Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency) (4 page)

“Believe me, he wasn’t complaining.” Courtney looked pleased at
whatever memory ran through her mind.

Cassidy giggled. “Did the pill work?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Courtney made the words stretch out with emphasis.

Good grief. “Was this before or after you hired him?”

“Before. I did him during that scuba-diving trip I took a
couple of weeks ago. We needed work done in Boston, and I figured I’d throw
some business his way.”

“The
Belew
mark in Montego Bay? That’s
when you slipped this P.I. a magic pill?”

“Yep.”

“You were screwing around while on a job?”

Courtney gave a duh look. “I got my man and my mark, so what’s
the big deal?”

“You drugged him, slept with him, and then got him involved
with a case.”

Courtney’s face took on the look of a rebellious teenager. Actually,
her friend could easily pass for exactly that with her outrageous attitude for
life and youthful appearance. Courtney defied death with the same imagined
invincibility a teenager did. Having grown up as the only child of one of
Hollywood’s best stuntmen had left Courtney fearless and with experience doing
things no normal person did. Like blowing up buildings before her sixth
birthday.

“I didn’t force him. He was already in my hotel room and
planning to spend the night when I slipped him the pill.” Her hands went to her
slim hips. “Besides, when I showed up in Boston, he didn’t even know we’d ever
met.”

Courtney sounded a bit
tiffed
by that.
Almost as if she’d wanted to be recognized.

“Fine.” Avery sighed, glancing back at the television screen. She’d
corner Courtney in private later, find out what was really going on, and remind
her friend there was a fine line to be walked with the tools of their trade. “Just
be careful, because this guy’s good. We don’t want him sticking his nose in
where it doesn’t belong.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Courtney plucked a piece of popcorn out of Cassidy’s
bowl and tossed it to Payback Puss. “I’m telling you, he didn’t know I was the
woman he spent the most amazing night of his life with in that hotel room. You
worry way too much, Mom.”

Avery shook her head. They liked to tease her by calling her
Mom when she stepped into the role. Just because she liked to play by the rules
didn’t mean she was a stick-in-the-mud. Someone in the group had to keep them
somewhat in line or they’d get caught, shut down, possibly go to prison, then
who would watch out for women?

* * *

Marcus handed Jude a bowl of chicken noodle soup with a few
stale crackers stuck on one side. “Man, the entire time I’ve known you, you’ve
never been sick. Not once.”

Jude shrugged, eyeing the soup on his bar counter suspiciously.
Dare he risk it?

“Eat up. You’ll feel better.”

“Thanks, Dr. Marcus,” he said sarcastically. “You planning to
send me a bill?”

“Nah, tonight’s on the house.” Marcus grinned, sliding onto the
pale oak barstool identical to the one Jude sat on.

“I’m almost afraid to eat this.”

“Almost? Dude, you look terrified.” Marcus laughed.

It had been so long since he’d heard the sound that Jude lifted
his gaze from the yellow broth to his friend. Marcus was smiling.
Yes
.

That in and of itself was almost worth the hell he’d been
through today.

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“If Montezuma’s revenge hit me?” Marcus nodded. “Oh yeah. I’d
be scared shitless.”

“Or not,” Jude remarked wryly as shitless would be nice after
the amount of time he’d spent in the bathroom today.

“You think you’re contagious?”

“The doctor says not. My blood work came back normal. He says I
probably have a touch of food poisoning.”

Jude ladled broth into his spoon and sipped the hot liquid. Nothing
happened. No cramps. No urge to turn himself inside out.

“Who was the
hottie
?”

Jude’s spoon clattered against the bowl. “What
hottie
?”

“The one at Mrs.
Sedwick’s
desk.”

“That
hottie
.” He stared into his
soup bowl. He should be excited. Marcus was showing interest in a woman. Unfortunately,
that was one woman Marcus couldn’t have. “She’s a temp.”

“A temp?” Marcus took a drink of his soda. “Mrs.
Sedwick
out sick? Maybe that’s where you caught this
stomach stuff.”

Jude shook his head. “Nope. She’s gone to Disney.”

“What?”

“She won some kind of trip that was a take-it-now-or-lose-it
deal. She took it.”

“That’s weird.”

“Not really.” Mrs.
Sedwick
was a
contest junkie and constantly entered online contests and sweepstakes. Seemed
she’d finally won something. He’d never hear the end of it when she got back
because he’d warned her repeatedly that she was wasting her time.

