The only problem was that it wasn’t the contract she’d given him.
Her face lost all color as she read the contents. She glanced from him to the paperwork, dumbfounded. “I don’t understand any of this. Who... What?” She shook her head and felt her heart sink at the look on his face as he stared at her, one side of his lip curled.
“You and all the rest of you won’t get away with this bullshit. I’ll fight you in court. I didn’t sign that contract. I don’t know how you did it...why you did it, but we won’t let you get away with this.”
“Key, you have to know that I had nothing to do with this! I would never lie to your family and create something like this. I don’t even know what this is all about.”
“Oh, please, give it a damn rest, Sonia. I don’t know how you found out the details about our family, but you won’t get to blast my family’s business for the entire world to know. I’ll see your ass in court before you do,” he said, the anger in his face and voice making her heart break, and tears of anger and confusion run down her face, unchecked.
Sonia was thunderstruck, not only by his words but what the contract read. In the contract was an amendment stating the Kealohas were giving the production company full approval to contact a family by the name of Wilde, who owned a ranch in Wyoming that was run by the foster sons of Jedediah Clint Wilde.
The biological father of Keanu and Nick Kealoha.
“So...is that how you did it?” He threw the words at her, his back to her as he stood at the door to her trailer. “Made it to the top? By screwing your way there?” His bark of laughter was harsh and without humor.
She slowly turned around to face him.
“Really? Are you honestly accusing me of what I think you are? You think I would do something like this? I don’t know how...or why this happened. But...you believe I did it. Dear God, man, your idiocy is bigger than Mauna Loa!” She named the active volcano on the big island as she hurled the insult, her voice high, not caring who may come by and hear her.
Red stole across the lower line of his stubborn jaw, his face tightening with anger.
He opened his mouth to speak and she held up a palm. “Don’t. Don’t say another word. Because if you do, I will be bound by the oath I took, the creed I stand by, to retort. And what I say won’t be...nice,” she replied. She saw the look on his face, a look of curiosity mixed with anger.
“What damn creed?” he yelled, his booming voice echoing off the trailer walls.
“The ‘don’t curse out a damn fool who questions my ethics’ creed. That’s what creed!” she yelled back, her voice louder, more strident than his. She took a deep breath, narrowed her eyes.
“And you are the biggest asshat who has ever made tempted me to break my creed,” she angrily spit, with only a small catch in her voice to belie the true sense of betrayal she felt.
She was proud of herself that she was able to hold it together.
But she knew she had to get the hell out of there, because if she didn’t there was no telling what she would say to him. Or do.
Her gaze angrily scanned him, head to toe, her eyes landing briefly on the rope near his feet. Images came to mind instantly of what she’d like to do with that rope. And she could promise one thing—it damn well wouldn’t be sexy.
“I am done with you,” she began, and pointed a finger at him. “If you think I’m capable of something so...so heinous, then you don’t know me. You never have.” The last words were torn from her throat as she rushed from the trailer, not wanting him to see the tears of anger, betrayal and love rolling down her face. “And you have no need to haul my ass in court, because I’ll make sure that whoever...however this happened, your family won’t suffer from it. Unlike you, I know a little something about loyalty.” She said the final words, her voice breaking. “Now get out.”
“Sonia!” She heard him bellow but didn’t turn around to look at him.
“Go!” she hurled, unable to take any more. Pain of betrayal was tearing her apart. She didn’t know if she could ever forgive him for thinking she’d hurt him in such a callous way.
* * *
Alone in her hotel room less than an hour later, Sonia haphazardly grabbed clothes. Fisting them, she stuffed them into her suitcase with tears streaming, unchecked, down her face.
After Key had left, she’d rushed around the trailer and hurriedly packed her belongings, including the damning contract. On her way to her car she’d brushed past Nick, nearly knocking him over.
“Hey, whoa there, where’s the fire, Sonia?” Nick’s deep voice, so similar to Key’s, brought another fresh wave of tears to scorch down the line of her cheeks.
She couldn’t bear to look into the face of someone who looked so much like the man she both loved and now hated. A man who would think she could betray him and his family so easily. She clenched her teeth to force the bitter anger and resentful tears away.
Nodding her head toward the stable, she said, “Go ask your brother. I’m sure he will more than oblige you with all the gory details. No fears, I’ll be out of here as soon as I can get the next plane to the mainland!”
“What the hell—” The rest of his words were said to her retreating back as Sonia literally ran away, her boots kicking up dust as she sprinted toward her car.
As her tires pealed out of the long driveway and she sped away, Sonia allowed the tears to fall even as she tried, frantically, to think.
She knew that she had nothing to prove. She hadn’t been involved in the betrayal, hadn’t been the one expose his secret, his family’s secret. She had been just as surprised, as hurt, as Key. She had nothing on her side but the fact that she loved him.
Evidently it wasn’t enough.
She straightened her back, firmed her quivering bottom lip. She had two objectives, and the first was to find out how this had happened.
