Chapter 28
Brandon
The clinic was your run-of-the-mill facility that specialized in family planning and women’s care. It had a cheery sign out front with a dancing mother and child, declaring an enthusiastic welcome.
There was barely anyone in the lobby when we stepped inside—an elderly woman who very obviously gave mine and Avery’s linked hands a hard stare as we passed by, and a young couple with a small child playing quietly on the floor—and made our way over to the front counter.
I had no idea what to expect during this so-called mission of ours, though I had hope. The thing about having an obscene amount of money like Avery was that it went far. Especially, with getting people to work with you and do favors under the table that they’d otherwise balk at.
There was a budding belief in me that all of this pregnancy thing was still somehow fake and with us coming here to gather the paperwork (or in our case, the lack thereof), Ana would soon be revealed to be the scammer Avery’s gut was telling him she was.
As the cynic out of the two of us, it was hard not to give in to the rational side of my brain telling me that we were wasting our time and that even with some amount of proof favoring our side, proving it to a jury or a judge was going to be a hell of a lot harder than either of us knew.
The fact of the matter was that I loathed seeing Avery hurt. If we somehow did manage to get the proof and it only proved Ana’s case more, then what? How crushed would Avery be? His entire world would be split in two once again.
He’d still be forced to work with a woman he didn’t know and a brother he’d probably never have any kind of relationship with. It wasn’t like she was interested in getting to know him while she was married to his father, anyway.
The only logical reason she was rearing her ugly head now was because she knew she had a one-way ticket into the high life. Being married to a billionaire and pregnant with his unborn child? That was the kind of plan bathed in gold.
If she played her cards right, which was looking very likely, she and her future family would be set for the rest of forever. That kind of money seldom ever ran dry.
Avery tightened his fingers around mine as the window at the counter opened and a nurse flashed him a polite smile. “Can I help you?”
I couldn’t help the sharp churn in my stomach now that we were actually doing this.
Nor the tickle of butterflies that were kicking up from holding Avery’s hand out in public so blatantly.
He’d grabbed it the second he’d come around to my side of the car after parking, lacing our hands together like we’d been doing it for years.
All of this was so damn new that it was throwing me for a loop. But that was Avery for you. Always switching things up when I least expected it.
“Hi, we’re here to obtain some records for a patient,” Avery said.
The woman’s keyboard clacked loudly as she typed on it. “Patient name?”
“Ana McAllister.”
My heart pounded in time with her keyboard. How was any of this going to work? Sure, everyone had a price but that didn’t mean some random person was going to throw their entire career away for a couple of randoms like us and a pocket full of hundreds.
“Oh, Mr. McAllister,” the woman suddenly said, her eyes widened as soon as she seemed to recognize his face. “Yes, uh... your wife?”
I quickly let go of his hand while he gave her a warm looking smile. “Yes. She needs a copy of her medical records and any tests that were performed here at the clinic. For our insurance. Did you need my license?”
Keeping it short and simple. I had to hand it to him, he was still quite the smooth talker.
She nodded, her eyes darting down to her screen. “You’ll need to go to the records department. They’ll ask for your ID down there and verification that you’re on her HIPAA. But once that’s all set, they can print you off some copies.”
“Thanks. This way?” He gestured to the door on the opposite side of the office.
She shook her head, standing from her chair in order to lean her torso out of the little window to point with her pen at the door next to it. “Go through that one and follow the signs down. I’ll let Patty know you’re on your way.”
Avery grabbed my arm while turning from the counter. “Thanks so much.”
Without wasting any more time, and in an effort not to look any more suspicious than I already felt we did, we headed over to the door and slipped on through, letting it slam behind us. The hallway was poorly lit, and thankfully empty, giving us time to pause and collect ourselves.
Breathing out slowly while simultaneously trying to not freak out and blow our cover, I leaned back against the wall.
Funny that something like this was making me feel like we were trying to bust out of jail when in reality at any point, we could walk away from this cleanly and without anyone knowing.
Avery and I had never been delinquents of any kind, choosing to keep to ourselves while the rest of our peers were off partying and doing whatever they could to pass the time before we all graduated and went our separate ways.
