Dont Bet Your Safety on Someone Elses Conscience
Avery had no idea that after she shut him down, Warren Sterling was already plotting his revenge. But even if she had, it wouldn't have changed much. She was already taking precautions.
The entire ride back to the hotel, her mind was on her own safety.
She wasn't some naive girl who didn't know how the world worked.
Growing up an orphan, bouncing between jobs, she understood better than anyone that desperate people have no limits.
She had died once before. She wasn't about to bet her life on someone else's good intentions.
It was past ten by the time she got back to her room.
Avery went straight for the bathroom, letting a long, hot shower wash away the day's grime.
When she stepped out, her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
It was Owen Bowen. She picked it up, swiped it open, and saw he'd messaged her earlier while she was waiting for her ride.
He'd wanted to discuss the contract. She'd been on the road and couldn't get into it, so she'd left him on read.
Now that she finally had a minute, she could get back to him.
She opened the chat, but there was no contract attached, just two messages asking when she was heading to Hollywood. He hadn't raised a single objection to the terms she'd sent over.
Avery stared at the screen, stunned. *Was he really this easy to deal with?*
The contract she'd drafted was fair, sure, but it was also airtight.
As long as she didn't breach it, there was no way for a client to take advantage of her.
She'd been a little fired up when she wrote it, mostly because the first version he'd sent over was a joke.
It wasn't just the lowball pay; the terms were aggressive and the responsibilities were completely one-sided.
It was a screw-you contract, plain and simple.
And now he'd agreed to her strict counteroffer without a fight?
Avery reread his messages a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining things. Once it sank in, she felt her shoulders relax as she typed out a reply.
"How about the morning two days from now?"
She'd take the bar exam the day after tomorrow and fly to Hollywood the day after that.
As for signing with Stellar Media... if she was reading the situation right, that deal wasn't going to be finalized anytime soon.
They might not even have an answer for her by the time she finished filming Owen's project. Anyway, she wasn't in a hurry.
Owen's reply came back in ten seconds.
"That works. Just message me before you board your flight, and I'll pick you up at the airport."
Another message popped up immediately after. "Here's the script for the first ten episodes. You can take a look beforehand."
A document was attached.
Avery replied with a simple "Okay," then opened the script for a quick scan.
She'd had a little to drink earlier, and her head still felt fuzzy, so she wasn't exactly at her sharpest.
She didn't push it. After a quick glance, she tossed her phone onto the bed, grabbed a sheet mask from her suitcase, and went back into the bathroom.
If she was going into the entertainment industry, she had to take care of her face. This face was her ticket, and it couldn't have a single flaw. It was a matter of professional respect.
By the time she finished her whole skincare routine, it was nearly eleven. Avery looked in the mirror, patting her smooth, glowing cheeks before finally climbing into bed. Just before she drifted off, she sent a message to her brother, Cole.
*Do you know any tall, built guys from back home? Retired military?*
She sent it in a haze, completely out of the blue and with zero explanation.
Cole got the weird text and immediately tried to video call her, demanding to know what was going on.
But her phone was on vibrate, so she slept right through it, and she didn't reply to any of his follow-up messages, either.
The silence freaked him out so much that he almost called his old friends in New York City to go check on her.
The next morning, Avery was woken by her phone buzzing insistently against her pillow.
The sky outside was still a hazy gray, and she could faintly hear the rustle of a street sweeper outside her window.
She rubbed her sore eyes, fished the phone out from under her, and answered without even checking the screen.
"Avery, where are you? Did something happen?" Cole's anxious voice crackled through the speaker.
"I'm at the hotel," she replied, her voice thick with sleep.
"What was that message about last night? Are you in some kind of trouble?"
Cole had been working the night shift, and her text had sent him into a spiral.
But Avery had been dead to the world, sleeping through his frantic calls and messages.
He'd just finished with an emergency patient and, after catching his breath, decided to try calling one last time.
He was shocked when she actually picked up.
Avery was still waking up, her brain foggy, and it took her a second to process what he was talking about.
Before falling asleep, her mind had been racing, trying to figure out how to protect herself from the Sterlings.
After turning it over and over, she'd decided to hire a bodyguard.
But she didn't trust strangers, which was why she'd sent that hazy, middle-of-the-night text to Cole.
"You know I'm going to do some filming after the bar exam, right?"
she said, fudging the truth. "The entertainment industry is a messy place, so I want to hire someone to watch my back. I don't trust strangers, and I figured someone from back home would be more reliable."
She left out the part about running into the Sterling family.
It was a little white lie to keep him from worrying.
"Jesus, Avery. You scared me. I thought it was something serious," Cole said, the relief in his voice palpable.
He thought for a moment. "Actually, I might know someone. Do you remember my friend Wyatt? Wyatt Riggs? He got out of the army last year and is working at the Westlake Logistics Hub. I ran into him recently, and it sounded like he was looking to change jobs."
Cole didn't find her request strange at all. You didn't have to work in show business to know how crazy it was; you just had to look at the trending topics on X. Having someone he knew watching Avery's back would actually make him feel a lot better.
"Wyatt..." Avery sat up in bed, squinting as she tried to place the name.
Then it clicked. Wyatt Riggs, Cole's high school classmate.
He was from their hometown and had joined the army right after graduation.
Cole had always dragged her along everywhere when they were kids, so she knew most of his close friends.
Wyatt was definitely a reliable guy. He'd served for eleven years, and while she didn't know his specific unit, she figured his combat skills had to be solid.
If she ran into real trouble, he'd know how to handle it.
"Okay, ask him," Avery said immediately. "If he's interested, tell him to head straight to Hollywood in a few days and find me there."
After settling the important stuff, they chatted for a few more minutes. Before hanging up, Cole reminded her to find time to visit their old teacher, who was getting older and had surgery a while back. It was one thing when Avery wasn't in the city, but since she was here now, she had to go.
Avery had already planned to visit her today anyway, so she agreed and got up to get ready.
Just as she put on her slippers, her phone lit up again. It was only six-thirty in the morning. *Who else besides Cole would be contacting me this early?* she wondered.
She hadn't closed her messenger app, and a quick glance showed the message was from Leo Foster. She opened their chat, and the first thing she saw sent a chill down her spine.
"Dr. Hayes, Sterling the Mangy Dog hired someone to dig up info on you last night. He knows you're in New York City and is asking people in our circle to find you. Watch your back."