s why I like you, Kyle. You know exactly what a girl wants.”
“Yes, that’s me! I learned everything I need to know about women by listening to Christina Aguilera songs.”
“She would know.” Katie laughed. This was just what she needed, some friendly banter and a chance to forget her many troubles.
“Indeed.” He paused for a moment. “What are you doing next week?”
“I need to look at venues with Chase for the benefit concert.”
“Oh? Where are you looking?”
She told him the three venues she had her eyes on and what day they were going if no one from the county got back to her about the Hollywood Bowl.
“I’ll email you a few different options for a public appearance,” he replied.
“Okay, but don’t forget to include some ridiculously expensive restaurant choices for dinner, too.”
“I wouldn’t dream of forgetting.”
They said goodbye and hung up. Katie sat back and couldn’t figure out why that phone call had relaxed her, but it did. Work seemed so much simpler than real life, and considering what her job was, that was saying a lot.
Chapter Eighteen
A week had gone by without hearing back from the county. Chase groaned at the prospect of having to look at more venues. The Hollywood Bowl was the only one he and Katie agreed on. He thought of her stubborn demeanor whenever an argument started. A half smile formed on his face. He didn’t like to admit it, but he was looking forward to seeing her again.
The car arrived, and he crawled into the backseat with Katie.
“Good morning,” he said with a smile.
Katie didn’t smile back. “I have three places I think will work. I’m still trying to get the Hollywood Bowl, but we need a backup.”
“You’re definitely all business today,” he said. “You should smile.”
“I should smile? I’ll tell you what I should do. I should hit you over the head with your fake leg for leaving me alone with my father. That was a low-down, dirty trick,” she sputtered.
“Oh, you mean you don’t like being manipulated into doing something you don’t want to do?” he asked innocently. “You mean, like forcing someone to help with a concert by cornering them in a public place?”
“That was different,” she began.
“Only because you want it to be,” he shot back.
An unfeminine growl emitted from her throat as she glared at him before turning her attention to the papers in front of her. One corner of his lips turned up in a slight smile as he enjoyed watching her lose her composure. She looked over at him, and he quickly cleared his face of all expression. Her eyebrows knit together, and she graced him with another glare before the car stopped at their next destination, the Orpheum Theater. Cars crowded the front section of the parking lot, and people milled around outside.
“What’s going on?” Chase looked at Katie for an explanation, but she only shrugged with a frown.
Walking closer, Chase heard the crowd chanting. Before he could hear what they were saying, Katie’s phone rang. She stopped, and Chase continued forward, trying to hear. Finally, the noise started to solidify into one word over and over.
“Duchess! Duchess!” the crowd shouted.
He turned back to Katie, who was yelling into her phone.
“Kyle, there’s no way! She can’t just drop everything and show up!” She started pacing. “No. It can’t be done!”
Chase put it together. Duchess was obviously doing something without telling her manager.
“Fine!” Katie stabbed the end button on her phone and stalked over to Chase.
“You won’t believe what happened. Someone put on Twitter that Duchess was making a public appearance here.”
“Was it Duchess?” It sounded clear to him that Duchess was going behind Katie’s back.
“No. I mean, someone set up a Twitter account with Duchess’s name, but it wasn’t her,” Katie said confidently.
“How do you know?”
“I just do. Trust me,” she said.
Chase trusted Katie. It was Duchess he didn’t trust.
“Why would someone do that?” he asked.
“To damage her name. Or get revenge for something. It doesn’t really matter why they did it—what matters now is damage control.” Katie started walking toward the venue purposefully. Chase followed behind. “Now I need to get Duchess here as soon as possible.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Kyle’s picking her up right now. I need to see if the theater will let us use one of their dressing rooms for her to get ready.” Katie opened the door, and Chase followed.
“What can I do to help?”
“You don’t have to stick around. I’ll tell the driver to take you home. We can look at venues another time.”
It sounded like she wanted to get rid of him. He had a couple of ideas why. Maybe she just didn’t want a cripple around. Or maybe she wanted time alone with Kyle. Or maybe Duchess told her to get rid of him. Whatever the case, he wasn’t about to make it easy for her.
“No, I think I’ll stick around,” he said.
Katie spun around, her face stricken. That look definitely confirmed she was up to something.
She wiped the emotions off her face and tried to sound unaffected, but it didn’t fool him this time. “Are you sure? It’s going to be pretty boring around here. Besides, Kyle and I can handle it.”
Something told him Kyle would love to have Katie all to himself. For some reason, he didn’t like that thought one little bit. “Oh, I’m sure. Besides, maybe you can introduce me to Duchess properly this time.” He smiled until she turned on her heel and walked away. He scurried after her, determined to find out what was going on.
