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I move to the desk. His laptop has already gone into sleep mode, so I don’t risk touching it, but as for the rest of the papers, I skim them quickly, looking for anything interesting. Business proposals… investor reports… There’s a credit card statement, with eye-popping amounts charged to different hotels and designer stores in Europe. Payroll to the household staff. A file of invoices from some kind of trust account, with bank transfer records—
Wait a minute.
I pull the file closer. There are household bills for an address in Sussex, and bank statements showing a single transaction every month: Thousands of pounds going to someone called S. Whitley. The statements go back years, and buried towards the back of the file, there are invoices from a business called Larkspur Services Incorporated, dated from over a decade ago.
I’m not sure what any of this is, but I don’t have much time to figure it out right now. I grab a loose sheet of paper from the printer, and quickly jot down any names and addresses that I see. Then I position everything where I left it, and hurry back to the door. I peer out. All clear.
I’m just walking back to the dining room as casually as I can, when Becca appears in the hallway. She’s got a piece of toast in one hand, and a contract in the other. She looks up, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” I reply, my heart pounding. I slip the paper into my pocket as Becca looks past me, to Sebastian’s office.
The only other place I could have been.
“Have you seen Sebastian?” I blurt quickly. “I was just looking for him.”
“He’s out back, on a call,” she replies, still looking at me suspiciously.
“Great,” I beam. “Thanks so much.”
I make to move past her, but Becca blocks my path, and narrows her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I do know that you’re not as innocent as you seem.”
My stomach lurches in fear, but I keep my composure. Old Avery would smack her for saying something like that or threaten to end her. New Avery wouldn’t dream of it. “Wow, what an odd thing to say,” I manage to reply, wide-eyed. “And pretty rude, too, to be honest.” I smile at her. “Would you mind getting out of the way? Sebastian loves having breakfast with me. He’ll be wondering where I am.”
She stands aside, and I make it back to the dining room, my pulse racing, just as Leon brings in my breakfast. Sebastian enters via the garden, striding through the French doors.
“Everything okay?” I ask brightly, hoping that my face isn’t flushed with the spike of my adrenaline.
He gives a curt nod. “What are your plans for the day?”
“Oh, you know. Shopping, maybe a massage.” I give a careless shrug, as if the only thing on my mind is where to find some cute shoes.
“Feel free to stop at the lingerie shop again,” Sebastian gives me a wicked look. “Or perhaps there are othertoysyou could enjoy buying…”
I inhale in a rush at the thought. Clearly, Sebastian’s done staying out of my bedroom.
“Perhaps,” I offer, flirty. “Any suggestions?”
His gaze darkens. “Why don’t you surprise me?”
“Oh, I will,” I reply, thinking of the slip of paper in my back pocket. When I finally bring him down, and reveal what I’ve been doing all along, Sebastian will get one hell of a surprise.
Back at the library,I greet Linda, the desk clerk, by name. we’re practically old friends now. “What can I get for you today?” she asks, smiling.
“Some more back issues ofFortuneandBusiness Weekly, I’m afraid,” I tell her, rattling off the next issues I’ve flagged on my list. “And more computer time, if anything’s available.”
“We’re pretty full today, but I’ll see what I can do.”
She goes check, as someone joins me at the desk. “Sounds like you’re working on a big project,” he says.
I turn. A guy in his twenties with sandy hair and wire-rimmed glasses is smiling at me, friendly.
“Uh… Yeah. It’s a research paper,” I explain, as Linda returns with my stack of magazines and the login information for the computer.
The guy chuckles, as I balance everything in my arms. “Well, you certainly take the research part seriously. I’m James, by the way,” he says, holding out his hand, then dropping it when he realizes that I can’t shake it.
I give an awkward flutter of a wave, instead. “Hi, I’m Avery.”
“Nice to meet you, Avery. Need any help?” he offers.
