Avery was ready to give up on Taylor. She had agreed to take her sister shopping on chic Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills to make her feel better. She was doing it as a favor to her mother, and she was also very concerned that she hadn’t seen her sister in a while. But three hours and three-hundred-seventy-five dollars spent in Max-fields, didn’t seem to do the job.
“How about The Ivy?” Avery asked. “It’s only a few blocks away and maybe you’ll see some stars.”
“Do you really think we could get a seat there?” Taylor asked in a crestfallen tone.
“We might have to wait a little bit, but . . .”
“I don’t want to wait. I’d rather just go to McDonalds.”
“Well, there isn’t any McDonalds around here,” Avery said. She glanced across the street. “Why don’t we just go there? Michel Richard Patisserie. I’m sure it’s nice.”
“Whatever.” Taylor shrugged.
“Taylor, you have to help me out here.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know. Talk. Yell. Cry. Do whatever you have to, but do something.”
Taylor didn’t respond. She only looked at Avery as if she thought her sister was the dumbest person on the face of the earth.
“You’re being a brat,” Avery said. “Let’s get some food in your stomach. I’m sure this . . .”
Avery was speechless as she tightened her grip on the bag in her hand. It took her a moment to recover, but it was long enough to pique Taylor’s curiosity.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Nothing.” Avery gestured down the street. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
“Why?” Taylor was staring intently at the restaurant, which had patio seating on both sides of the entry. It was difficult to see who was sitting at the tables because they were under dark green umbrellas the same color as the awning. And there was a screen made of large potted greenery barricading them from the street.
“Let’s just go,” Avery urged, but from the expression that suddenly appeared on Taylor’s face, she could see that her little sister had noticed what Avery was trying to avoid.
“Oh, snap,” was her only response.
Carter and Julia were sitting at a table in the middle of the right side of the patio. It was an intimate scene made even more so by the fact that they were sitting beside each other, instead of across from each other like most people.
Avery felt a tightening in her chest as she watched Julia talk on and on, with an expression that told the world she was absolutely elated at that moment. But it was worse to see the way Carter was looking at her and smiling. He spoke once or twice, but not often. He was showing her attention, the kind of attention that a woman needs. Julia felt she wasn’t just being heard, but also listened to.
Then Carter leaned in and said a few words before they both broke out in laughter. Julia playfully socked Carter in the arm before tasting some of her salad. Carter leaned back in his chair and placed one arm over the back of Julia’s chair.
Avery wanted to cry.
“You are so jealous,” Taylor said, watching her sister’s reaction to the lovebirds.
“I’m not,” Avery lied. “It’s just surprising to run into him here.”
“Uhm . . . this is like his territory,” Taylor said.
“We’re probably the only non-rich people on this block. Shall we say hi?”
“Stop teasing,” Avery said. “Let’s just go.”
“Jeez.” Taylor had to pick up the pace to keep up with her sister, who was almost in a sprint. “Slow down. It’s not like they were having sex or anything.”
For Avery, it would have been better if they had been having sex. Sex was sex, and Carter was a man. She could imagine Carter having sex with Julia and convince herself it was just to keep Julia happy and not make her suspicious. But that wasn’t the case. The scene before her was much worse than a physical release. They seemed so intimate; so close. And the look on Carter’s face when he was listening to Julia . . . he seemed incredibly taken with her.
Avery had been foolish to think he would stop caring for Julia. She knew he did. She had caught glimpses of the two of them over the past six months. They would kiss. He would touch her back. She would touch his arm. She would lean into him. He would put his arm around her shoulders. They would leave . . . together.
Avery swallowed the jealousy these scenes inspired inside of her because she had no reason to do anything else. But now that she had shared herself with Carter, revealed her true feelings and rested in his arms, the effect of seeing him connecting with Julia was more than she could stand.
“Where have you been?” Garrett asked as soon as Haley sat down at their table at Gale’s Italian Restaurant and Bar in Pasadena.
Haley glared at him. “Where do you think? You want to have lunch five hundred miles from civilization, you have to give a girl a little time to get there.”
“It’s not that far.”
“I hope my car doesn’t get broken into.” She placed her purse on the chair next to her. She complained about coming all the way out there, but her curiosity about this restaurant was really the only reason she agreed to lunch with Garrett at all. She had heard great things and already liked the Northern Italian décor of the place.
“So what’s good?” she asked, reaching for her menu.
“I don’t know.” Garrett sounded exhausted.
“What do you like?” she asked.
“I’ve never eaten here before.”
Haley ordered a mango mojito when the waiter appeared. “What do you mean? Why did you want to come all the way . . .”
“Honestly, Haley. It’s Pasadena. It’s not like I asked you to come to Burbank.”
Haley was ready to tell him he better check his attitude, but looking at him she realized there was something more to it. Garrett was scared out of his mind. She hadn’t really looked at him when she sat down, but now she could see he was breaking out into a sweat and his eyes were red. They were also wider than usual and looking everywhere but where they should be—at her.
“What is your problem?”
