Chapter 27
twenty-seven
LOS ANGELES, CA
“So, what did you think?” Ben asked, rubbing his hands together. “Food stations and high-topped cocktail tables, could that work?”
Avery wished it could. If only it were that easy.
Adam had called the events manager at the Auto History Museum as soon as he’d dropped Sadie off at school. The date was available, and Ben and Avery headed straight there to check out the space after stopping at her apartment to shower and change.
Avery shook her head. “Sadly, I don’t think the layout is right. There isn’t enough space for a sit-down dinner and we can’t hold the crowd’s attention during the auction if they aren’t all seated formally. It’s too risky.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean. You really are good at this, Aves, I never would have thought of that.”
She felt a weight drop into the pit of her stomach, “I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”
“I’ll keep thinking too, now that I have a better idea of the space requirements - basically an empty square that we can fill with tables and a small stage. I see now why hotels always work out so well.”
“Yep,” Avery said, popping the p. “It basically has to be a wedding venue. And there’s a reason no one gets married during the holiday season.”
“We’ll figure it out, I promise,” Ben gave her a hug before he took off, leaving Avery on the sidewalk, the wheels in her brain turning. A big square room they could put tables and a stage in—there had to be a big blank room somewhere in the city. Think, Avery, think.
* * *
Avery racked her brain all afternoon for another venue, and was still coming up blank.
She was about ready to call it a day when her phone vibrated on her desk.
Her heart skipped a beat, her traitorous nervous system held out hope that it would be a certain race car driver, even though she’d blocked him.
His golden green eyes, his smile, his broad hands and lean muscular frame—she missed him, the thought of his body, his hands on her body.
But, no. It was Stacey. Avery lifted the phone to her ear.
“I’m calling to check on you after that podcast dropped this morning,” Stacey sounded apprehensive. “And I know things are weird between you and Teddy, but you may want to reach out to him.”
“What podcast? What’s going on?” Avery asked, her skin prickling.
“No one told you yet?” Stacey paused. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m going to send it to you right now, so you can hear it yourself. Hang on.”
Avery drummed her fingers on her desk impatiently until a link popped up on her screen: “Beyond the Apex Podcast: Breaking News: Teddy Ross’s Scandalous Past.”
An immediate burst of adrenaline shot through her body. Did this mean news of his dad had gotten out? That was the only Teddy related scandal Avery knew of, and she was quite certain that despite how things ended between them, Teddy hadn’t been hiding any other dark secrets from her.
How on earth could this random podcaster dude find out about Teddy’s dad?
As far as she was aware, only the very top-level executives and the PR team at Silver knew about the situation.
And me. I certainly didn’t tell anyone. Well, except for Ben.
But Ben would never, ever in a million years betray her confidence.
“Avery, hello? Are you there? Did you get it?” The sound of Stacey’s voice got her out of her head.
“Yes, I’m here. I just got the link—is this about Teddy’s dad?” Avery asked.
“Yes, it is. So, you know?” Stacey replied.
“Yeah, he told me in Mexico. Before everything went to hell…”
“I thought he may have told you. We had a ‘Team Teddy’ crisis management meeting. James and some guy from legal reminded everyone that no one outside Teddy’s closest advisors, and his family, of course, knew about his dad betting on races.
Legal was there to remind us that we had all signed NDAs and that Teddy would not hesitate to take legal action.
And Teddy sheepishly admitted that there was one other person in his life he had told. I assumed it was you.”
“It was me,” her heart fluttered at the news that she was someone in his “personal life.”
“But I haven’t told anyone but Ben, and Ben sure as hell wouldn’t tell an F1 podcaster…
” Avery's voice trailed off. While she wanted to get to the bottom of this, her thoughts drifted to Teddy himself.
She could picture him sitting in the meeting, completely stoic, his hazel eyes shimmering with heat, all business-like, but hurting inside, worried about his mom and brother, the impact this would have on them.
“How’s Teddy handling all of this? Is he okay?”
“He’s holding it together, but I can tell he’s upset. He’s not going to race this weekend; he’s going to fly home to Scotland to be with his family for a couple days,” Stacey said.
Avery sagged back into her chair—it was everything he feared coming true. Did Teddy think it was her who tipped off a podcaster in spite? She hoped he knew her better than that.
“I’m going to listen to this thing for myself,” Avery sighed. “Before I do, not to sound selfish or anything, but am I mentioned? Did whoever leaked this know about our breakup? I want to prepare myself for what I’m about to hear.”
“No, you aren’t mentioned at all,” Stacey answered. “The podcaster tells the full story of Teddy’s dad as if he’s a reporter breaking the Watergate scandal and deserves the Pulitzer Prize. It’s a bit over-the-top. Well, you’ll see. Call me later after you’ve listened?”
“I will. Thanks for the call Stace, I really appreciate it. Talk to you later,” Avery hit the end button and popped in her earbuds to listen.
She felt a dull headache begin to build at the base of her skull, surely a physical reaction to the news. Some fresh air might help. She stood up and grabbed her sweater from the hook on the back of her door and headed outside to stroll along the beach.
