Page 7 of Starring Role

Chapter four

Jimmy was displeased. He'd had such a good initial impression of the commissioner, but now he was beginning to rethink his position. Wolves were arriving in droves: wolf actors auditioning, playing scenes with Lincoln Canes—as his new partner! None of them were as good as Coop, and everybody involved knew it. They tried to shine the best light on it, coach theactors, convince them to play their parts with something more authentic than wooden acting. It was no good; they were probably perfectly nice people, but they weren't Coop, and they couldn't replace him and have the show be half as good.

Frankly, Jimmy (from his exalted and clearly knowledgeable position as a security guard) resented that they would try. If he could see it, why were the peoplein charge—namely, Singh—being so stubborn about it?

Sometimes, one of the other staff or crew would catch his eye and give him a disappointed shake of the head or a sympathetic grimace. They all knew; they were all very well aware. Even though Coop had only filmed three episodes, they'd all taken a liking to him, or had at least found nothing objectionable about him—except for Lincoln, whowas clearly jealous.

He used to be an actor Jimmy had thought well of, or at least hadn't heard anything objectionable about, and it had been exciting to know he would be working at the same studio as someone so well-known. Well, Jimmy's opinion of the man had dropped. If he was a jealous jerk who would try to get a skilled costar fired so that costar wouldn't outshine him, then he was clearlysmall-minded and petty, and not worth admiring or even respecting.

Then again, sometimes it seemed to come back to Singh rather than Lincoln. That concerned and confused Jimmy. It was Singh's show, wasn't it? His brainchild, anyway. Didn't he want it to succeed?

Of course the producer was actually the famous creator ofCop Cityand other small-screen favorites, but Singh had talked him intomaking the show as PR for the Shifters and Partners organization. He should have the final say; perhaps he could make them bring Coop back instead of a new star.

Yes, on one level Jimmy knew he should be rooting for more wolf actors in the industry. And he was. But Coop had been so good at the character he'd played, and he'd cared so very much. There was no hiding that from this particularwolf. You could smell his sincerity, the earnestness of the heart and soul he put into it. It would be such a shame to lose all that talent and passion and replace it with a poorer, more wooden actor—no matter if he was more authentic or not.

Well, that, and Coop was gorgeous. Jimmy was ridiculously attracted to him, it was true. It had been difficult not to stare, and he'd gotten so jealousof the wolf who got to hang out with Coop, laugh and joke with him, who'd even tried to teach him to juggle.

It had been adorable, the way Coop had fumbled the round, colorful beanbags. Yes, Jimmy realized that meant he wasn't the most impartial judge of the whole situation, but he wasn't the only one who thought Coop had been great in the role. It seemed to be something everyone knew, butmost people were tiptoeing around, either because they had no place to say it, or because they'd piss off the people in charge. Even Hope went so far as to say, "They're really not very good, are they?" after a particularly sad batch of actors had come and gone.

Jimmy was privately convinced that they weren't actors at all, just people Singh had dragged in off the street because they weremore or less good-looking, and they were wolves. Bah. What a way to cast! They'd had the perfect actor, and now they were throwing him away? It was ridiculous.

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"Don't forget you'restill on the hook for that wolf role, if they decide to bring you back," Cooper's agent, Allan Pearson, reminded him over their cocktails.

It was good to see Allan, particularly because Coop was stillsmarting from the wholeWolf Copsituation, and a reminder that he was actually a good actor, had his own agent and everything, was more than welcome lately. That, and he was hoping that Allan had some more auditions lined up for him. Like, a lot of auditions. An ungodly amount of auditions. He wanted to be run ragged, run off his feet with potential roles, in the hope that at least some smallpercentage of them would work out. It only made sense, didn't it?

Auditions were a numbers game, if you couldn't play the name game, and didn't have connections or prestige. The only trouble was, Coop had never been very good at math. He savored the cocktail, trying to make it last. It wasn't like he could afford many.

It was nice to be back in California, but everything cost so much. Heneeded his money to last; he needed not to end up in debt, or drop out of the audition game, if he wanted to stay in show biz. He wondered if it was too soon to ask about possible roles. He wanted anything, just to take the sting out of losing his big break after putting his heart and soul into it.

"I know they can ask for me back, but I'm pretty sure they won't."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."He stared at his glass, trying to will away the memories of Lincoln's contempt and Singh's irritation. "The guy in charge didn't like me. He wants a wolf." He shrugged like it didn't matter.