Lucas wasn’t surprised. Carter was a smart man, and he had to see how talented Kenya was. Lucas had watched her during rehearsals and filming and she was amazing. Hell, she’d fooled all of them into thinking she was Chynna for weeks and if it hadn’t been for the press finding out, Kenya would have continued to keep the wool over their eyes.
“Why are you so quiet?” Eli asked. “This is a blow to Chynna’s brand and our pocketbooks. You must see that.”
“Of course, I do, Eli,” Lucas sighed. “But perhaps this movie wasn’t the right vehicle for Chynna. She was out of her element, and everyone knew it. This part called for a better actress, and let’s be honest, Chynna wasn’t it.”
“Damn, Lucas, are you that sprung on Kenya that you can’t see how this hurts R&K?”
Suddenly, Lucas rose from the sofa and grabbed Eli by his shirt collar. “Don’t you ever question my commitment to R&K Records,” Lucas hissed. “In case you had forgotten, I put up the money to start this place.”
“And you never let me forget it!” Eli replied, pushing away Lucas’s hands and stepping away.
“That’s because you’re always trying some crazy scheme to get ahead,” Lucas said. “You just need to believe in the talent we have and help make them great.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
“By pushing Chynna into a movie career she doesn’t want?” Lucas asked.
“Wait a sec here, Lucas,” Eli responded. “You were always supposed to be the money behind the scenes, and I handle the talent.”
“Yeah, well, clearly that arrangement isn’t working either,” Lucas said. “I’ve tried to cut you some slack, Eli, but you just don’t know when to stop sometimes. You pushed and pushed Chynna until she broke. And what happened? She ran and put her sister in her place.”
“Are you saying this is all my fault?” Eli laughed bitterly. “You were the one sleeping with her. Why didn’t you realize she wasn’t really Chynna?”
Eli had a point, and Lucas didn’t have a strong comeback for it. He’d had blinders on. “Okay, okay,” Lucas said, throwing his hands up in the air. “You’re right. We’re both to blame, but that begs the question, how do we get ourselves out of this mess?”
Back in Tucson, Noah sat despondently at the breakfast table. He’d barely touched his food and had just pushed it back and forth across the plate. Eventually, he’d excused himself to go to the stables in search of his Egyptian Arabian. Perhaps a long, hard ride around the ranch would clear his mind and help him forget Chynna.
Noah threw a saddle on the thoroughbred, hopped astride him and took off toward the plains.
Forgetting Chynna would be impossible. Just like Maya, when he hadn’t been looking, Chynna had swept in and stolen his heart. He’d tried to resist it, acted like the feelings weren’t there, but they’d been there all along, perhaps even from the moment they’d met and he’d seen her lying face down on the steering wheel of that Jeep.
But what was he going to do with a love that was unrequited? Chynna’s record label owner had made it pretty clear that Chynna had had her fun and it was on to the next big thing, but he was having a hard time believing that he meant nothing to her. He couldn’t believe that the times they’d shared riding with the cattle, rolling up the hay bales or sitting by the pond talking and laughing, meant nothing. Or worse yet, the moments when he’d been deep inside her body and she’d made those soft moans to take her higher, that it had all been a lie. Was she really just having a little fun?
“Noah, slow down!”
Noah heard Caleb yelling at him and turned around to see his brother galloping toward him at full speed. Eventually, Noah slowed his pace and allowed Caleb to catch up to him. That’s when he realized he’d come pretty close to the cliff of a mountainside.
“What the hell are you doing?” Caleb asked when he reached Noah, pulling on the reins of Noah’s horse.
“I needed a ride.”
“To the cliff?” Caleb asked, glancing down. “A female isn’t a good enough excuse to end it all. They are a dime a dozen.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill myself if that’s what you were insinuating,” Noah said testily, giving his brother a sideward glance and snatching away the reins. “I would have stopped.”
“If you say so,” Caleb replied. “But even you must recognize you’ve been walking around here despondent since Chynna left.”
