Dangerous Resurgence: An Alpha Billionaire Romance With a Side of Mystery (The Devil Wears a Suit Book #6)

by Teresa Wolf

  “Well, if you're done making excuses, why don't you plug in, so I can wipe the floor with you?" Hope jested. It was a complete bluff, of course. She hadn't touched a video game controller in years.

  Scott mocked an evil laugh. "I am going to have fun making you eat your words."

  Hope and Scott spent hours playing a first-person shooter game, at which Hope was hopeless. Notwithstanding, Hope was a very competitive person, and her drive to win was only fueled every time she lost.

  One thing she really liked about Scott was that he didn’t baby her too much. The nurses and the doctors all treated her like an egg, because of her injuries, but Scott only made light of them. He didn’t even take it easy on her in the video game, annihilating her in every play with zero mercy.

  Scott came to visit Hope every day over the next week, during which time they played various board games, and Hope finished three books. She even got better at the video games, managing to beat Scott a few times after three days of desperate practice.

  By the eighth day, the doctor informed Hope that she was fit enough to go home. She still experiencing some pain when she walked, but for the most part, she was doing just fine. It was probably due to her consistent exercising with the walking stick.

  The day before Hope was to leave the hospital, Scott did not arrive as expected. He usually arrived around noon, but it was already nearing evening, and he hadn't shown yet. Hope wanted to call him, but she didn't want to be too forward or clingy. Scott had spent the past week with her. It would've been odd for her to panic just because he had decided to take a day off.

  Maggie, Hope’s nurse, had already asked her where he was. She had been much vested in their one-week-old relationship, asking Hope for updates every day. Under normal circumstances, Hope would’ve found this unbearably exhausting, but it was nice to talk to someone about Scott.

  Hope was in the middle of one of the books Scott had lent her, when he suddenly walked in, surprising her.

  “Hey,” she said. “Was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

  "Sorry, I was a bit held up," Scott said. "Anyway, I brought a friend today. I hope you don't mind."

  “Really?” Hope said, looking at the door, and waiting for the person to come in. Hope crossed her fingers in hopes that it wasn’t another annoying brother to spoil things.

  A woman walked into the room, and a beautiful smile spread across her face as she saw Hope.

  “Hope, I’d like you to meet Olivia,” Scott said. “My wife.”

  4

  Hope stared at Oliva, thinking she probably looked as mortified as she felt. She was unable to take her eyes off the woman. She watched her full lips move, but the world was mute to Hope. She couldn’t recall the last time she had been so shocked to the core.

  Hope quickly snapped back into reality, pulling her jaw up and focusing her ears again.

  “Hey,” Hope managed a wry smile. “I’m Hope.”

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” Olivia smiled ever so sweetly, her voice like honey in Hope’s ears. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Of course, this was Scott's wife. She was a goddess. She had full, pink lips that even attracted Hope, seeing as she couldn't stop looking at them. Her fair skin was perfect, as was every other thing about her. Thick locks of black hair flowed down to her shoulder, which almost distracted from her pretty, emerald eyes. Her smile had to be the most attractive thing about this woman. Hope didn't know whether it was her lips or her beautiful teeth, but her smile probably made any man that saw it melt.

  “Nice to meet you too,” Hope said, taking Olivia’s outstretched hand. “Pardon my bluntness, but you are really pretty.”

  "Oh, thank you," she said. "You're pretty as well, I mean, it's hard to pull off a hospital gown, but you're killing it."

  “You’re so sweet,” Hope smiled.

  She was even kinder than she looked. All Hope wanted to do was tear her pretty face off. She was filled with rage, and angry that Scott had not told her that he was married. She was even angrier that his wife was so gorgeous. Hope admitted to herself that she might’ve felt better if Olivia was an ogre, but she was a princess.

  “Well, I’m really glad you guys got to meet,” Scott said, daring to look Hope in the eyes. He didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with what was going on.

