Chart Toppers (Star Maker Book 3) (24 page)

Seconds
later a girl’s voice answered the phone.
 
Sully spoke up.
 
“Pheebs?
 
It’s Sully Foxx.”

She
sounded shocked and excited to hear his voice.
 
“Sully?
 
Oh my God!
 
How are you, gorgeous?
 
I’ve wanted to talk to you so bad!
 
I had no way of calling you.”

He turned
on the charm.
 
“Hey, darlin’, it’s
good to hear your voice.
 
I’ve been
super busy recording my new album.
 
How are you?”

“I’m
really good.
 
Like really good.
 
Sull, I have something to tell you, and
I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”

“Lay it
on me, sweetie.”

“You
know how we were like together for a while on the road?”

He
exchanged a look with Kit.
 
“Yeah.”

Phoebe
continued.
 
“Well, I, um like, got
pregnant.
 
And now you have a son.”

Sully
played dumb.
 
“I do?
 
But how’s that possible Pheebs?
 
We were super careful.
 
Are you sure he’s mine?
 
You’re so beautiful.
 
You’ve probably got guys lined up down
the block for you.”

She
giggled.
 
“Oh, Sull, you’re so
sweet.
 
It’s gotta be yours.
 
I’m like ninety-five percent sure.”

Sully
and Kit’s eyes met, and she couldn’t help but grin.
 
He nodded and grinned back at her.
 
“Ninety-five percent sure, huh?
 
That’s a pretty high percentage.”

“Yeah,
it is.
 
I’m pretty sure it’s yours
‘cuz I only did it with my ex-boyfriend like one more time and well, you and I
did it a whole lot more when I was on tour with you.
 
You’re an animal!”

He
chuckled, entertained at how ridiculous this girl was.
 
He quickly put himself back in check to
take care of the situation at hand.
 
“Thank you, Pheebs.
 
So, you
think I’m your baby’s daddy, huh?”

“Yep.
 
Sull, I’m in a lot of trouble.
 
I’m struggling.
 
My mom kicked me out when I got pregnant,
and I’m living in this crappy apartment trying to take care of this screaming
baby and get work.
 
It sucks.
 
I need your help.
 
Can you send me a check?”

“Hmmm.
 
I don’t think I can, Pheebs.
 
See, I’ve got these really strict
business managers and attorneys and stuff and it’s hard for me to access my
money without them making a stink about it.”

“Oh.
 
Maybe I should have my attorney talk to
you then.”

He
played dumb.
 
“You have an
attorney?
 
You can barely make rent,
and you have an attorney?”

She
ignored his questions.
 
“Y’know
Sull, maybe it’s better if your money people talk to her.
 
And then once we get everything squared
away, you can come out here and see your son.
 
He’s super cute.
 
Or maybe you could fly us out to your
place in California?”

“I’ll
talk to my money people today, Pheebs.
 
I’ll have them call your lawyer.”

“Cool!”
 
They could hear the baby fussing in the
background.
 
“I have to go; the baby
needs to eat.
 
Call me later, ok
gorgeous?”

“Talk
to you later, Pheebs.”

He
pressed the button to disconnect the call and looked at Kit.
 
“Well?”

She
chuckled.
 
“You were so sweet to
her.
 
Nicely done.
 
I’ll call her attorney right now.
 
I want to see how quickly we need to get
you out to Indy.”

He
raised his eyebrows.
 
“Indiana?
 
Why?”

She
stared at him.
 
“You’re gonna need
to take a paternity test and results will stick better if you take the test in
the same hospital where the baby was born.
 
If we let her attorney determine the location and the test proves that
you are not the father, there will be no contest.
 
You’ll be off the hook.
 
If you have your blood drawn here and
sent out there to compare to the baby, it’s going to make it harder for the
results to stick.”

His
eyes pleaded with her.
 
“Will you
come with me?”

She
shook her head.
 
“Babe, I
can’t.
 
We’re in crunch time with this
album, and I need to be in the studio.
 
I’m going to send Daniel Thomas with you. I already talked to him.
 
He’s doing it as a favor.”

Sully
frowned.
 
“Name sounds
familiar.
 
Who is Daniel Thomas
again?”

“My
successor at Diamond.
 
He’s chief
counsel now.
 
It will look
good—better than if Bill Sykes or I went with you.
 
It will look like Diamond is trying to
protect you, and that’s exactly how we want to look to for Phoebe’s
attorney.
 
Intimidation is a key
tactic here.
 
I did a little
research on her.
 
She’s a
high-powered attorney out of Chicago and guess whose firm she works for.”

Sully
shook his head in disgust, knowing exactly where this was going.
 
He stared at her and spoke flatly.
 
“No way.
 
Are you serious?”

Kit
forced a grin. “Yep, you guessed it, hon. McKenna, Dunagan, and Grant employs
her.
 
I did a little digging.
 
She’s a fourth-year associate on the
partner track.
 
I don’t know if my
dad or my older brother know about this suit or are behind this in any way, but
I have a feeling they might be.
 
As
you well know, they’re both a piece of work.
 
