Sweet Vengeance: Ladies (Iron Orchids Book 14)

by Danielle Norman

  "That is what I thought."

  "Shouldn't you apologize too?" Bo folded his arms.

  "Sorry I reacted like any other woman would react if she were being verbally assaulted by some stranger."

  Bo huffed and strode off to the corner office to Sunday's right.

  After a second, she slid the jump drive off her desk and headed into Traci's office.

  "Do you have a second?"

  "Sure, come on in."

  "I hate to ask this, but as far as the business issues go, are you sure that Bo isn't involved? He seems rather . . . resistant to having someone new around."

  "Oh, it definitely isn't Bo. I'd stake my life on it. That boy has had a moral compass that pointed due north since he was a kid."

  "So, him threatening to fire me this morning has nothing to do with him not wanting a stranger to stumble onto something they shouldn't?"

  Traci shook her head. "He told me what he said. I'm so sorry for that, by the way. I can't believe how he spoke to you. I'm not defending him, so please don't take it that way, but Bo doesn't have an assistant on purpose. He tried to hire one, but his father kept filling the position with what I called bimbos."

  "Well, Bo saw this on my desk and questioned what I was doing with it, so if he asks, you are fully aware that I'm writing the great American novel in my free time, okay?"

  Traci smiled. "Okay. Let me show you where we keep the different files." Sunday moved around, so she could see the computer screen as Traci moved her mouse and clicked.

  "Do you realize that there is a black server on your system?"

  "What?" Traci was totally puzzled. "I have no clue what that even is."

  "It's a ghost server, meaning it is a server that has been added to your system and if you don't know it's there, then you'll never find it."

  "How do we get rid of it? Who added it?"

  "Getting rid of it is easy, it's in your computer closet. But I have no clue who added it. I'd like to leave it for another day or two so I can try and break into it and see what is on it. It has some killer anti-hack software running."

  "Yeah, sure, do whatever you need. I totally trust you, you know that."

  "Don't mention anything, okay." Sunday confirmed with Traci.

  "Of course not." Traci confirmed.

  "I'll get back to work." Sunday headed back to her desk and made sure to look over at Bo, who was watching her, before holding up the jump drive and waving it so he couldn't miss it. Then she slid into her seat and bit back her smile.

  Sunday worked through lunch. She had lost track of time until the sound of someone clearing his throat caught her off guard.

  "Yes?" She glanced up and froze for a heartbeat. The hairs on the back of Sunday's neck stood on end. "Don't say a word," Sunday whispered. The guy in front of her nodded.

  "I'm here for a meeting with Mr. Bennett Camden."

  Sunday cracked a smile and fought the urge not to laugh as Bo's door opened. "That's him right there."

  "Thank you . . ." The guy with coal-black eyes waited for Sunday to fill in the blank, clearly unsure of whether she was using an alias.

  "Sunday Prescott, I'm Mrs. Camden's assistant."

  "Nice to meet you, I'm Conner Reid." He smirked but held out one hand for her to shake.

  "I'm waiting, Mr. Reid." Bo's voice held no friendliness.

  "He doesn't like the help socializing," Sunday whispered. Conner smiled.

  Whatever Conner was there for, it didn't take long, and about fifteen minutes after he went into Bo's office, he was pulling the door back open, saying, "I'm sorry too, Mr. Camden. I just don't feel that this is something that I can help you with."

  Bo's door closed, and Sunday grabbed her phone to send the girls a message that Conner Reid was there. Conner was a fellow private investigator, and he had worked alongside the girls on a few cases, so they had mutual respect for each other. Not to mention, Sunday believed that he had a crush on Olivia.

  "What are you doing?" Bo barked. Sunday flinched and lost her grip on the phone and watched in horror as it clattered to the tiled floor. Conner picked it up and handed it back to her.

  "Why did you do that? Look what you made me do.”

  "You shouldn't be on your personal phone anyway," Bo snapped.

  "I didn't take a lunch, so I was sending a message to my roommate to see if she would pick up dinner. Never mind, I'll take my lunch now."

  Bo strode back to his office, and Sunday followed Conner to the elevator, neither of them saying anything as Sunday took in the two giant cracks down the face of her phone.