  Hope started to think maybe it was all in her head. She had thought Scott liked her, and she definitely liked him, but she began to embrace the idea that she might have misread things. He had not done anything implicitly to prove that he liked her. She just assumed it because he had spent so much time with her. Realizing that it might've been all in her head made Hope quite frustrated.

  "I'm sorry, but we can't stay for very long," Scott said. "We have somewhere to go tonight."

  “I heard you’re being discharged tomorrow,” Olivia said to Hope.

  “Yeah, doctors think I can function on my own now,” Hope replied.

  “And after only a week,” Olivia looked marveled. “You’re one strong girl, very inspiring.”

  Hope hated that Olivia’s words made her feel good. She decided to see if she could ruffle her feathers a little bit, and maybe catch her darker, jealous side.

  “Thanks. It’s mostly thanks to Scott here. He’s spent every day of the past week keeping me company.”

  “Yes, I thought it was a good idea as well,” Olivia said. “Did you enjoy the books?”

  Hope was stunned. “Y-yes I did, thank you.”

  “No problem,” Olivia said. “Anyway, I’m afraid we have to leave now. Babe?”

  “Yeah,” Scott nodded as they both made their way to the door. “Alright, we’ll see you later, Hope. Get better, alright?”

  “Will do,” Hope said as she watched Scott leave with his beautiful wife.

  Hope had never quite experienced a sudden hatred for someone before, especially when it came from her desire for another person. She had felt something very similar, when she had watched April undress Gabriel in her mind in the elevator, but her actions were calculated and with reason. Hope needed Gabriel's full attention for the experiment to work, and she had to get rid of any distraction, especially the slutty ones. But in this case, Hope's newfound enemy wasn't birthed from logical reasoning, but from raw jealousy.

  Hope paced her room for hours, practicing walking again. She was determined to be up and about as soon as she possibly could. She found new fuel and conviction from her most recent predicament. Hope had to beat Olivia one way or the other. With April, it had been strictly for the sake of her goals, but this time – for the first time – things felt personal.

  The next day, Hope was up early, and ready to leave. She thought about leaving everything that Scott had given her behind, all the books, the games, and everything. Then, she decided she wasn't angry with him. She still liked him; it was Olivia she had a problem with. Besides, if she could meet Scott again, she didn't want to have to tell him that she abandoned everything he had given her, especially after how nice he had been to her.

  Hope hugged Maggie, smiling at her cheek-mushing peck as much as her distorted face would let her. Hope had come to like Maggie as well. Ok, she was pestering and annoying, but she held an innocence that Hope thought was worth preserving.

  The taxi ride to Hope’s apartment was twenty minutes long. Scott had brought Hope to the best hospital available in that area, which meant it was a rich part of the city, which in turn meant that Hope lived far away from it.

  After driving into Hope's side of town and walking into her apartment, a person could be forgiven for thinking that Hope wasn't the richest person. However, that was far from the truth. She could live wherever she wanted in the city. She lived in her mediocre apartment, in a mediocre part of town, because she wanted to. She wasn't a billionaire, but she was far from being in a position where she had to work.

  Her apartment smelled musty when she got there. Hope hadn’t been to her own place in weeks, since she had been spending so
much time living with Gabriel. She had anticipated this though; in fact, she had planned her stay at the Lark mansion, even though Gabriel thought it was entirely his insistence that had convinced her. Hope had covered all of her furniture in anticipation of her absence, and she was glad of that now, because it meant she only had to remove the dust-covered throws.

  Hope’s entire relationship with Gabriel had been meticulously planned, and whenever an unexpected hitch had come up, it was usually only one murder away from being resolved. Of course, it didn’t work out in the end, which was probably because of the murders and the fact that the people involved were too smart and curious for their own good. Right now, however, Hope was thinking that one more murder wouldn’t hurt.

  She didn’t bother getting settled in just yet. She cleared her desk, fired up her PC, and immediately got to work. Hope was determined to find out everything she could about Olivia. It was easy enough; between Facebook, her gorgeous Instagram page, and Google, Hope was able to get what she was looking for. Her experience as a journalist really helped her shine when it came to stalking people on the internet.