“Agreed,” Noah said, jumping down from the horse. “But I’ve lived through worse.”
“And it nearly killed you,” Caleb said, following after him and they tied both horses to a nearby tree. “I don’t want to see the same thing happen here.”
Concern was etched across his brother’s face. “It won’t.”
“Good, ’cause I won’t let it,” Caleb replied. “I refuse to let you go through the self-pity you did with Maya.”
Noah turned to Caleb at his side. He was surprised by the intensity in his younger brother’s voice. Caleb was known for running at the first sign of adversity, so Noah was surprised to hear he would stick around for a while if only to give him grief. “Listen, Caleb. I appreciate you wanting to help, but there’s nothing you can do.”
“Maybe not,” Caleb replied. “But there’s something you can do. You can get on an airplane and go get your woman!”
“My woman?” Noah laughed derisively, folding his arms across his chest, “wants nothing to do with me.”
“Bullshit!”
“It’s true,” Noah pressed. “There’s a reason I’ve been upset. I tried to reach Chynna to find out how she was doing.”
“And?”
“And I was told to go take a hike,” Noah responded.
“By Chynna? I find that hard to believe. That girl was crazy about you.”
“That’s what I thought,” Noah said. “But when I called her cell phone, the owner of her label picked up and told me that it was over. That it was fun while it lasted, but Chynna was on to bigger and better things.”
“And you believed that?” Caleb asked. “Who’s to say that manager didn’t have his own agenda? Didn’t Chynna say that she’d been having a hard time with her label and had come to Tucson to find her own voice again? Maybe there’s more to the story, here, Noah. You can’t take what that guy said at face value. You have to go to Chynna and talk this out face-to-face.”
Noah stared at Caleb long and hard. He had a point. Why should he take the word of a hired gun over Chynna? He had to speak to the lady herself to know how she truly felt about him. He smiled broadly at Caleb, and Caleb frowned.
“What’s so funny?” Caleb asked, his brow furrowed.
“That my little brother would give me such excellent advice,” Noah replied.
“I warned you about underestimating me,” Caleb said, pointing his index finger at Noah.
“And now I know better,” Noah said, throwing his arm around Caleb’s shoulder. “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t take you out,” he said as he laughingly wrestled his younger but spry brother to the ground.
“Fantastic!” Carter told Kenya later that afternoon after they’d wrapped her scenes for the day and were walking back to her trailer. “I knew I made the right decision insisting to the studio that we keep you.”
“Thank you,” Kenya said, but then stopped in her tracks. “But can I ask you why you went to bat for me?”
Carter rose slightly, as if surprised by the question. “Because you have talent.”
He said it with such conviction that Kenya couldn’t help but smile. It was exhilarating hearing such a compliment from the well-respected director.
“Thank you,” she said. “I can’t imagine it was easy when the studio wanted Chynna.”
“I know she’s your sister,” Carter replied. “So there’s no easy way to say this, but to be blunt, she sucked. I knew it and she knew it, which
is why she didn’t fight me today when I told her she’d been let go. I’d had lesser-named actresses in mind for the role of Yvette, but I’d been strong-armed to try out your sister, against my better judgment. And now,” he said, shrugging, “once they saw you in the film rushes and given the multiple scandals Chynna has been in, it was easy convincing them to see things my way.”
Kenya’s mouth turned upward. She doubted it was simple as that. “I’m part of Chynna’s latest scandal.”
“Very true,” Carter replied. “But the interesting thing, the part you played in this scandal, further showed the scope of your talent. You acted as Chynna while simultaneously acting as Yvette. It was nothing short of brilliant, my dear.” He patted her shoulder. “I see great things ahead for you.”
Kenya nodded her head in agreement because for the first time in her life, so did she.
“Are you sure you’re ready to go out there and face the press,” Deacon asked after he entered Chynna’s bedroom and found her on the balcony, staring out at her estate. “We can postpone this if you want.”