By the time she got back to her hotel, one of those questions was answered. When she checked the front desk, she found that her assistant had checked out earlier that day.
And she’d had the nerve to leave her a note detailing exactly how she felt about Sonia. Although she hadn’t admitted to what she’d done, she’d left Sonia no doubt that she was responsible for what had happened.
How could she have been so blind? How could she have not seen how Patricia really felt about her?
Numb, she’d read the note, tears slipping down her face, nausea welling, again, in her gut.
She’d felt as though she’d been broadsided by a Mack truck.
In one day she had lost it all. Her reputation, her assistant and her man.
The nausea threatened to overcome her.
Chapter 20
Key sightlessly read the newspaper, his eyes scanning the printed words without seeing them. In between times spent worrying about his father and his brother, his thoughts were, as they had been for nearly two weeks, on Sonia.
Unbelievable, the things he’d said to her still echoed in his mind.
Self-loathing was his new best friend.
He knew she had nothing to do with the betrayal, knew it with everything inside of him, yet he’d called her names he knew she would never forgive him for. All because he was afraid of the feelings she stirred in him.
“So, why don’t you go tell her that you love her? And that you’re an ass. Don’t forget that part. Women love when we admit that.”
His father’s tired voice made Key jump and he stared over at him lying in the bed.
“Hey, Dad, how you feeling?” he asked, walking toward his father’s bedside. “Do you need anything?”
Alek Kealoha’s dark brown eyes stared up into Key’s so long he grew uncomfortable beneath the piercing gaze.
His father sighed, his shoulders slumping, and Key found himself really looking at the man he’d called fat
her for his entire life.
Like Key and Nick, Alek Kealoha was tall, nearly equal in height to Key’s six feet four inches, but time had narrowed his once-broad shoulders and grayed his once-dark brown hair.
“No one but my eldest would make a fool of himself and ruin the best thing that has ever happened to him.”
Key sighed and looked away. “Dad, I don’t want to talk ’bout it. Just leave it alone.” Key had known that Alek was aware of what had happened; he’d known that Nick had told his father what transpired between him and Sonia.
“No, son, I’m not going to leave it alone,” Alek said, his voice strengthening.
At that moment Nick walked into his room, his bright blue eyes darting between Key and their father.
Slowly he walked over to one of the free chairs and, flipping it around, straddled the seat. He didn’t need to say a word. The tension in the room was palpable.
Yet he did.
“What’s up? Are we finally gonna talk all this out?” he asked, and although his expression remained light, Key knew his brother was feeling anything but calm.
“Yes, son,” Alek began, giving his attention to Nick. “We have quite a few things to talk about. And we will. But first things first.” Alek turned away from Nick to face Key. “Key...look, don’t make the same mistake I made with your mother.”
Key felt an immediate denial, not wanting to hear, not wanting to know what happened between his parents, but understanding that his father needed to share it with him. He glanced over at his twin.
Although his expression remained calm, the tic in his cheek told Key that his brother’s mind was set. Key knew that his father wanted...needed to unload his burden.
“Okay, Dad. We’re listening,” he finally said, including his brother as he steeled himself for whatever his father had to say.
“Your mother and I loved each other from the time we were kids. We had the kind of love that the elders didn’t even call puppy love. Everyone knew it. We knew it. It was real. But I was stupid. I didn’t trust that our love was real and I accused your mother of cheating on me. I didn’t give her time to explain, and in my anger I went out and did what I thought she had done to me,” he said, and Key hid his reaction, the surprise at what his father was disclosing.
“When I found out the truth, that it was one of the stable hands trying to break us apart by spreading lies, it was too late. The damage had been done and your mother left the Island.” He turned away, his voice cracking.
He went on to tell them how their mother left for California to stay with family, that the only way he’d heard from her had been though her parents. Although they knew he’d hurt their only daughter, they also knew he loved her and deeply regretted what he’d done.
Eventually he convinced her parents to tell him where he could find her and had gone after her.
“It took a lot of pleading, begging, but she took me back. My A’Kela took me back,” he said, and Key felt the unexpected tears of emotion burn his eyes as he listened to his father, watched the sadness and then happiness burn in his dark brown eyes.
“We didn’t know she was pregnant until after we were married. We got married as soon as we got back home. She told me she’d...met a man while she was there and they’d had a relationship. But she didn’t want to stay with him. She suspected she was pregnant but didn’t tell him. She said he was a good man, but he wasn’t ready to be a father.” The smile he gave to Key and Nick was a bittersweet one.
“I knew your mother was pregnant, but that didn’t matter. I begged her to marry me and she said yes. And from that moment on, you boys were my sons. We never told you about your...father, because there was no need. I was—am—your father,” he said, tears falling down his aged cheeks.
By the time he’d finished, both Nick and Key were at their father’s side, embracing him.
When they broke away his father’s dark eyes held Key’s light blue ones.
“Don’t be an ass like your old man. Go after your woman, son, before it’s too late,” he said, and Key and Nick both laughed and exchanged looks over his head.
He was back to his succinct way of speech.