  Hope though it was ridiculous that people willingly put so much personal information and data on the internet for – quite literally – the whole world to see. You didn't even have to go to as much effort as Hope was, making to be a stalker; all you had to do was go through someone's Instagram page for more than a minute. People had everything right there for you to see, right down to their location, while posing half-naked in the same post. Hope thought it was a wonder that more people weren’t hunted down and violated through the internet.

  Fellow users weren’t even the biggest threat, of course. The various software that people used for entertainment or communication stored invaluable information and data that most people didn’t even know it was possible to attain. For example, Gabriel’s company had access to everything their customers had that was online, including access to their medical records, unfiltered surveillance through the cameras on their devices, and even their banking details.

  Hope was glad that she had made Tristan give her access to everything the company had, because now she could track Olivia's phone from hers. It gave her a live feed of Olivia’s location at all times. It wasn't a secret technology – most people knew about it – they just chose not to see the full implications.

  Hope thought this was brilliant, of course, but like most things, technology’s value was only measurable by how it could be used. Almost any technology could be abused nefariously. In ten minutes, she knew where Olivia was born, the schools she went to, their address, and even her daily schedule. Hope spent the entire day studying Olivia’s activity patterns, and then she formulated a plan to get rid of her; one that had had the least potential personal blowback.

  The following morning, Hope woke up at 5 o’clock. She washed out the red dye from her hair, revealing her natural brown. Without wasting any time, Hope put on her black tracksuit and hoodie and a pair of sneakers. She called a taxi to take her uptown. After a ten-minute drive, the taxi dropped Hope off at the city park. She stepped out of the vehicle and stretched her limbs; then, she started to jog through the park with a limp in her left leg.

  Hope went around the pathway of the park a few times until she found what she was looking for. She spotted Olivia jogging through the park, her perfect slender figure moving gracefully, as her hair bounced in a ponytail behind her. Hope waited at a corner for her to pass by, and then she started to tail her.

  She kept her distance at first, not wanting to draw any suspicion. Hope pulled her face cap forward, making sure she couldn't be recognized. Then the perfect moment presented itself. Olivia suddenly decided to take a turn into a darker, more secluded part of the park. Hope saw this as the perfect time to strike. She was going to make it look like an accident. One strike to the head with a rock should've made any investigator to think Olivia had fallen and broken her skull.

  Hope picked up her pace, creeping up to her intended victim faster, while trying not to alarm her. She picked up a large stone and was now merely five feet away from her. She raised the rock to her shoulder, ready to strike.

  "Hope?" she heard behind her. She jumped, dropping the stone immediately, and turned around to see who it was.

  “Oh, my God,” Hope exclaimed. “Scott.”

  "In the flesh," he said, slowing to a stop as he got to her. He was in a tracksuit as well, and was drenched in sweat. Hope thought he looked amazing.

  "W-what are you doing here?" Hope stammered. She wasn't expecting to see Scott there. Of course, she had considered the possibility of his coming along with Olivia, but according to the tracking system, he was still at home. Then Hope noticed that he was the only one in the park who didn’t have his ears blocked with music besides her. He hadn’t brought his phone.

  "Fancy seeing you here," Scott said, mocking a British accent, maybe in memory of Maggie, the nurse. Either way, it made Hope laugh. "What were you doing just now behind Olivia?"

  "Well, um," Hope's heart beat faster as she began to stutter once again.

  5

  Hope stood there, petrified, uncertain of what her next move should be. Scott had just caught her about to hit his wife over the head with a rock. This had to be the reddest of flags to him. Hope's mouth started to dry up, her heart beating hard.

  “Hey! Babe!” Scott hollered at Oliva, who didn’t know what was going on yet.

  Olivia stopped in her tracks and turned around, removing her earpieces from her ears. She smiled as she saw Hope, and she ran up to them eagerly.