The sun was shining brightly and from inside it looked like a beautiful day. But as soon as Avery walked outside the building, a gust of wind came off the water, rattling the palm trees.
She shivered. She thought about turning back, but knew that she wouldn’t be able to sit still while she listened, so she ambled on and pressed play.
Blake: Welcome everyone to today’s episode of Beyond The Apex: A Formula One Podcast. I’m your host Blake Beckett. And boy, oh boy, is today’s episode a juicy one. So buckle up, Silver fans.
Avery groaned and pulled her sweater around her body as she walked further down the beach path. She wasn’t entirely sure whether the chill she felt was from the windy ocean air or the dread she felt anticipating what she was about to hear.
Blake: Today we are going to explore the scandalous family history of none other than Silver’s golden boy, Teddy Ross.
Let’s start with this. Did you know that Teddy’s real last name is Campbell?
So what? You might ask. Celebrities use catchier stage names all the time.
Well, I’m about to tell you all about why Teddy Ross wouldn’t want to use his given last name, Campbell, right after this break.
Avery fast forwarded through the advertisements.
Blake: And we are back. So who is Teddy Ross, really?
Turns out that the notoriously private Teddy was born in Scotland as Teddy Campbell, son of Nigel Campbell and Margaret Ross.
And as true Teddy fans already know, his family almost never appears in photos or race coverage.
Teddy has maintained that the reason he keeps his family away from the public is to protect their privacy, but maybe it’s to protect himself from negative publicity.
Because Nigel Campbell, Teddy’s estranged father, is a criminal. And Teddy just might be his accomplice.
Avery increased the audio speed to 2x and Blake Beckett raced through the rest of the sordid details of Nigel’s sports fixing past. She already knew the facts, and the emotional impact Nigel’s crimes had on his family
Blake: Did Teddy lose the F2 championship on purpose? Can his team and fans trust him? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, or by leaving a voicemail at…
Avery’s heart knocked into the walls of her chest. As angry as she still was at Teddy, she knew this was basically his worst nightmare—that fans would lose their faith in him, think that he lost a race on purpose, that it could happen again.
How many people knew Teddy’s family secret by now? How many listeners did this guy even have?
She looked down at her phone, and navigated beneath the podcast logo, photo, and description.
It wasn’t ranked in the top 100 shows or anything, but it had a 4.
8 rating and several hundred reviews. Naturally, some of those listeners were F1 reporters, and after other media outlets picked up the story and disseminated it farther, the whole world would know.
The dull headache she’d felt coming on minutes ago was now pounding in her temples.
She turned around and walked back in the direction of her office.
She needed to take something before it turned into a full-fledged migraine and rendered her useless the next two days.
She also had to get to the bottom of how the secret had gotten to Blake Beckett, not lie in a dark room with ice packs on her head.
She knew James and the Silver PR machine would be conducting their own thorough investigation, but her own internet stalking might uncover something useful.
It was possible that someone was trying to hurt the Silver family personally by way of hurting Teddy.
It wouldn’t be the first time someone had sought to bring the seemingly too-fortunate Silver family down a notch or two.
She sat back down at her desk and rummaged through the top drawer until she found her bottle of Excedrin. She poured two of the pills into her hand and swallowed them dry.
Avery’s fingers trembled as she typed Blake Beckett into the search bar at the top of her screen, her breath stuck in her throat as her computer loaded the search results.
If Blake Beckett was trying to grow a following and audience for his podcast, which presumably he was, it wouldn’t be hard to find him.
And boom, there he was, the first result on the page was the podcast’s website.
She clicked on it, a pretty boilerplate site with show notes and links to episodes, but it didn’t help her learn anything personal about Blake, except that he was decent at SEO.
She’d need to dig a lot deeper—maybe take a deep dive into his social media pages if she was going to be able to deduce how on earth he’d found out about Teddy’s dad.
She scrolled further down the search results page and found Blake’s Linkedin profile.
This might help. Current location - New York, NY, well that didn’t exactly narrow it down.
Current job: host of Beyond The Apex pod.
Okay, also not that helpful. But his previous job, now here was something: Vice President, Beckett Enterprises in El Segundo, CA.
Beckett Enterprises? Like the big construction company in town that had built nearly every new skyscraper in LA County in the past thirty years?
Blake’s headshot made him look about thirty-ish, so maybe he’d been working for a family member before he decided to launch a F1 podcast.
She started a new search for ‘Beckett Enterprises.’
Family business, blah blah blah, started by someone named Samuel Beckett.
But then there it was, a picture of Mr. Samuel Beckett, and he looked somehow familiar.
She zoomed in to get a better look at his features.
Had she met him at a charity event? Maybe the gala last year?
And then, it hit her like a bolt of lightning.
The gray hair, the bow tie, the cozy fire.
Samuel Beckett was one of the older guys she had utterly dismissed at the country club bar.
No, no, no. It couldn’t be. Did he overhear us and share the information with his son, who happens to have a Formula One podcast?
Avery’s stomach roiled. She was the source of the leak.