Apparently not.

Then again, she might be sitting through condo sales pitches
until her skin turned purple.

“What’s her name?” Marcus’ question was soft, almost like he
didn’t care, but not quite.

“Mrs.
Sedwick
?”

Marcus sent him a knowing look. “The temp, dumb-ass.”

“Angel.” Jude blinked. “I mean, Angela.”

“Angela?” Marcus prompted.

“Angela Greene.”

“Nice name.”

“Yeah.”

“Nice… eyes, too.”

He should be glad Marcus noticed Angela’s
eyes
. Instead,
he wanted to tell his buddy to keep his eyes off Angela’s
eyes
.

“Yeah.” He slurped his soup from his spoon.

“I don’t believe it.” Marcus sounded incredulous. “You like
her.”

Jude quit slurping. “What are you talking about? Of course, I
like her. She’s a beautiful, intelligent woman. What’s not to like?”

“Do you think I’m a fool?” Marcus asked.

Jude figured he’d better not answer that one since his buddy
had been pretty messed-up since Joy walked out. The truth might not go over
well.

“That I haven’t noticed you’ve given up your Hummingbird Principle
the past few weeks?”

Jude smiled. Ah, the Hummingbird Principle. The philosophy of
life he’d come up with his freshman year at Princeton.

There were too many flowers to sample to ever stay with one for
very long
.

Jude lived that principle every day of his life. He wasn’t
ashamed of it. Nor did he make any excuses. Women adored him and he adored them
back. He made no promises and expected none in return. For however long the
scent remained sweet he sampled feminine nectar. When the time came, he
traveled to the next flower.

Nothing wrong with that.

Except what did that have to do with Angela Greene and Marcus’
knowing grin?

“I haven’t given up the Hummingbird Principle.”

“No?” His friend snorted. “For a while I thought it might have
something to do with you feeling sorry for me, but the minute I saw her, saw
how you looked at her, I knew.”

“Knew what?” He only asked because Marcus was showing interest
in something besides Joy. Not because he was curious at what Marcus thought
he’d seen.

“She’s why you’ve lost interest in women.”

“I have
not
lost interest in women.” Jude pushed the
soup away. Knots had formed in his stomach again. Knots that wrenched his
already sore gut.

“No?” Marcus challenged. “What would you call it? For that
matter, when was the last time you got laid, O Great Hummingbird Master?”

He didn’t want to talk about this. “That’s not any of your
business.”

“Because you haven’t gotten any in weeks.”

“Whose fault is that?”

Marcus flinched. “What do you mean by that? Surely you’re not
blaming me for you dragging me to club after club and throwing every woman in
the room in my direction?”

Jude didn’t say anything. Like he shouldn’t have said anything
to begin with. Put his blabbering down to having had his insides ripped out by
an invisible hand more times today than he could count.

“Besides,” Marcus went on. “I’ve told you to go home with the
girls who’ve hit on you. No way are you laying this on me.”

“I’m not.”

“Then what were you doing?”

“Nothing.”

Marcus stared at him and then grinned. He slapped him on the
shoulder. “You almost had me there.”

Having no idea what Marcus was talking about and having already
decided he should keep his mouth shut, Jude raised a brow.

“You’re trying to throw me off scent.” Marcus’ grin grew wider.
“You sly dog.”

Jude still didn’t speak.

“I recognize the look, dude.”

His lips were sealed. He wasn’t even going to ask what the hell
Marcus was talking about now.

“It’s the same goofy expression that stared back at me in the
mirror when I first met Joy.”

Oh hell. Jude bit his tongue otherwise he’d spew his disgust.

“You’re hooked on your temp.”

That did it. Let the spewing begin.

“Don’t quit your day job, Einstein, because you are way off
base.” If he didn’t feel so weak he’d stand up, pace across the room. As it was,
he didn’t think his legs would hold him any further than the sofa. “I just met the
woman today and, although I admit I find her attractive, I am not hooked on her.
Hell, I find lots of women attractive and haven’t gotten hooked. I’ll never act
over a woman the way you’ve acted over Joy. Not ever. You’re insane.”

“And you’re protesting too much.” Not
phased
by Jude’s outburst, Marcus’ grin widened. “You planning to ask her out?”

“Aren’t you listening? I just said—”

“I know what you just said. You’re attracted to her. You
planning to do anything with that attraction? Cause it’s really not like you
not to make a move.”