Their father was going to be okay.
Chapter 21
Beyond exhausted, bordering on sleep deprivation that was compounded by jet lag stemming from her back-to-back trips from L.A. to New Jersey, Sonia let herself into the guesthouse Nick had allowed her to stay in.
During the past week, she’d managed not only to save her job but also convince both Marty and Sheldon, her executive producers, to allow her to speak to the Kealohas. Not in an attempt to convince them to allow a second season—she knew that was out of the question—but to prevent the Kealohas from “hauling their collective asses to court,” as Marty so succinctly put it.
No way in hell she wanted that to happen. Her ass, or any part of her, going to court facing a lawsuit for breach of contract was not an option, now or ever.
Thankfully the men had enough pull that one word from them to Global Media, the publication Patricia was in league with, pulled the plug on any leakage of the private information about the Kealohas and the Wildes.
“Damn you, Patricia,” she cursed. Even to think of her former assistant brought a fresh wave of anger.
Damn woman was lucky Sonia didn’t run up on her and deliver a dose of civilian justice.
She laughed at her own foolishness at the notion. She’d been watching way too many gangster movies lately, as well.
And, of course, thinking of her love for gangster movies brought a sad smile to her face as she remembered the late-night date she and Key had shared after work when she’d giggled, confiding her love of all things gangster. He’d promptly opened his media chest, a pirate’s cove of treasures; every gangster movie from Scarface to Pulp Fiction was within its hallowed depths.
They’d spent the next hours in bed, eyes glued to the mounted flat screen in his bedroom as she lay against his chest in his big king-size bed, a bowl of popcorn stationed on the bedside table.
After she’d found and confronted Patricia all she’d felt for her was pity. Sonia knew that any opportunity she thought she’d had or would gain was all for naught. Although business to the bone, Marty and Sheldon were two men whom one did not mess with.
Something Patricia had learned the hard way.
During their long association, no matter what doubts she’d had about Patricia, Sonia would have never thought the woman could be so cold-blooded. That she could stab her in the back the way she’d done. Sonia had learned that her assistant, beneath the warm smiles and hugs, was a ruthless woman who would do whatever it took to get what she wanted. Apparently she thought the way back to the top, the way to revive her career, was by destroying Sonia’s. She’d been so twisted with jealousy she’d been willing to betray and hurt Sonia.
How had she ever been so stupid that she hadn’t seen through her guise? Sonia wondered, pain at the betrayal still lingering.
She knew that she would never know that answer. In the end, it didn’t matter. It stung, hurt like hell actually, but she would survive. What she wondered was if she could survive what it had done to her relationship with Key, the first man she’d ever given herself to, the first man she’d ever loved.
His image the last time she’d seen him, face tight with anger, blue eyes swirling with emotions ranging from hurt...to love, to anger, slipped past her defenses and into her mind.
“Oh, God.” The raw pain and whispered words were torn from her throat. She swallowed down the tears.
Now, all she wanted to do was curl up in the fetal position and go to sleep for the next twenty-four hours. And, thanks to Nick, that’s exactly what she planned to do, as her meeting with him and his father wasn’t scheduled until tomorrow.
When Nick had contacted her she’d been a
t first suspicious of his call, knowing that Key must have told him what had gone down.
Nick had said that not only had Key told them what happened, but their father had suffered a mild stroke after hearing the story.
The guilt alone nearly broke her down.
Nick had gently told her that although his father had what the doctors called a “mini stroke,” he was fine and recovering in the hospital.
She knew it was yet another reason for Key to hate her.
She’d explained to Nick what happened, with a promise that none of the information would ever be indulged. To that end, she had a document, signed and dated with her name, and Marty’s and Sheldon’s, stating that fact. She wanted to send it via carrier to them but knew that she owed them a face-to-face visit. It was the least she could do.
He’d been silent and carefully listened to her. And although she wondered if he believed her, after he had invited her to come to the ranch and talk to him and his father, promising her that Key was away buying new livestock, she’d accepted the invitation.
It was the height of tourist season, he’d told her, and he doubted at such short notice she’d be able to secure a room. When he’d offered her the guest cottage she’d gladly accepted.
She glanced down at her watch, frowning as she checked the time. It was barely nine in the morning. With the time difference between Hawaii and L.A. she figured that she would be able to grab some shut-eye and not look like death warmed over before her meeting with the men the next day.
She dragged her small suitcase inside the room and sagged against the closed door for a moment before she groped for a light switch and flicked on the lights. Although she was beyond beat, she took in the room with great appreciation. Simply furnished, beautiful.
The small guesthouse was mostly taken up by the large room, the bed on a platform on one side of the room, flanked by a complete wall of windows overlooking the west side of the ranch. It felt like...home.
A tired, bittersweet smile lifted the corner of her mouth as she left her suitcase abandoned at the front door. She walked over to the small sofa in front of the bed and sank down on the soft cushions. She knew she had better get up; if not, she’d fall dead asleep right where she was.
To Have a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming) Page 13
