Caleb

Chapter Twenty Two

Elaina ~

The next few days flew by and Lainey was completely swamped at work, trying to hold up her father's responsibilities while he was on the campaign trail. Luckily Caleb wasn't just easy on the eyes, he was smart as a whip and more than willing to lend a hand and help Lainey with any task she was struggling with. She admired his intense focus as his eyes scanned every document she handed him with precision and accuracy. 

Normally Lainey would be stressed to the max and unable to sleep due to her current workload, but Caleb made everything better - life was easier and brighter with Caleb around and she felt herself at ease even during the most stressful situations if Caleb was within arms reach.

Lainey was going through expense reports, with Caleb acting as her second pair of eyes when Santiago Moreno's name came across her desk with a receipt of payout to one of his bogus restaurants.

"What the fuck is this?" she muttered under her breath, pulling Caleb's attention as she spoke.

"What is it?" Caleb asked, looking concerned.

"It's a payout to Santiago Moreno with the name of one of his bullshit restaurants in the memo." She was fuming as she looked at the disgusting amount that had been handed over to Santiago.

"Your dad authorized that?" Caleb asked.

"No, he would never. My uncle Manny did." she said, narrowing her eyes at the financial records in front of her.

Lainey knew her father would never give a dime to Santiago. He would never have invested in a bogus company that was being so blatantly used for cleaning narco money. That was the exact opposite of what Lainey's father wanted and he actively distanced himself from such transactions. But her uncle Manny had always shared that same philosophy - at least she always thought he did.

"Manny said he handled Santiago. I don't understand." she said to Caleb, handing over the expense report.

"Maybe paying him off was his way of handling him." Caleb suggested.

"That is not how we do business here. If you bow down to one, you'll have to bow down to them all until they own you." She countered, shaking her head as if there had to be some mistake.

Lainey stood up abruptly, clutching the expense report, and reaching for her heels that she had toed off and left sitting on the floor next to Caleb's chair.

Leaning over and bracing herself on the side of her desk, Lainey slid her heels back onto her feet and heard a deep hum of approval from Caleb behind her.

He's checking out my ass and apparently likes what he sees. 

An uncontrollable smile lifted the corner of Lainey's mouth as she turned around to face him. He had the most delicious expression on his face and looked as if he might just pounce on her right then and there. His tongue barely grazed the edge of his bottom lip, but she saw the subtle movement and it made her want to lock the door and let him have his way with her.

Playing out that scenario in her mind, she forgot why she had put her shoes on in the first place.

Shit. What was I doing? Manny, Santiago, expense report - Now I remember.

"Stop looking at me like that," she scolded with a smile.

"Why?" he chuckled.

"Because I'm trying to plan out what I'm going to say to Manny and my sentences get all messed up when you look at me that way. I can't think straight, so knock it off." she sassed with her smile growing even further up the side of her cheek.