“She works for me, man.”

“She works for a temp agency. It’s not exactly the same thing.”

“A temp agency which is currently under contract with the
magazine. When it comes to the magazine I have to set a certain example.”

“You work for Playhouse Magazine, not The Gospel Gazette. Lunch
tomorrow wouldn’t hurt.”

Lunch tomorrow?

Jude scowled at his friend. “Since when did you start giving me
dating advice?”

A smug Marcus slapped Jude’s back and looked a lot like Jude’s
best friend pre-Joy. “Since I realized you’d quit dating and fallen for your
new assistant.”

If only a different topic had brought about the change.

“I have not quit dating, nor have I fallen for my new assistant.”

Marcus shrugged. “Prove it.”

“Fine.” He didn’t feel like arguing. “I will.”

“How?”

“How else? By going on a date.”

“With Angela?”

A date with his new temp? A date where thanks to his buddy’s
continued abstinence Jude couldn’t do much more than look. Because he wanted to
do way more than just feast his eyes on Angela. He wasn’t so sick as to not
recognize the truth.

Marcus was right. He did want her. He suspected no other woman
would do.

Jude got what he wanted.

Always had. Always would.

His mother told him to know what he wanted and then to see it
in his head and make it happen. He’d taken her advice to heart for as long as
he could recall.

From the moment Angela stepped into his office, he’d wanted her.
Once he’d met her gaze, visions of stripping her naked and taking her filled his
head. Make it happen? Mrs.
Sedwick
would be back in a
week, two at tops. It would probably take that long to get dud boy here laid so
his vow would be fulfilled.

It had already taken longer than Jude intended.

Tomorrow, he’d show his reserved new assistant that she wanted him
just as much, make her see the same exotic images in her mind that danced in
his. Make her as hungry for his body as he was for hers.

If he had to wait a few more days before making her his, the
anticipation would only serve to heighten the awareness snapping between them.

The thought cleared his mind, eased the ache in the pit of his
gut, and convinced him he was going to live after all despite his wicked bout
with food poisoning.

While wooing Angela, he’d regroup his strategy on getting
Marcus laid.

Perhaps a “when you can’t beat them, join them” attitude might
be called for in this instance.

Chapter Four

Avery almost sighed when Jude walked into the office wearing another
pair of tight black jeans that hugged his butt and hard thighs. He wore a black
button down shirt that fit tight across his chest and hung loose at the waist. He
hadn’t bothered with the top two or bottom two buttons and a white t-shirt
peeped out from beneath the soft corduroy material.

His blond hair didn’t appear to have been combed it was so
sexily tousled, like a woman’s hands just threaded through the ruffled locks.

In the twenty-four hours since she’d seen him she’d decided she
imagined the intense blue of his eyes. She hadn’t.

The man had a style all his own and was comfortable inside his
skin.

No wonder. He looked like heaven.

Perhaps because she’d lain in bed worrying about him last night.
Had the effects of the tablet worn off as they should have? Was he still sick? Had
the doctor admitted him to the hospital? Was he okay?

She was TGEA. They’d done their research, knew his allergies,
knew everything about him so nothing went wrong. She wasn’t supposed to be
worried about the mark. Wasn’t supposed to be relieved when he came in looking
sexier than any man alive. Confident, vital, charming, with no ill effects from
“the gut bomb”.

He stopped by her desk and dropped a flower in front of her.

A daisy.

Wow. She’d been so busy sizing up his butt and chest and baby
blues that she hadn’t even noticed he held the stem in his hands.

She glared at him.

He gave her a thigh-melting wink. “Sorry I ran out on you
yesterday.”

Her breath hitched and she glared all the fiercer. He’d brought
her a flower because he’d had to leave sick?

“No problem.” She ignored the blossom. She didn’t want him
being nice to her. Didn’t want to think of him as a person at all, really. Just
a mark. Someone who was going to get what he deserved courtesy of TGEA.

“To make up for it,” his eyes twinkled with playful mischief, “I’m
taking you to lunch.”

“No.” Not a good idea. Already her hormones hummed at being the
focus of his charisma. Lunch would not be happening.

“No?”

“No.” She couldn’t.

“Yes.”

“No.” She tightened her expression and her resolve. No. No. No.
She repeated the words in her mind.

“Why not?”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate.” She was TGEA. He was a man who
screwed women over.