Garrett gestured for her to be quiet as the waiter returned to take their order.
“Come back later,” Haley ordered. “I might not be staying.”
She leaned back in her chair with a judgmental frown. “What have you done now?”
“I haven’t done anything.” Garrett reached for his glass of water.
Haley could see his hand was shaking a little bit and this made her nervous. “Tell me what’s going on or I’m leaving.”
“You know why I asked you here,” Garrett whispered, leaning forward.
Haley nodded. “You wanted to know what I’ve heard about the case and . . .”
“Please.” He looked around anxiously. “Keep your voice down.”
“I’ll talk however I please,” she said, a little louder than she’d been speaking before. “I can only tell you what I told you over the phone. Nothing. Why would I hear anything? I’m not involved in this.”
“Yes, you are. Haley, I need to know I can count on you to back up my . . .”
“You don’t need to finish your sentence,” she said. “The answer is no. You can’t count on me and I’ll tell you something else. I’m not the one you need to be worried about. Sean Jackson is determined to extract that idiot sister of his from all this. Taylor is going to help the FBI and there isn’t anything I can do for you.”
“What have you heard about her?”
“Are you listening to me?” Haley asked. “Just leave me out of all this. And why are you sweating? It’s freezing in here.”
“Don’t turn around, okay?”
Haley quickly swung around in her chair, looking around. She heard Garrett curse before turning back. “Oh, sorry. You shouldn’t have said that.”
“There is a white man sitting at the bar in a brownish-tan shirt and jeans.” Garrett focused on the empty bread plate in front of h
im. “He’s following me.”
Haley turned around to look and she saw the man. He was just as Garrett described and stood out, looking a little more rough around the edges than the rest of the guests. “He’s more interested in that beer in his hand than anything else, including you.”
Garrett was shaking his head. “No, I think I saw him in the parking lot.”
“There is no parking lot, genius.” Haley picked up her menu.
“The parking lot at my job. Yeah, I’m sure it’s him. I came all the way out here to see if anyone would follow me. Yeah, it’s him. They have their eye on me. They’re following me everywhere. I got bugs in my office, my apartment and my car.”
“Cool,” Haley said. “It’s just like that Tom Cruise movie, The Firm.”
Garrett looked at her with a grave expression. “It’s more like that than you know. I don’t understand. I’ve made it clear to them that I’m not going to tell. They know they can trust me. They’ve ensured my loyalty, but still.”
“How have they ensured your loyalty?” Haley asked, leaning forward.
“They say they have some way to make it seem like I killed Justin. We never really got along and . . .”
“Wait a second.” Haley put her menu down.
“You’re afraid of your firm? I thought you were afraid of the client.”
“The client isn’t scared of anything,” Garrett said. “The firm has assured them they are protected. It’s the firm that stands to lose . . . Justin knew about a lot more than his own clients. He’d been investigating.”
“And you know this how?”
“I was sort of spying on him,” he answered, “but it was the other partners that asked me to do it. Ask me, hell, they didn’t give me any choice. They’d suspected him for a while.”
Haley had to admit she was a little intrigued. “So what has your firm assured your clients of?”
“That there will be no consequences to them . . . for anything. Velez Holdings is the biggest revenue producer for the firm. They also referred a lot of the other clients we have. If they said so, everyone would bolt.”
“So this is about money,” Haley said.
“Not just money,” Garrett said. “Velez and the firm have been together for a long time. There’s a mutually assured destruction situation going on—the one goes down, the other goes right with it.”
“And you put yourself in the middle of it.”
Garrett’s tone was deeply regretful. “Honestly, I thought something was up, which is why I put together my own insurance policy.”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t think they know about it.” Garrett spoke as if he hadn’t heard Haley. “I haven’t been able to check on it because they’re following my every move. I just need to get into that relaxation room at work before I get banned from the building. Or I have nothing.”
“So you did know there was going to be a murder?” Haley asked.
He shook his head. “I got the alibi because I needed my bosses to think I was somewhere other than Justin’s house, hearing his confessions. When he called me and told me to come to his house that night, he said it was to warn me about something.”
Haley smirked. “Warn you? I guess he had it wrong. So you either go down for a murder you didn’t commit or you tell the truth and there’s a contract on your head.”
Garrett gestured for her silence with his hands. “Something like that.”
“You could disappear,” Haley suggested, taking a sip of her mojito.
“With what?” he asked. “They’re monitoring all my accounts. If I take out anything more than two hundred dollars, they’ll know I’m on the run. Besides, I don’t have enough money to disappear.”
“Sucks for you.” Haley waved the waiter over. “I’m hungry, and since this might be your last meal, let’s go all-out.”
Avery moaned out loud as she gripped the headboard. She was lying on her stomach and Carter was behind her. On top of her. Inside of her. She loved the feeling of him rubbing against her as he stroked harder and harder, faster and faster.
She let out a moan as she felt him lean over her and gently take hold of her hair.
“Come here, baby.” He gently moved her head to the right so his mouth could meet hers. His tongue went deeper and deeper as he thrust harder. The sounds she was making were driving him crazy.