***
Katie wanted to scream. The man could be so infuriating. With him around, there was no way she could become Duchess, and the record company would sue her if she told him her secret. She walked with long, quick strides. The sooner she could get the whole thing over with, the better.
“Do you know what exactly this appearance is supposed to be?” Chase asked.
“No.” She kept walking.
“Well, you might want to find out.” The way he said it made it sound like he already knew. She stopped and turned to look at him.
He was on his smartphone reading something as he rubbed his chin. Looking up, he frowned and started to turn his phone off.
“Let me see that!” She grabbed it out of his hand and looked at the Twitter page he had opened. The first thing she noticed was
that it was the official Duchess account. The PR team at the record label was in charge of it—she’d never really figured out how to use Twitter. The next thing she noticed was the last item “Duchess” had tweeted: Come see me this afternoon at the Orpheum for an exciting autograph session you won’t forget.
“What?” Kate couldn’t keep the anger from her voice.
“I guess Duchess forgot to tell you about that?” He didn’t say “I told you so,” but she could tell he wanted to. Only the truth would change his mind, and that was out of the question. She decided to go with his assumption.
“I guess so.” She was going to kill Kyle when he finally got here with her wardrobe change. Did he really think he could get away with setting her up? She started tapping her foot. “I need to find Kyle,” she said as she stomped toward the parking lot. Kyle had probably already been there when he called her. When she thought about how shocked he’d sounded on the phone, like it had all been a surprise to him, it just made her walk faster.
When she got to the parking lot, it was like she thought. There was a limo sitting there. Kyle was probably sitting inside, waiting an appropriate amount of time before he got out and pretended like he’d just pulled up. She pulled open the limo door, and Kyle looked up with a gasp.
“Katie!” He covered up the shock on his face with a big, fake smile. “There you are! I was about to come find you.”
“Cut the crap, Kyle. You’ve been here all along.” Katie put her hands on her hips and dared him to lie about it. She was ready to pull his hair out. “What I can’t figure out is why you would do this right now, especially when you knew I was busy today.”
Kyle looked past her, and Katie realized Chase was behind her. “Can we talk about this later?” Kyle asked, nodding in Chase’s direction.
“Fine!” Katie agreed, but this was far from over, as far as she was concerned. “I assume you already have a dressing room reserved.”
“Um, yes. Duchess should be on her way there already. I just have her outfits and makeup right here.” Kyle held up a hanger with a plastic cover zipped up over an extravagant dress.
“I’ll take that.” Katie grabbed the dress and started toward the theater.
Chase caught up with her. “Do you want me to carry that for you?”
She sighed. He was another problem she needed to address, and quickly. He could not be hanging around while she changed. She didn’t want him anywhere near her, especially if he expected her to introduce him to Duchess personally.
“I’m fine. It’s probably best if you wait for me in the car. You don’t want to be here in this crowd. It could get crazy.”
He smiled. “I’ve been in crowds of people carrying guns and trying to kill me. I think I can handle this crowd.”
Katie cursed in her head. Would he not go away? “Well, right now I have to help Duchess get dressed. Plus, you know her identity has to be guarded, and I just can’t have you hanging around and accidentally seeing her. I’d lose my job, and where would that leave me and my mom?” She knew that last part was a little dramatic, but seriously, he couldn’t take a hint.
“I’ll wait,” he said gruffly, and Katie decided that would have to do for now. He stopped walking and let her go ahead without him.
Could this day get any worse? Of course, she didn’t say that out loud. She just walked down the main corridor and realized she didn’t know where she was going. She stopped and waited for Kyle to catch up. He was carrying a tackle box with Duchess’s face in it. Literally.
She was still fuming at him. He must have sensed it because the only thing he said was, “This way.”
She followed him in silence. She tried to keep the dress from dragging on the floor, but it was long and heavy. She wondered what monstrosity was under all the plastic. Then again, maybe she didn’t want to know. At least she wouldn’t be wearing the cage, the name she had given the PVC pipe hoop skirt on wheels. It had been her idea, but she never claimed to be a genius.
Kyle led her to a hall that ended at a doorway. He pulled out a key and opened the door for her. She stomped past him into the big room. She didn’t even pause to inspect it. She just hung up the dress and waited to hear the door shut before she spun around to face Kyle. She could tell by the look on his face that he knew he was in trouble.
He put his hands in the air like she was holding him up with a gun. “Now before you blow a gasket, you should calm down and let me explain.”
“Let you explain what? That you went behind my back and planned a public appearance without my permission? I thought we discussed this last week. You were going to send me an email, not manipulate me into doing something I don’t want to do.” Katie’s hands shook, and she balled them up into fists.
“It wasn’t me. It was the PR group. They wanted the public appearance to be today—they planned it all.”