She wanted screwed
.

Over and over.

By Jude.

No. She didn’t. Not in any sense of the word. She didn’t even
like sex. No. No. No. She went back to chanting.

He grinned. “Ah, so that’s the problem. You thought I meant as
a date.” His dimples dug deeper. Those sexy crevices didn’t need to go deeper,
she was already about to fall helplessly into their charm.

“Just to clarify, this is going to be a working lunch.” He gave
her a point blank look. “To make up for yesterday’s lost work.”

“Oh.” If it was work, she couldn’t really refuse him, could she?
That might blow her cover. Couldn’t have that.

“You’ll go with me, and we’ll get some work done,” he said
matter-of-factly. As if it were the kind of thing they did all the time. Perhaps
he and Mrs.
Sedwick
did.

Sounded logical enough.

He tapped her desk with his fingertip and the movement stirred
up his spicy scent. It wasn’t like any cologne she’d ever smelled. Just
masculine and alluring. A scent she’d love to examine closer.

“Fine,” she said on a resigned sigh.

He grinned, not looking in the slightest like he’d ever
believed she’d deny him. He just expected women to go along with whatever he
wanted. Had he spent the last thirty-two years having women fall all over
themselves to meet his every need?

She glanced at him. Yeah, she supposed he had.

“You like Chinese?”

“Hate it,” she said, just to be contrary and to try to take
back control of the situation. She inhaled deeply, catching another waft of his
cologne. Whatever it was, she’d like to dump a bottle onto her pillow and
breathe the stuff all night long.
 

“Chinese it is, then.”

She frowned and made the mistake of meeting his mesmerizing
eyes. “Perhaps you misunderstood. I don’t like Chinese.”

“Only because you’ve never had Chinese with me.”

His sheer arrogance should have offended her. Should have made
her shoot him down. Instead, he intrigued her. Made her wonder what else she
hadn’t liked because she hadn’t had it with him.

Unable to stop herself, she watched him go into his office. The
man had a nice butt. A nice everything. Too bad he knew how nice and used the
knowledge to hurt women.

Which she had to remember.

Otherwise she might be the one hurt.

He didn’t close his office door. She could hear him moving
about. She sighed and returned her attention to Mrs.
Sedwick’s
desk.

Her gaze fell on the daisy.

She picked the flower up, stroked her fingertip over the silky
soft petals. A daisy? The simple bloom seemed such an unlikely choice for a man
of Jude’s reputation. He seemed the type to send roses by the dozen and without
a thought to the dreams a woman would become hopeful for.

She touched the flower to the tip of her nose and inhaled.

Logic said a daisy didn’t have a scent, but she’d swear the
sweetest fragrance filled her lungs, making her chest tighten and her eyes
prick with moisture.

Not a fragrance as sweet as whatever the musky scent he wore,
but one just as lethal to her good intentions.

She closed her eyes because otherwise she might have to admit
they watered.

No one had ever given her a flower. Not a rose. Not a carnation.
Not even a freaking dandelion.

No one until Jude Layman gave her a daisy.

“I stole it, you know.”

She dropped the flower as if she’d been caught playing with one
of Mrs. Yamaguchi’s sex toys.

Jude stood in his doorway watching her. Stupid sexy peeping
tom!

“Stole it?” Her voice wasn’t as steady as normal. She hated the
rasp, but couldn’t help the tell-tale catch.

He nodded. “From one of the bouquets the street vendor sells at
the corner.”

“Business that bad?”

“Nah, I just like the thrill that I might get caught doing
something I’m not supposed to do.” His eyes danced just enough that she
couldn’t be sure if he told the truth or not. “How about you? You get off on
the thrill of doing things you shouldn’t? Things you might get in trouble for
if caught?”

“No,” she answered automatically. “This isn’t an appropriate
conversation for us to be having.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her. “I don’t
believe you.”

“I don’t care if you believe me or not.” She busied herself and
refused to look at him or the flower. “I do not get off on doing bad things.”

But even as she denied him, she wondered if his accusation was
true.

There was a thrill in being a TGEA agent. That they skirted the
law wasn’t in question. They did. They existed without existing.

But they didn’t do bad. They imposed justice upon men who’d
done wrong. Justices that there were no laws to enforce. Then again, justice
and injustice were merely point-of-views.