Avery was caught up by the sound of his heavy breathing and lovemaking moans as he nudged her hair out of the way to lick the back of her moist neck. He’d already made her come once and he was about to do it again.
“Carter!”
“Yes,” he responded loudly. The more she called his name, the harder and faster his movements became. He couldn’t take it any longer. It was just too good.
He pushed back up using his hands against the bed. He took her by the waist and lifted her butt with him. He didn’t want to be outside of her for a second. He held on firmly to her hips as she complied, supporting herself with her knees. He was relentless, unable to do anything but go harder, faster. She screamed his name again as her hair bounced from side to side.
Her body was rocking and she was screaming. The pain was glorious. Avery could hear Carter’s frantic moans picking up the pace, and she was about to come. Then she heard a knock; then another. Her mind was gone, her body had taken control long ago, but she was certain she’d heard . . .
Bam! Bam! Bam!
“Carter.” Avery said his name, but he wasn’t listening to the change in the tone of her voice.
Bam! Bam!
“You fucking whore! I know you’re in there! Carter! Carter!”
Carter stopped, wondering if he was imagining things. He opened his eyes and looked at Avery, who was gesturing for him to stop. Confused, he turned to the door just as the banging resumed.
“Carter!” Julia screamed. Bam! Bam! “Open this fucking door! I swear to God, I will kick this shit in!”
Carter pulled out of Avery as reality hit him. Julia was at his bedroom door—their bedroom door—trying to get in. At the moment he thought, thank God he had locked it.
“What is she doing here?” Avery whispered in a panic. “You said she was . . .”
“She’s supposed to be gone all day.” Carter got out of the bed, searching for his underwear.
Bam! Bam!
“Stop it, Julia! I’m coming!” Carter approached the door.
When Avery had called earlier that day to chew him out about seeing him with Julia, he’d hung up on her. He wasn’t going to hear this shit. He’d gone back to his home office, trying to get some work done, but less than a half hour passed before Avery was pounding on the door to his penthouse.
She was livid with him when he opened the door and a screaming match began. The sight of her jealousy and the insanity he was effortlessly able to cause within her turned him on. Their worst fights had always ended up in bed. This one was no exception. Avery’s only hesitation had been the fear of getting caught, but he had assured her, as Julia had told him, that Julia would be at the museum all day and late into the night. The ball was this weekend and she’d been spending almost every moment there.
So for an hour, Carter and Avery’s bodies melted together forgetting the rest of the world and basking in the pleasure that only the other had ever been able to provide.
Too frazzled to even think, Avery reached for whatever clothes she could find and ran into the master bathroom. She slammed the door shut behind her and locked it. Avery had never felt so scared and humiliated. She stood naked in the bathroom, holding her clothes to her stomach and staring at the door. What was happening?
She heard Julia’s screaming get louder. She was in the bedroom now. Was she coming to the bathroom? How would Avery get out of this? She listened as Carter and Julia yelled at each other. Julia was hysterical and Carter was angry. What was he angry about? Avery wondered. He was wrong. They were wrong. Avery couldn’t decipher the words. Her brain was too scattered. She only heard Julia say her name ove
r and over again.
She was going to tell everyone, Avery just knew it. Everything was going to come crashing down in the worst way it could, and everyone involved was going to be hurt because of her selfishness.
“Anthony,” she whispered to herself. He loved her so much.
Avery felt herself calm a little as Carter and Julia’s voices began to subside. Neither of them was in the bedroom anymore. But where were they? And where were they going? How was she going to get out of here, past Julia?
Avery realized she had balled up her shirt and pants in her hands. Looking down at them, she was reminded of her naked state. She turned her head to the right and looked at herself in the mirror.
She was shocked. Her hair was a mess and she looked like a guilty woman. She was face-to-face with an adulterer. She was staring down the other woman and it was her.
Avery started to cry as she dressed herself and tried to comb her hair. But nothing she could do could make her not feel like the whore Julia had called her. She had no right to feel sorry for herself, but it wasn’t just her she was crying for. Her husband, her mother, her father, and what would this do to Carter when his parents found out?
Another forty-five minutes passed before Carter knocked on the bathroom door. He assured her three times that Julia was not in the apartment at all. He had walked her downstairs and she was gone. Avery finally opened the door but bypassed his outstretched arms.
Carter called her name once, but not again. She was leaving and there was no stopping her. It was a complete disaster. Everything Avery had feared would happen had happened. He knew the only way to keep her would be to compensate for the guilt she felt by making her feel safe. Making her feel that nothing would be exposed before she was ready to do it.
He would deal with Avery later. Right now, he had to get to the café two blocks away where Julia was waiting for him and convince her to not say a word of this to anyone.
11
When Kimberly Chase showed up at the Hotel Bel-Air, she refused to speak to anyone except Lawrence Hardy, the man who handled everything Chase. He would do anything for anyone in their family—even break the rules—and she needed a biggie broken.
A Price to Pay Page 18