Yet, here we were at the precipice of something way worse than stealing my mom’s liquor and sneaking off into the woods to have a small bonfire and down it between the two of us.
This was a damn felony in the making.
“Hey.” A hand cupped my face. “We’ve got this.”
Looking up into Avery’s deep blue eyes, I had the instinct to argue with him but.
.. couldn’t. Not when he brought me peace the second he dragged his thumb across my cheek, settling all of my nervousness instantly.
He’d always had that way about him—calming the raging storm inside of me no matter what was going on around us.
I trusted him intrinsically. More than my siblings and my parents combined.
Still, I asked, “What if we get arrested?”
He shook his head. “I won’t let that happen. I’d get us bailed out before your ass can warm that bench.”
Despite my nerves, I laughed. “What a promise.”
“One I intend to keep.”
I believed him.
Avery wouldn’t make statements like that if he didn’t have full confidence in what he was saying. Not to mention if we were going to go down for doing something reckless and stupid like this, at least we’d be doing so together.
What more could I ask for?
Grabbing his hand again, I squeezed it. “All right, let’s go commit a crime, then.”
Avery laughed.
As it turned out, the price for a record keeper’s silence, and for a freshly printed copy of a former Russian model’s medical records, was about five thousand dollars wired to a local credit union and an old twenty-five dollar gift card I’d had stuffed in my wallet for a local fast food joint.
I never wanted to get to the point where I thought something like that was getting off easy, but... well...
Not to mention how hot it was watching Avery work his charm on the record keeper.
Picturing him doing the same thing but in a boardroom setting with a bunch of old men with too much money burning in their pockets, and a shotgun cocked to fire the word ‘no’ at any suggestion brought up that could possibly threaten their bottom line, was hot enough to make my pants grow tight the moment the papers were being passed over to Avery, fresh off the printer.
He always impressed me with how he could navigate a tense situation. In control, confident, and ten steps ahead. His mother would be proud of the man he turned out to be. I know I certainly was.
Once we were safely back in the car and the doors locked behind us, my entire body flopped back against the seat, sagging with relief that we were in the clear.
For now.
“I can’t believe that actually worked.” Rolling my head to the side, I regarded Avery with a cursory glance. “You think that lady at the front desk is going to follow up with Ana about us obtaining her records?
Avery shoved his key into the ignition, starting the car and then throwing it into reverse. “If she does, I’ll slap her with a lawsuit.”
Despite his harsh threat, I smiled a little. “Can’t really sue her if she’s doing her job?”
“Lawsuits scare people into silence.”
I snorted. Spoken like a true CEO.
Though, he was right in a sense. If the record keeper was smart and wanted to keep his money, he’d shut down any questions the front desk lady had no matter how morally wrong it felt to do so.
Because if anything, he was an accomplice in all of this as well and like hell Avery would show him mercy if he so much as squealed.
If we were going down, that record keeper was coming with us. Maybe even the front desk lady, too, for not verifying Avery’s identity.
The McAllisters weren’t to be messed with. Everyone in Ellington Heights knew that.
This was all speculation, of course, and my paranoid mind working overtime because I felt guilty for doing something illegal even to help a friend out of a difficult and desperate situation.
However, if a woman like Ana was in any way a con artist scamming my best friend, were Avery and I truly hurting anyone innocent?
Gesturing to the papers, I asked. “So, now what?”
As he drove us into traffic, his hand drifted over to rest on my thigh. “We’ll bring it to my lawyer. He’s going to be pissed with how we obtained them, but I really don’t care. He’ll figure out how to get it admissible if it turns out we need it for evidence in court.”
I felt like I was in some TV drama as the sidekick to a billionaire protagonist and his ragtag team of morally gray assistants.
I imagined working for Avery was kind of like that—dangerous in terms of how far he’d be willing to push the envelope at times, and yet garnered fierce loyalty due to his protectiveness over those he deemed his responsibility.
All that to say, looking down at the papers in my lap, and trying to ignore the heat radiating through my pants from where Avery was touching me, I hoped that whatever was in here turned his luck around. I hated seeing him suffer.