The Spiral Path Read Online Free PDF

outside
my kitchen window, and how did it go?"
    Rainey
grinned. Val Covington, a friend who dated back to elementary school, had been
invaluable in developing The Centurion. She'd read numerous versions of
the screenplay, and though she was a lawyer, not a writer, her comments had
always been right on the mark and refreshingly un-Hollywood. Together they'd
brainstormed the practical and legal difficulties involved in producing
Rainey's dream. "You're going to get a production credit on a movie,
Val."
    "Hot
damn!" Val whooped. "So you've got your deal?"
    "Yep.
Marcus Gordon will be the executive producer, he agreed to let me have final
cut, and my soon-to-be-ex-husband will star."
    "So
Kenzie said yes. I almost wish he hadn't, but with him involved, there's no way
you'll lose money. Congratulations, Rainey--your career as a director has
begun."
    "I
still have to actually make the movie."
    "You
can. You will."
    Val's
warm voice carried the unconditional confidence that was supposed to be offered
by mothers. Sometimes Rainey wondered what kind of relationship she and her
mother would have had if Clementine hadn't died. Would they have been friends?
Rivals? Enemies? Would she have taken her problems to her mother and known
she'd get wise, womanly advice? Impossible to say. Clementine had been an
erratic mother. When she wasn't doing concert tours, she was sometimes devoted
and playful, other times stoned and inaccessible.
    Feeling
her stomach knotting, Rainey said, "Will you be able to visit me during
shooting? It would he great to see you in either New Mexico or England."
    "I
think I can make it. I have a ton of vacation I haven't taken."
    "I'll
expect you then. Heck, I'll cast you as an extra if you want."
    "Short,
Rubenesque redheads do not make ideal extras. Too conspicuous."
    "You're
not Rubenesque--you have a great, curvy female figure. You'd make a nice Cockney
flower girl in one of the London scenes."
    Val
hooted. "Better yet, hooker. Or would that get me disbarred?"
    "Propositioned,
maybe, but not disbarred."
    After
they hung up, Rainey called her lawyer. She wanted Kenzie's contract drawn up
and signed quickly, before he could have second thoughts.
    She
needed to call her cast and key crew members to tell them the project was
definitely a go. Instead she stayed sprawled on the bed with the phone resting
on her midriff. Since it was impossible to keep thoughts of Kenzie at bay,
maybe it was easier just to give in and get them out of her system.

    "Since we're
going to work together, how about joining me for dinner so we can get better
acquainted?" Kenzie suggested as they left the studio where Rainey had won
the role of Marguerite St. Just.
    She
accepted with giddy pleasure, and he took her to one of the fashionable
restaurants where you had to be Somebody to get a table. Kenzie's fame was the
kind that got them instantly escorted to a private corner booth. For three
hours they talked back and forth over trendy food that she barely noticed. She
asked questions to draw him out, since she'd never met an actor who didn't love
talking about himself. He turned the tables by asking about Rainey, and had
been genuinely interested in her answers. He had the deeply flattering ability
to give a woman total attention, as if nothing in the world was more important
than her.
    Soon
they were trading stories about the ups and downs of their careers. She
described almost getting herself killed riding a motorcycle for Biker Babes
from Hell, while he hilariously explained the difficulties of emoting to a
blank wall that would later acquire a monster created from special effects.
    Rainey
hadn't had so much fun in years, and she didn't hesitate when he suggested they
go to his house to rehearse their parts. It was as obvious a pickup line as
she'd ever heard, but she felt reckless and willing to take events as they
came.
    Outside
the restaurant, several paparazzi immediately closed in, cameras flashing and
questions snapping. Rainey flinched