And then there was Courtney who definitely stretched the
boundaries. Avery really wished her friend hadn’t drugged the P.I. even if the
man had already planned to spend the night with Courtney. Courtney had waved
off Avery’s concerns, but Avery only wanted their arsenal used on liars,
cheats, and men deserving of a woman’s vengeance. To do otherwise made them
just as bad as the men they were dishing out justice to.

If TGEA was ever caught, they would be in serious trouble. The
I.R.S. alone would put them under the jail.

They served womankind and paid no heed to the social codes and
legal systems that said they couldn’t do as they pleased to men who screwed
over women.

That knowledge did give pleasure. The knowledge that they might
someday get caught scared her, but also added a heightened awareness to every
day of her life. She lived on the edge. Her. Control-freak Avery.

“Oh God.” She glanced up, met smoldering eyes that read her
thoughts.

Immediately, he crossed the room, stood by her desk staring
down at her. No amusement. No condemnation. No smugness that he’d been right.

Just lust. Hot and strong. So palpable his presence wrapped
itself around her.

“I—”

He put his finger to her mouth, hushing her. Every nerve ending
within her body crunched into one tight wad and focused right where the pad of
his finger brushed her lips. She trembled.

What he did next shocked her as much as the realization that
she was a thrill seeker had.

Instead of pulling her to her feet and kissing her like she
desperately wanted and thought a playboy like Jude would do, he picked the
daisy off her desk and stuck it into her hair.

“Just for the record, I’m a very bad guy who likes being bad
and has no aspirations of ever settling down and being good.” He brushed a
stray hair away from her face. “I don’t do relationships. I don’t stay around
for long. What you see is what you get, and I only belong to a woman when I’m
with her.”

Huh? Why didn’t he just jerk her into his arms and kiss her? Couldn’t
he see that’s what she wanted? Waited on edge for?

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked, but she knew. He was
warning her.

Did bad guys give warnings?

Apparently this one did.

He was the
baddest
thing she’d ever
come across.

Made her want to be bad. Really bad.

“I think you should know.”

“Why?”

His gaze touched every pore on her face, mesmerizing and
caressing as surely as any touch ever could. His perfectly shaped lips curved
at one end, digging a dimple into his cheek. “In case you decide to be bad with
me.”

Avery swallowed, reminded herself she was TGEA and Jude was a
user.

Should she tell him that she planned to be very bad?

Only
to
him rather than
with
him.

* * *

Avery glanced up from Mrs.
Sedwick’s
computer to see a breathtakingly beautiful woman walk into the office. Wow.

She had multi-colored red and blond hair halfway down her back
and so thick it probably gave her neck aches. Her eyes were large and brown. She
looked about twenty, if that.

She smiled in an unsure way that made her look even younger. “Is
Jude available? I really need to talk to him.”

“He’s busy, but I can check.” She imagined Jude always made
time in his schedule for a woman who looked like this one and had such a lovely
English accent. “Who should I tell him is here?”

“Sara.”

“Sara?” Avery prompted, planning to store the information away
for possible use later.

“Sara Brown.” The girl cast a nervous glance toward Jude’s
closed office door. “I’m Miss January.”

Ah. The Miss January Jude replaced Mandy Sims with. How many
women had Jude been with since the lovely Sara? Why did she care? And why did
the girl look so nervous?

“Congrats,” Avery offered. “I haven’t seen the issue, not my
usual reading, but I’m sure you were great.”

The woman nodded, sending another distracted look toward Jude’s
office.

Avery picked up the phone and when Jude said hello she ignored
the quickening in her chest. Just as she was determined to ignore the daisy
stuck in the plastic cup on her desk and whatever reason she’d put the flower
there.

“Mr. Layman, would you be able to work Sara Brown into your
busy schedule this morning?”

“Hell, no,” came his immediate response. “Take her number, and
then throw it away.”

“Actually, Miss Brown is in my office.”

“Hell. Schedule her an appointment for next week or something. Anything.
Just get rid of her because I don’t have time to deal with her clinginess today.”

A total womanizer. He’d had his fun with Miss January and now
just wanted to forget she’d ever existed. Just like he’d done with Mandy.

The jerk.

“Fine,” she said into the phone, then turned to the waiting
woman. “I’m sorry. Mr. Layman can’t see you today.”

The girl’s eyes watered and her face crumbled.

“Is there anything I can do?” She handed her one of Mrs.
Sedwick’s
pink tissues.