If I had to venture a guess, I’d say
it’s my brother behind this more than my dad.
 
My dad is way too busy slaying corporate
Goliath’s to be bothered by a fly in the ointment like this.”

Sully
sighed.
 
“Does he really hate me
that much?”

She stood
up, folded her arms in front of her chest and didn’t miss a beat.
 
“James Junior?
 
Yep.
 
Think about it.
 
In his eyes, you stole his
inheritance.
 
Nana gave you a huge
chunk of change that I can bet was originally his.
 
And as far as I’m concerned you earned
every red cent of it.”
 

He
forced a grin.
 
“Thanks, babe.
 
Ok, what do you need me to do now?”

“Go
take a shower, start your day.
 
Ask
G to come back in here.
 
She and I
will get to work.
 
You can chill for
the next hour.
 
We’ll call you back
in when we need you, just don’t wander off too far.”

He got
up, walked around to her side and kissed her on the cheek.
 
“I won’t.
 
Thank you, babe.”

“You’re
welcome.”

He
picked up her mug and looked at it.
 
“You could use some more coffee.
 
Let me get some for you.”

She
grinned.
 
“Thank you.”
 
She got up and sat behind her desk
again.
 
He returned with a hot cup
of coffee and placed it in front of her prepared exactly how she loved it.
 
He leaned forward and kissed her on the
cheek again as Giselle was entering the room.
 

He
gazed into Kit’s eyes.
 
“I love you,
baby.”

She
nodded.
 
“I love you too.”

As
Giselle was walking up to the desk, Sully looked at her and rested his hand on
her shoulder.
 
“Thanks for getting
me that number. It helped us out a lot.”

She
nodded.
 
“Sure.”
 
As Sully left the office, she looked at
Kit.
 
“I take it he called Phoebe.”

Kit motioned
to the chair.
 
“Have a seat.
 
Yes, he called her on speaker, and I
listened in.
 
The girl is dumb.
 
This should be open and shut,
hopefully.”

She
stared.
 
“According to Sully it’s a
shut case.”

Kit
shrugged her shoulders.
 
“He’s not
willing to acknowledge the margin of error.
 
His state of mind may not have been
thinking straight that night and his memory of the event may be faulty.
 
I love my husband, but sometimes he
can’t see his blind spots.
 
He
thinks he’s invincible, and he’s not.
 

“He and
I weren’t together at that time. It was really rough on both of us.
 
I want to believe him, God do I want to
believe him, but we’ve got a fifty-fifty chance here that I cannot ignore.
 
And until I see the results of that
paternity test, I’m not going to sleep well.”

Giselle
frowned.
 
“Did you get any sleep
last night?”

“Not
really.
 
Sully and I watched TV for
a bit.
 
He went up to bed at one,
and I went out to the studio to work.
 
I was out there until about four and took a quick catnap on the sofa in
here until six.
 
Got back on the
boards and worked until eight when you got here and gave us that number. We may
have to get him on a plane to Indy today.
 
Get on the phone with NetJets and see how quickly they can get him out
and back.
 
It’s going to be him and Daniel.”

“Daniel
Thomas?”

“Yes.
 
Make sure to get limo service from the
airport to wherever in Indy he has to go for his blood test.”

Giselle
nodded.
 
“I’m on it.”

“Thank
you.
 
I have to head back out to the
studio.
 
Fred is due here any minute,
and I’m close to finishing this song.
 
Call me with any hot developments.”

“You
got it.”

Kit
headed out to the studio, unable to hold back from chain-smoking again.
 
She knew it was a nasty habit, and she
needed to stop, but couldn’t seem to do it.
 
She opted for a glass of scotch in the
studio even though it was only nine in the morning.
 
She hit the playback button and was
leaning over the boards, listening intently.
 
She noticed Fred come in out of the
corner of her eye.
 

He took
a seat next to her and grinned. When the song finished, he chuckled.
 
“Starting early today, Kit?”

She grinned
and nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
Oh, Fred, you have no idea what the last
twenty-four hours have been like.”

He
laughed.
 
“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.
 
And trust me, you do not want to
know.
 
Let’s roll on this.
 
I want to make sure we make some headway
before the band comes in.
 
We have
‘Touch Me’ on the schedule today.
 
We’re going to have to start it without Sully.
 
I think I’m going to have to cut him out
of the schedule for today and tomorrow, and we’ll make up his vocals in the
end.
 
I’ll do his rhythm guitar
parts, so we don’t lose time.”

Fred
looked at her, genuinely concerned.
 
“Is he ok?”

She
nodded.
 
She didn’t want the band or
Fred to get wind of the situation.
 
“Oh yeah, he’s fine.
 
Just
has to take care of some urgent business out of town.”

“Oh ok,
good.”

“I
can’t believe we’ve made it to the last song.
 
And if we can pull it off, we’ll be in
good shape to start mixing by the end of the week.
 
What kind of shape are the tracks in?”

He
nodded.
 
“Decent, but I need to do
some work in certain parts.
 
I’ll
start working on that later today during breaks.”