Page 29 of Breaking the Rules
Xavier carried the dishes inside while she stayed put under the pavilion. Waverly thought about her meeting in the morning. Would she finally know if Dante was still alive? God, he had to be. And if he was, where was he? Was he hurt? Did he need her?Or was this all part of a larger plot?she worried.
She had no one to ask and no one to trust, no one except herself.
When the evening chill chased her inside, she and Xavier companionably cleaned up the kitchen before retiring to the great room with their respective work.
Waverly read through the script her mother had sent over. Smart, funny, and poignant, it was the perfect project for her mother and, if the predicted shoot schedule was correct, it would be a great fit for her as well.
She rattled off an email to her mother and one to her agent, Aisha Leigh, a charming Southern belle who navigated the Hollywood waters like a shark. The woman had style, class, and balls, and Waverly hoped to be just like her when she grew up.
She needed to talk to her publicist, Gwendolyn, too. But she’d hold off on contacting Media Barbie until after her meeting in the morning.
She was confident she could sneak out in the morning without Xavier being any the wiser. Her return would be the problem. But she didn’t shy away from fights anymore. She didn’t need to avoid conflict as she once had. She could handle Xavier.
Next on her agenda, she needed access to some information about Petra and her father. Waverly’s gut told her that the father was the key. Someone wanted something from Grigory Stepanov. But without being able to tap the studio’s resources, she needed another asset.
And wouldn’t Xavier hate that? she thought with a smile.
She fired off a text, still smiling and when her phone shrilled moments later with Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night.” Xavier raised a suspicious eyebrow at her. “Gotta take this,” she said, taking the phone into the study off the great room and shutting the door.
“Hey,” she said by way of greeting.
“I don’t even know where to start!” Chelsea Saint’s voice announced. “First there’s some weird accident—that there’s no police record of, by the way. Then you’re allegedly in rehab. And then you fly into L.A.with my brother, the man whose existence you vowed never to acknowledge again.”
Waverly laughed. “I know, it’s all kind of hard to explain, and I don’t have a lot of time since your brother is still here.”
“Here as in ‘your house’?” Chelsea hissed.
“Yeah, I don’t know how to get rid of him. Any advice?”
“Try crying and talking about your period. That always worked for me and Mad,” Chelsea suggested, referencing her younger sister Madelyn.
Waverly snickered. “I’ll keep that one in my back pocket for now. Listen, if you have time, I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
“I need some information on Grigory Stepanov. He’s your typical Russian billionaire mogul.”
“And your BFF’s money bags dad,” Chelsea added.
“Are all the Saints keeping tabs on me?” Waverly wondered.
“I plead the fifth. What do you need on Stepanov?”
“I’m looking for anything seedy. Any hint of rumors or investigations, money squirreled away, anything that looks off to you. Anything that would warrant an investigation by a government organization.”
“I take it you’re back on the job?”
“Let’s just say this is an unofficial peek. I’m still benched, so keep all of this quiet.”
“You got it. One more question,” Chelsea said. “Are you guys getting back together?”
Waverly could hear the hope in Chelsea’s voice and hated to crush her. But the hard truth was always better than a soft lie. “No. He’s, uh, helping me look for Dante.”
“Ohhh.” One extended syllable over the phone said a lot.
“Yeah.”
She took a few more minutes to catch up with Chelsea about work and life before disconnecting. She wondered how Xavier would take it if he found out his little sister was one of the best vigilante hackers in the business. Probably about as well as finding out that she and Waverly had maintained a close friendship over the years since her visit to the Saint family in Idle Lake all those years ago.
