Page 41 of Untouchable

She was sleeping alone in her room—Caleb always returned to his room after sex—and she reached for the phone, blinking down at the words until she could read them.

How is it going?

She didn’t recognize the number, and there was no name attached to the question, but Kelly knew exactly who it was.

Her mother.

She tapped outFine.

Any progress on the project we discussed?

Yes. A beginning. It will be a while before I have anything ready to show you.

You know I’m on a tight timeline, right?

I can only work at a certain pace.

Let me know how it goes.

Kelly scowled as she placed her phone back on her nightstand. Damn her mom anyway. Lethertry to seduce a man to get close enough to find out incriminating information and then see how easy it was. Did she expect Caleb to suddenly spill out all kinds of compromising secrets postcoitally?

If Kelly started to ask about anything specific, he would immediately get suspicious. There was only so much she could do here, and it was ripping her apart to even do that.

So her mom could just go fuck herself.

“We can’t allow that to happen.”

Kelly had been walking downstairs for dinner, but she stopped short at the words and the ice-cold tone.

She knew it was Caleb speaking. She’d recognize his voice anywhere. And he must be just around the corner from the stairs she was descending because he was out of her sight. Since there wasn’t a second voice, she assumed he was talking on the phone.

She froze, listening until he started talking again.

“I don’t care. He must sign the contract. You need to find a way to make him do it.”

It was becoming clear what this conversation was about, and a chill ran from her neck to her fingertips as she processed the cold ruthlessness in his words.

He continued after another pause. “No. That won’t work. No use wasting your time with that. What do we know about his family?”

There was a much longer break as the person on the other end of the call evidently rehearsed information on the individual in question. “Wait,” Caleb said at last. “His daughter is at Eastlodge? How can he afford to send her there on his salary? What kind of scholarship?”

After the answer, his tone changed. “That’s it then. Call the headmaster. Use my name. Make sure Johnson knows that his daughter will lose the scholarship unless he signs the contract tomorrow by noon.”

Kelly was so numb from overhearing this conversation that she literally couldn’t move. She’d known who Caleb was—on paper anyway. She’d read all the evidence her motherput together on his callous treatment of others, his unethical business decisions.

But hearing it firsthand like this was something entirely different. This was the man who could have made a call to have her father killed. Maybe he’d even done it on his way to dinner.

Because she was so overwhelmed with shock, rage, and pain, she couldn’t do anything to hide the fact that she’d been eavesdropping when Caleb suddenly appeared around the corner.

He was sliding his phone in his pocket, and he glanced up to see her frozen on the third stair.

His eyes rested thoughtfully, observantly, on her face. “You heard?”

She nodded since there was no way to hide the fact now.

“Did it upset you?” He didn’t appear worried. Just curious and slightly wary.

This was important. She had to get her response right if she was going to stay in Caleb’s good graces. She also needed to be believable. She cleared her throat. “It sounded kind of… heartless.”