Chynna shook her head but didn’t turn to Deacon. She was smarting over the fact that she still hadn’t heard from Noah. Yesterday, she’d been angry at first, but as she’d fallen asleep, she’d reminded herself that notoriety was new for Noah, and perhaps he needed some time to process it. She’d hoped he would’ve called today and all would have been right with the world, but it wasn’t. He hadn’t called. Is it that easy for him to forget the few short weeks we had together and the connection we shared? She sure couldn’t forget it, and now she was unsure of what to do next.
“Chynna.” Deacon came forward and placed his hands on both her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head again and when she turned around to face him, there were tears in her eyes.
“Chynna, what’s wrong, baby girl?” He touched her cheek.
Chynna wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. “He hasn’t called me, Deacon. I haven’t heard one word from Noah since I left the ranch. I know I’ve lied to him, but once he’d heard my reasons why, I’d thought we’d gotten past it, but—”
“But what?”
“But maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he was just using me as a substitute to get over his wife.”
“Do you really think that’s the case? From what I gathered, I thought he was an above board sort of fella.”
Chynna nodded and turned to stare back out over the grounds. “That’s what I thought too, because he made me believe that he was different from all the other men I’d met here in Hollywood. He made me think there were still a few good men left. And now I’m beginning to wonder.”
“I know it’s tough not knowing where you stand with Mr. Hart,” Deacon replied, “but you have bigger fish to fry, my dear. You have fire-breathing dragons outside your mansion gates, waiting for your statement. Now more than ever, you have to be on top of your game.”
“You’re right,” Chynna said, whirling around, wiping away her tears. She was going to have to put her feelings for Noah on the shelf and focus on containing the damage of her tattered image.
“Come on inside,” Deacon said, circling his arm around Chynna’s shoulders. “We’ll get you dressed to meet the press.”
Thirty minutes later, after Derrick and Daisy had perfected Chynna’s hair and makeup, and Megan had selected an appropriate sleek red pants suit, Chynna was ready to face the music. The only thing missing was Kenya. Chynna nervously paced the floor of her living room and wrung her hands.
She knew Kenya was filming with Carter, but she needed her twin by her side because she knew her and understood finally what it was like to be in her shoes. Chynna wanted, no needed Kenya beside her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t go out there by herself. She’d learned by being a ranch hand for several weeks that she was stronger than even she knew. She just wanted Kenya’s moral support.
“We should start getting ready to go outside,” Fiona said. “The press is getting restless.”
“I can’t,” Chynna said, shaking her head. “Not until Kenya gets here.”
“I know, sweetheart, but we don’t know when that will be,” Deacon said, “and this really can’t wait.”
“I’m not going until Kenya arrives.”
“Seriously,” Eli said from the doorway of the living room, “are you going to blow another opportunity to clean up your image because of your sister?!”
His tone annoyed Chynna. “I don’t like your insinuation, Eli,” she said as he walked into the room. She noticed that Lucas wasn’t with him. “You make it sound like Kenya is the reason I need to clean up my image. Kenya didn’t create this mess. I did. I needed to get away from all this,” Chynna said, sweeping her arm across the room, “because you all,” she continued, pointing to Fiona, Deacon, Penelope and even her stylists, Derrick, Daisy and Megan, “were smothering me. I needed time to breathe, to remember what it was like to have fun. That’s why I left. That’s why I asked Kenya to switch places with me.”
The room was stunned into silence at Chynna’s outburst, and just then Kenya walked into the room. “Oh, thank God!” Chynna said, rushing toward Kenya and wrapping her arms around her sister’s shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” Kenya whispered in her ear as she saw everyone in the room staring at them.
“I’m just so glad you’re here,” Chynna whispered and pulled away from everyone to stare into her sister’s eyes. “Why don’t you go freshen up? The media is outside the gates for the press conference I’m having in,” Chynna said, glancing down at the Movado watch she wore, “in ten minutes, so you need to hurry and get ready.” She pushed Kenya toward the door. “Derrick, Daisy, Megan, can you help Kenya, please?”
