Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency) (24 page)

Anger seethed through his blood stream. She’d drugged him.
Drugged
him
. Admitted to it. “Tell me what else you did.”

She inhaled deeply and met his eyes. “I sent Mrs. Yamaguchi’s
daughter a hundred vibrators from her top competitor courtesy of you with a note
that said ‘Go screw yourself.’.”

So that was what Mandy had been referring to when she’d said
Mrs. Yamaguchi sent word he could “F” himself.

He clenched his jaw. “What else?”

She bit her lip again. “I also sent them to your mother.”

“My mother?” She hadn’t breathed a word. Not a single one.
She’d
sent his mother a hundred vibrators
? “From me?”

She winced. “Marcus.”

Oh hell.

“With a note thanking her for the best one-hundred screws of
his life and hoping he could return the favor.”

His mother hadn’t mentioned the vibrators, but she had
mentioned his “gayness” repeatedly. Damn it.
His mother really believed he
was gay.

Did he want to know more?

“What else?”

“I reported seeing cockroaches in your apartment.”

“There were no cockroaches?”

“No.”

He curled his fingers into a tight fist. ‘Cause if he didn’t he
might wrap them around her delectable neck and twist…“My bank accounts? That was
you?”

She nodded.

“How?”

She bit the inside of her lip again. “I have friends who can do
that sort of thing.”

“That sort of thing? You mean destroy someone’s life?”

“Yes.”

“You intentionally destroyed mine?”

“Yes.”

“What else did you do?”

“Changed your G.P.A.”

“Huh?”

Her shoulders lifted a fraction. “You no longer graduated from
Princeton with honors.”

“The hell I didn’t.”

“Your transcript shows you barely had a two point o.”

God, she’d really set out to destroy him.

He fought the urge to pound the table top, his chest, anything,
because the desire to hit her grew. He’d never hit a woman. Not ever. Hell, if
there might be a first. “You were the source who leaked my supposed affair with
Marcus?”

“Guilty.”

“My credit cards?”

She nodded.

“My lost dry cleaning?”

Angel frowned. “Not me.”

“Yeah, well that was six months ago, but I figured it was worth
checking.”

She blinked, but didn’t say anything.

“Anything else I should know?”

“My name isn’t Angela.”

He’d suspected as much but to hear her say it hurt.

“It’s Avery.”

“Avery?”

“Wade. Avery Wade.”

Not Angela Greene, but Avery Wade.

“I don’t work for a temp service. Not really.” She met his gaze.
“I own one in Tennessee, though.”

“Why were you at Playhouse?” Not that the answer wasn’t obvious.
She’d been there to make his life miserable as possible.

“To fill in for Mrs.
Sedwick
.” She
sighed. “Who I sent on an all-expense paid trip to Disney.”

The surprises never ended. “You did that? Why?”

“So I’d have an excuse to get close to you.”

“Because you wanted me?”

“
Puh-leeze
.” She gave him an eye roll.
“So I could tear your life apart.”

“Why the hell would you want to do that?” Which was still the
kicker. Why would she help Mandy?

She took a sip of her coffee, set the cup down, and met his
gaze head-on. “Because it was my job.”

“Your job?”

Jude felt like he stood in front of an on-coming semi-truck. Any
moment he was going to be plowed down.

“I get paid to deliver revenge to men.”

“Huh?”

“Send me your liars, your cheaters, your wrong-doers and I’ll
chop off their balls and hang them from the Empire State building. You get the
idea.”

Thunk
. The figurative
semi smashed into him and knocked him off his feet. He leaned back against the
booth, staring at her with disbelief. “You’re kidding me.”

“No.”

She got paid to deliver revenge? “People actually pay for that kind
of thing?”

She nodded. “Amounts that would make your head spin.”

“Someone,” no need to say who because there could be only one
person and he
was
going to wring her neck, “paid you to chop off my
balls and hang them from the Empire State building?”

She named a figure that made him whistle.

“For that I’d have saved you the trouble and hung them myself.”

“I did my job and my client was satisfied with the service
provided.”

Anger and astonishment warred within him. He couldn’t resist
asking, “But not as satisfied as she’s been with the service she’s received the
past three weeks?”

Angel’s face paled, then she regained her composure. God, how
could she be so calm when they were discussing his life?
His life
?

“You tell me.”

Rage rushed through him. She tore his world apart for money. Damn
it. He wanted to lash out, to hurt her as she’d hurt him. More.

His eyes bore into her and he smirked, “Immensely satisfied.”

Her eyes flashed with annoyance, her lips tightened into a thin
line, but he couldn’t say otherwise that she appeared fazed by his words. She
took a sip of her coffee, a slow sip, as if she had all the time in the world
and they were discussing tea next week rather than what had to be illegal
activities.

She set down the cup and arched a brow. “I take it you’ve
gotten your problem fixed, then?”

“Problem?”

“Wham, bam, oops-I-finished-without-you Ma’am,” she clarified
sugary sweet.

Ouch. That hurt.

“That was a one-time deal.” He straightened his shoulders. “Never
happened before or since.”

She blinked her eyes innocently. “Lucky me to have been the
winner of that one time lotto.”

Jude stared, battling with the rampant emotions running through
him. She’d ripped his life apart for money. Ripped his heart out for money.

He raked his fingers through his hair.

“Why did you come? To Claire’s? Here?”

Why had he come? He laughed bitterly and admitted the damnable
truth. “Because you were going to be here.”