  “Hope, it’s so nice to see you so soon,” Olivia panted. “Isn’t this the most random thing?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was just talking to her about,” Scott said. “I don’t think it was that random that we met here.”

  “Really?” Olivia asked. “How so?”

  Hope felt like sinking into the ground and staying there for all eternity. She felt so embarrassed that she almost started laughing out of nervousness. Scott had caught her trying to kill someone red-handed, and it had not even been two days since they had last seen each other in the hospital. She was at his mercy now.

  "Well, just now, she was right behind you trying to get to you," Scott said. "I think she was trying to say hi, but you're just too fast."

  Hope felt light as a feather. Of course, that's what he thought he had seen. Hope didn't know why she didn't think of it herself. People only see things based on their own predispositions. So, although Scott had seen Hope trying to kill Olivia, he hadn’t seen her as a killer, and gave himself an explanation that fit his worldview or his view of her better.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, I can be fast sometimes,” Olivia apologized.

  “Sometimes?” Scott laughed. “You don’t even know how to jog, you just run.”

  “Oh, he’s just mad because I always leave him in the dust,” Olivia leaned into Hope, pretending to talk to her privately.

  "Very funny," Scott smiled. "But yeah, she is quite fast. Speaking of, are you sure this is healthy for you? You should be resting, not exercising; your wound needs to heal."

  “Yeah, he’s right,” Olivia concurred. “You should definitely take it easy.”

  "I'll try," Hope smiled, backing away slowly, eager to leave this very embarrassing situation. "Thanks so much."

  "Wait, we should hang out sometime," Olivia said. "Right?"

  “Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,” Scott smiled, softening Hope up. “Hanging out with you was fun, we should make that a regular, right, babe?”

  “Yeah, definitely,” Olivia smiled. “How about dinner, tonight?”

  Hope didn’t answer right away. She knew she wasn’t going to decline, but she still needed a second to think of how it would pan out exactly. Hope had no interest in becoming Olivia’s friend, which was the trajectory they seemed to be headed in.

  It wasn't anything personal. In fact, Hope though Olivia was almost perfect, which only dialed her envy up to eleven. B
ut, if she was to become Olivia's friend, it would only make killing her much more complicated if it ever came to that. Hope couldn't escape the fact that if Olivia were to die, and the police determined it to be a murder, she would be a primary suspect for sure.

  “That sounds great,” Hope grinned. “I’d love to.”

  Hope thought to herself that she could always make it look like an accident.

  “Great!” Olivia said. “It’s a date then. But, Hope you really need to take it easy. You shouldn't be putting stress on your wound. I'm sure it hurts right now.”

  “It does, actually,” Hope admitted. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Whoa,” Scott hurried to Hope’s side, holding up so she wouldn’t have to lean on her injured side. “I know you're a badass, but don't kill yourself.”

  “Scott, baby. Maybe you should give Hope a ride home,” Olivia said.

  “Really, that’s not necessary,” Hope panicked. She wasn’t sure she wanted Scott seeing her place just yet.

  "Don't be ridiculous; he'll drive you home, okay?"

  “Hope, come on, it's no problem whatsoever," Scott said. "Look, my car is right over there; we can go now.”

  Both Scott and Olivia watched Hope now, eagerly waiting for her response. She found it odd that they waited for her consent when they obviously weren’t going to take no for an answer. They were both so unbearably polite, and Scott even more so when Olivia was around, for some reason.

  “I guess that would be alright,” Hope finally said.

  “Awesome,” Scott said. “Babe, I’ll meet you at home, yeah.”

  “That’s fine,” Olivia replied. “Hope, take care of yourself, alright? We’ll see you this evening.”

  “Alright, later,” Hope said as she and Scott walked away.

  Hope’s arm was around Scott’s shoulder, for which he had to lower his body to her height to do. Hope didn’t exactly need the help, but she wasn’t going to protest being so close to him. Scott looked straight ahead, occasionally looking back at Hope, and catching her staring.