Idleness Is What He Likes
The second Avery Hayes caught a glimpse of Caleb Sterling, she snapped her head away, pretending she hadn't seen a thing.
The guy seemed to have way too much free time on his hands lately.
Shouldn't he be back in Westlake City, playing mind games with his dear uncle Warren?
Why was he always hanging around California?
All that running around, and he still couldn't keep his little songbird on a leash.
Looked like she was cheating on him again.
Caleb seemed just as surprised to see Avery at the Summit Ridge Condominiums. He froze for a beat, his gaze flicking from Avery to Leo Foster beside her before a slow, unreadable smile spread across his face.
*Something's fishy,* he thought. *The two of them... they look a little too close, don't they?*
The moment Leo and Ethan Rhodes saw Avery, their faces went rigid.
Leo stumbled, using his tall frame to block the elevator door as his arm became a blur, frantically mashing the buttons.
At the same time, Ethan threw an arm around Caleb's shoulder and started dragging him away.
"Hey, man, wait, I just remembered I forgot my meds. Let's go back and get them, then we can head out."
It was a textbook case of trying to cover your tracks and failing miserably.
Both Leo and Ethan knew all about the drama between Avery and the Sterlings. Hell, Caleb's brother, Bryce, was still trending on X. If Caleb saw Avery, wouldn't he tear her apart? They had to get him out of there, fast.
Caleb was still trying to puzzle out the connection between Avery and Leo when his two friends manhandled him back toward their room. As they shoved him through the door, he glanced back toward the elevator, but Ethan immediately grabbed his face and twisted it away.
"What are you looking at? C'mon, help me find my medicine. I'm basically blind without my glasses, you gotta help me look."
Caleb cursed under his breath. *If you're going to cover for her, at least make it convincing. Your acting is so bad a blind man could see through it.*
But he didn't call them out on it. He just played along, pretending he hadn't seen Avery while he helped Ethan search for the nonexistent medicine.
No one could know about his arrangement with her, not even Leo.
A secret stops being a secret the moment a third person finds out.
If word got back to his uncle that he knew Avery, he'd be dead in the water long before he ever had a chance to take the man down.
Leo and Ethan let out a quiet sigh of relief and shot each other a look, thinking they'd actually gotten away with it. Of course, whether they had or not was something only Caleb and Avery knew for sure.
Avery, for her part, couldn't have cared less what Caleb was doing at Leo's place.
When the elevator reached the twelfth floor, she rang the doorbell. A smiling woman, Mrs. Gable, opened the door. "Miss Hayes, you're here. Dinner is ready."
The sky outside was dark. Wyatt Riggs and Shane Croft were already back, sitting by the coffee table and studying a spread of photographs.
Avery glanced over and saw that all the photos were of Xavier Cross.
As she walked in, the two men gathered up the pictures, set them aside, and went to wash their hands for dinner.
Mrs. Gable was a housekeeper Diana Marks had hired for Avery from back in Westlake City. She was an incredible cook, and nearly every dish she made carried the spicy, familiar flavor of her hometown.
After dinner, Avery had just sunk into the sofa when her phone rang. It was Caleb.
His end was incredibly loud, the music practically deafening. He must have realized it wasn't a good place for a call, because about thirty seconds later, the noise died down.
"Doctor Hayes, congratulations," he said. "My 'good' older brother got sentenced to three years. You got what you wanted."
"Congratulations to you, too," Avery replied, her voice flat.
"If you hadn't helped, my lawyer wouldn't have been able to get him the maximum sentence."
Three years, she thought, but who knew if he'd actually serve all of it.
Still, she had to admit, Bryce getting sentenced so quickly was thanks to Caleb's slick maneuver.
If he hadn't pulled that stunt, the case wouldn't have even gone to trial this soon, and the longer it dragged on, the more time Warren and Lorraine would have had to pull strings.
Caleb chuckled. "I was just doing what any law-abiding citizen should do. How long he's in for has nothing to do with me."
Avery's eyebrow twitched. *Law-abiding citizen,* she sneered internally. *The nerve.* Threatening her wasn't exactly the behavior of a model citizen.
"Let me tell you some more good news, Miss Hayes," Caleb continued, his tone light and cheerful, like he was sharing a funny story. "This afternoon, my uncle's heart condition flared up again. He's back in the ICU."
"That is good news," Avery said coolly. "You didn't just call to tell me this, did you?"
Caleb laughed softly and got straight to the point. "Of course not. I've got a lead on that matter you mentioned."
Avery knew exactly what he was talking about. Her amber eyes narrowed. "Did you find the source of the money for Lius Food?"
"Not directly," Caleb said, his voice dropping.
"My uncle is keeping it under tight wraps. There's a rumor that Bryce owns a foreign trade company, but I don't think that's what it is at all. All I know is that three days before Bryce's trial, Ronan Bowen flew to Latin America."
He paused, his voice turning serious. "I haven't found out which country yet, but there's no way Ronan would leave at a time like this unless it was for something shady."
Ronan was his uncle's lapdog. He was the one handling things at the company after Bryce got into trouble, yet he chose to fly abroad right when things were most critical. Caleb would never believe it was just a coincidence.
Avery's mind raced, connecting the dots. "You think Warren's money is coming from Latin America?"
"I do," Caleb admitted, not bothering to hide his intentions. "And I know you, Miss Hayes, have ways of getting information that others can't. I need to turn up the heat on my uncle. Once his company is in chaos, things will start to come to light."
The information she'd given him about those two production accidents seven or eight years ago had already helped him uncover a few things.
The person in charge of both incidents was Ronan Bowen, a detail that not even Caleb, let alone the senior executives at Lius Food, had known.
But somehow, she'd dug it up. This woman had connections, and it would be a shame not to use them.
Avery let out a soft, mocking chuckle. "You keep calling him 'uncle,' but he's never treated you like family, has he? He'd rather trust an outsider than you."
Caleb laughed with genuine disdain. "Like I give a damn about being family."
His tone sharpened again. "You just need to get me the information. I'll handle the rest."
He had to find out what Ronan was doing.
This could be the breakthrough he needed to take down his uncle for good.
His own reach was limited; he was fine in Westlake City, but his influence didn't extend much further.
Outside his home turf, the only people he knew were rich kids with too much time on their hands, like Leo and his friends.
Avery was quiet for a moment. "I'll have something for you in a few days," she said thoughtfully.
She wanted to know what was going on with Warren's family, too. If Caleb's plan worked, using external pressure to make Warren panic and slip up, then maybe she wouldn't have to put in much effort at all before the Sterling family was finished for good.
She brought the conversation back to the present, her tone laced with a subtle barb.
"You really do have a lot of free time, though. What can you possibly find out while you're in California?"
*Instead of being in Westlake City taking charge, you're here babysitting your little songbird? Could it be true love?*
Caleb's reply was laced with amusement. "You don't get it. My uncle feels safest when I'm out here being the good-for-nothing screw-up who just causes trouble."