Her eyes sparkled a brilliant green. “That matters because?”

He wasn’t going to take this lying down. They’d played with his
life. He wasn’t some damn plastic Ken doll to be manipulated however took their
female whim. “Because you destroyed my life. I wanted to look in your eyes and
hear you admit it.”

She nodded, seeming to understand.

“I want retribution.”

She shook her head. “My business doesn’t work that way. The
revenge I meet out is non-returnable.”

He pinned her beneath his gaze, unwilling to budge from his
stance. He did want vengeance and one way or the other, he’d take it. “You owe
me.”

She shifted in her seat. “I owe you nothing.”

The flicker of emotion in her eyes said she didn’t buy her
words one hundred percent. He’d take that percentage and use it to his
advantage.

“I warned you up front that I turn men’s worlds upside down,”
she continued. “If you failed to take me at my word, that’s your fault, not
mine.”

“Placing an article in a major newspaper declaring me to be gay
is a bit more than turning my world upside down,” he accused. “Not to mention
my career and my mom. You knew I was allergic to that shrimp dip, didn’t you? You
fed it to me intentionally?”

“I didn’t.” Her expression remained calm, controlled.

Damn it. He wanted her to lose control the way she’d taken his
control and shot it to hell. At the minimal, he deserved her loss of control.

“Otherwise, I never would have given you the dip.” Her face
paled and she grimaced. “Well, not unless all else failed, then I might have.”

“I almost died.”

“You didn’t.” Her pulse beat erratically at her throat, giving
away that she wasn’t as calm as she pretended with her cool expression and prim
attitude.

“You tried to kill me,” he accused, his fury and need for a
real reaction from her building in momentum.

“I didn’t even know you were allergic to shrimp.” Her voice
remained calm, even, as if she had this kind of conversation all the time. Hell,
maybe she did for all he knew.

“Damn it, what you did was wrong. You tried to kill me.” He
repeated it as much for himself as for her. He’d loved her, and she’d done
nothing but lie from the day they met. Lie? She’d cut off his airways and sent
him to the hospital by ambulance.

A steely look passed over her face. “Be assured that if I’d
wanted you dead you wouldn’t be sitting here.”

He didn’t want to know what she meant by that, didn’t want to
know if she was also a hit man--hit woman--hired to take out unwanted lives for
a price.

“I’m sorry,” she said, folding her hands into her lap and not
meeting his eyes.

“That’s it?” he scoffed. “You ruin my life, almost murder me,
and all you have to say is that you’re sorry?”

She shrugged, calling his attention to the delicate lines of
her throat. A throat he’d like to wrap his fingers around and demand how she
could have done this to him. “I’ll never feed you shrimp again.”

The enormity of what she was admitting sank in. His angel had
been a mercenary from hell.

“My food poisoning. That was you?”

“I had to have uninterrupted access to your office to set up my
cameras.”

“Cameras?”

“Surveillance equipment. Your office was wired from almost the
moment I arrived until the moment I left.”

She’d flubbed up his whole world. Intentionally. For money. “So
that’s all I was to you? A job?”

“That’s all I wanted you to be, but—”

“But nothing. You’ve stripped me of my reputation, my career,
my academic record. I may never convince my mom that I didn’t have a racy
affair with Marcus, and you did all this for money?”

“You don’t understand. To begin with you were only a job, but
that changed.”

“To begin with? I didn’t see you telling me what was going on
after we slept together. Or was that part of the job too? Sleep with Jude and
make him pay. Hell, you didn’t slip some STD into my condom while I wasn’t
looking, did you?”

“That’s low, Jude.”

“No lower than sending my mother a hundred vibrators from
Marcus. What did he ever do to you?”

Another wince pulled quickly under control. “Nothing other than
be your best friend and an easy way to get at you.”

“For being my friend he had to be punished?”

“That’s not how it is.”

“You’re wrong. That’s exactly how it is. You set yourself up to
play God with my life. Angel
giveth
and she
taketh
away.”

“You’re being overly dramatic.”

“What? You screwed me for money.”

Several people in the restaurant glanced their way at his
outburst.

“I cared for you,” she said, but her face remained impenetrable.
Whatever was going through her mind, she didn’t want him to see it. Perhaps
because there was nothing to see except a cold heart.

“Funny, I distinctly recall you telling me you didn’t care and
would never care for me. I was just too dense to read the signs.” He shook his
head at his own stupidity. Thank God he hadn’t told her the truth about him and
Mandy, that he hadn’t wanted any woman except her. She’d probably have laughed
in his face if he’d admitted that.

“I didn’t mean to fall for you, but I did. I do care for you,
Jude.”

She had to be kidding. Or perhaps this was the second phase of
her revenge. To convince him she cared so she could rip his heart to pieces the
way she’d shredded the rest of his life. Hell, who was he kidding? She’d
already ripped his heart to pieces.

“I can tell by how well you’ve treated me.”

“Listen to me--”

“Like you listened to me when I said I loved you?”

“About that,” she glanced down at her coffee, looking unsure of
how to proceed, “did you mean it?”

“At the time.” At the moment he wasn’t sure what he felt. She’d
lied to him, cheated him, stolen his life. For money.
For Mandy
. “Mandy
hired you to do this, didn’t she?”

Avery was the agency. An agency that delivered revenge for a
price.

“I’m not allowed to discuss my clients. Ever.”