The three stylists rushed after Kenya, who’d left the room seconds before.
Having been put in his place, Eli was glaring at Chynna, but it was Deacon who eventually spoke. “Perhaps given your mood, this conference is a bad idea.”
Chynna swallowed and straightened her back. “No, I’m fine. I’ve said what I had to, and I feel great not keeping it in. So I would advise all of you,” she said, pointing to occupants of the room, “to get used to me voicing my opinions. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check on Kenya and see how she’s progressing.”
Eli stared at Deacon in disbelief. He couldn’t believe Chynna had spoken to him in such a manner. Before she’d left for Arizona, she wouldn’t have dreamed of talking to him that way. Eli knew who the culprit was behind Chynna’s new attitude: Kenya. Kenya was the reason Chynna had become so vocal and thought she could treat him with disrespect. Clearly, Chynna had forgotten he’d discovered her.
Eli had happened to be visiting his grandmother in Memphis and had taken her to a mall the day he’d stumbled upon Chynna singing the national anthem at an event. He’d been struggling to start up his record label and knew he couldn’t convince Lucas to leave the Fortune 500 job he’d just started without having a sure thing. And when Eli had seen Chynna, he’d seen dollar signs.
She’d only been twenty, and he’d known he could mold her into the image he wanted. And it had been easy. Her mother had been a softie and so excited to see her daughter’s rising future that he’d convinced them to sign a long-term contract, guaranteeing him four albums before anyone else had discovered Chynna’s talent. It had been a slam dunk and the start of R&K Records. And he wasn’t about to let her wannabe actress/sister ruin what had taken him years to build. Oh, no, he wasn’t going to stand for it one minute. He was going to have to teach that bitch a lesson, one that would get her far away from Chynna and the hell away from Lucas for that matter.
Since Lucas had fallen for Kenya, Lucas too had started to question Eli’s judgment. He could feel the people in his life slipping out of his grasp and that made Eli nervous—very nervous.
Kenya stood by Chynna outside the gates of Chynna’s mansion and lis
tened as her sister gave a brief statement to an entourage of media outlets. Kenya had never seen so many cameras and lights, and they were all pointed directly on Chynna, or so she thought.
Chynna gave a brief statement that the rumors were true, that she had indeed switched places with Kenya for several weeks for a much needed vacation. Chynna was honest that she had been under a severe amount of stress for years and had never truly recovered or mourned their mother’s death, because she’d gone back to work immediately. She apologized to her fans who felt deceived by Kenya giving several concerts in her absence and personally offered refunds to each and every one of them from her own funds. Kenya was proud of Chynna for such a generous offer. She’d thought that was the end of the conference, but it wasn’t. The press began firing questions at Kenya.
“Kenya, what’s next for you?” one of the reporters shouted.
“We hear Carter Wright has fired your sister and hired you for the role of Yvette. Are the rumors true?”
“Are you and Lucas Kingston really an item? Or did he know about the sham the entire time?”
Kenya turned to Chynna at her side. Neither one of them had been prepared for the press’s interest in Kenya.
But it was Eli who stepped in. “Listen, guys,” he said, “this conference is about Chynna.” He gave Kenya a cursory glance. “And we’ll only be answering questions on our Multi-Platinum artist.”
Kenya felt the dagger Eli had thrown at her. It was obvious the man didn’t like her and wanted all the focus on Chynna. And that was just fine with her; she’d never wanted to be in the spotlight long term. She was supposed to have played Chynna incognito and gone back to her life in New York. How could she have known that her time in LA would change her life?
“C’mon, Eli,” one of the reporters said. “Even you must know that this story doesn’t end with Chynna. Kenya here infiltrated your ranks without being discovered. If nothing else, she’s been touted as the next big thing, and we’re all interested.”
Harts of Arizona Series Page 29