“Oh, really? How did they know I was going to be here in the late afternoon?” She stared him down until he looked sheepish.
“Okay, I may have helped a little,” he conceded.
“How can I trust you when you keep lying to me?” Katie couldn’t stop herself from asking.
“It’s not any more than what you do. We do what we have to for this job, Katie. No one can find out the truth about Duchess.”
Katie drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. She knew now wasn’t the time to give in to her anger. Putting on a false smile, she stepped over to the hanger and unzipped the plastic to reveal the dress. Her mouth hung open, and for a moment, she had no words. But when the words did come, they shot out like a machine gun.
“Really, Kyle? Do you actually think I’m going to wear this? Are you insane?” She asked each question while staring at the sequined mini skirt attached to an embroidered bodice with big puffy sleeves, Cinderella style. And at the back of the mini skirt was a cascade of ruffles that went lower than the skirt. The whole thing was done in a snakeskin-patterned material. It was the gaudiest thing she’d ever seen, and that was saying a lot, considering her previous costumes.
“This is just what the label sent over,” he protested. “I had nothing to do with it.”
Which she interpreted to mean that he probably picked it out himself. She couldn’t take that man at his word ever again. She wanted to make him wear it.
“Get out.” She didn’t yell at him, even though she wanted to.
“Be reasonable, Katie. You knew this was part of the job. Heck, it was your idea.”
She put on a sickeningly sweet smile. “Oh, I’m well aware that I signed my soul over to the devil. But what I don’t have to do is get dressed in front of you. Get out. The sooner I dress, the sooner I can be done with this.”
“Oh, right.” Kyle backed up toward the door. “I’ll just be right out here in case you need me,” he said before he left and shut the door behind him.
She knew he would be guarding the door to make sure she didn’t try to make a run for it. The thought did cross her mind. She let herself fall onto the couch against the wall of the room and took a deep breath. This couldn’t be happening. She wondered when her life had become so complicated.
The dress fit snugly, like wearing a rubber hose. The wig had a few changes as well. Instead of the tall beehive, it was done in the Jane Austen style with a bun in the back and ringlets around her face and at the nape of her neck. How this hairstyle matched the dress, she wasn’t sure. Jane Austen would probably roll over in her grave if she saw this combo.
Katie put the nose on next, and then began the long makeup process. Then she put on tall platform shoes and checked in the mirror to make sure she was unrecognizable. She was definitely Duchess now. She tested out the synthesized mic and the accent together. Kyle gave her the thumbs-up—it was showtime.
“Just one thing, young man,” Duchess said to Kyle. “Exactly what did the tweet mean by ‘a signing you won’t soon forget’?” She almost didn’t want to know the answer.
“Oh, I’m saving that for a surprise.” His smile sen
t chills up her spine. Whatever it was, she knew it wouldn’t be pleasant. He opened the door and led the way out.
She could hear the crowd chanting as small beads of sweat formed on the palms of her hands. This was her first real public appearance in an uncontrolled situation. A table sat on a dais, with a stack of pictures and a marker waiting for her. The line stretched down the road. Who knew Twitter was so effective? Maybe the PR team knew what they were doing.
The cheers from the crowd were deafening as they spotted Duchess. Luckily, there did appear to be security guards keeping the people in line.
“Hello, dahlings!” she shouted out and waved with two hands as she made her way to the desk.
The adrenaline rush hit her like a tsunami. There was nothing like the applause and cheering from hundreds of people. She continued forward, waving at her fans, and noticed something strange as she drew closer to the dais. There was a snake in a cage next to the table.
“Kyle?” Her voice went up a full octave. “What is that snake doing there?”
“Surprise!” He looked chagrined, and suddenly she knew what he expected her do.
She grabbed him by the arm, half pushing him and half holding herself up, since the platform shoes didn’t feel so stable.
“I am not wearing a snake!” she hissed while holding one hand over her mic.
“It was that or a tarantula, and I know how you feel about spiders,” Kyle warned.
Katie had the same paranoia for snakes and spiders alike. She couldn’t stand them. Even fake spiders and snakes creeped her out. There was no way this would end well.
She lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned over to Kyle’s ear. “I can’t do this, Kyle. I just can’t.” She didn’t want to cry, but tears pooled in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, Katie. It’s not poisonous or anything, and its handler will be right there the whole time.” His condescending tone caused her to clench her fists.
People who didn’t have any phobias just didn’t understand. And if she tried to explain it, he would just roll his eyes. She thought of her mother at home in bed. She only did what she did for her mother. Was it even worth it anymore? Her mother was going to die. Her miracle hadn’t come. Wearing a snake wasn’t going to fix anything. She had nothing to prove.