  Sunday thought back to college, her crush, Cal, the guy who she measured all other assholes against on her dick-o-meter. He had set the bar for all other assholes, but Bo was giving Cal a run for his money.

  Once they were both inside the elevator, Conner began, "Be careful, he thinks you are up to something."

  "Like what?"

  "Not sure."

  "Your meeting was over fast." This was something that baffled Sunday.

  "Yeah, the first thing out of his mouth was that he wanted to hire me to tail you."

  Sunday cracked a smile. "Why didn't you take the job? It would have been easy money." Conner tilted his head. "Fine, I know, unethical. How did you get out of it? You didn't mention being colleagues, did you?"

  "Of course not. I told him that I was dating one of your roommates."

  "You wish."

  "Tell me about it.” Conner smirked.

  The elevator doors opened. "Thanks, Conner."

  "Anytime. Be careful, and let me know if you ladies need anything."

  "Will do." Conner headed for the parking lot, and Sunday headed out the side toward the food truck to grab a taco.

  At five o'clock, she shut everything down. Bo had already left, so at least she didn't have to deal with him any longer.

  "See you tomorrow," Traci said as she waved goodbye.

  "Yeah, see you." The last thing Sunday wanted to do was come back to this place.

  On her way home, she stopped at Mobile One, to replace her phone, which was easier said than done. She was up to date on all things' computer, GDDR5 RAM, DDR3 memory, ES RAM buffer, Gigabit bandwidth, you name it. But phones? Sunday had two questions: could she make a call on it and can she text? As long as it was a yes to both, then she was good to go.

  "Hi, may I help you?" A young man who couldn't even be twenty approached her. He kept slinging his head back to get his bangs out of his eyes. Sunday held up her phone and showed the broken screen. "Ahh. Well, we don't carry the iPhone 6, in fact that model isn't available anymore. We do however have the XS Max with face recognition, which is the best, most up-to-date, with five hundred twelve gigabytes of storage space."

  Sunday knew there was no way in hell she was spending one thousand dollars on a phone, did he have any clue how much additional RAM she could buy for her computer or an additional monitor for that amount of money?

  "Well, if you aren't in a hurry, the iPhone 7 is still available online."

  "No, I need it now."

  "Then we have the eight." The salesman handed it to Sunday, and she instantly hated it. Compared to her old phone it was huge but then so was the Max.

  "Let me ask one of my friends which phone I should get, hold on."

  Me: Do you still use an eight?

  Adeline: Yes, why?

  Me: Because mine broke, and I might as well upgrade. They have the Max, but it looks too big.

  Adeline: Use more lube.

  Me: What? OMG, what the fuck are you talking about?

  Adeline: Umm, what are you talking about?

  Me: iPhones

  Adeline: Bwahaha. Call Olivia, I have no fucking clue what phone I have, I thought you were talking about vibrators.

  Me: Eight inches?

  Adeline: So?

  Me: Riley?

  Adeline: I'm spoiled, what can I say?

  Sunday's face was a solid red when she turned to the salesman. "I'll just take t
he Max."

  Sunday

  As Sunday got into her Starlight-blue Mini Cooper, she kicked off her heels. As she drove home, she removed her earrings. When she pulled onto her street, she unbuttoned the top few buttons on her shirt. She put her car in park, reached around and unzipped her skirt. She let out a sigh of relief.

  She loved her house. Okay, it was really Adeline's house, but she and her three best friends had been roommates since their senior year of college.

  She raced inside before any of her neighbors saw her half-undressed, wanting nothing more than to get into some jeans and flip-flops then not leave her room for the rest of the night.

  "I'm fixing drinks, hurry, we want to hear about your day!” Adeline hollered from the kitchen.

  "Thanks, be right down." Okay, Sunday could totally leave her room for drinks. She headed upstairs to her room, AKA her oasis. Since Adeline refused to allow them to pay rent, Olivia, Melanie, and Sunday paid for renovations and had their rooms turned into suites, each with its own bathroom. It changed the upstairs from five bedrooms and three baths to four bedrooms and four baths, but Adeline didn't care. Sunday also had an alcove built, which was where she'd set up a bank of monitors, two separate computer towers, three printers, and a scanner.

  She changed out of her work clothes and grabbed her laptop before heading to the living room.

  "Here." Adeline shoved a glass into Sunday's free hand. "Drink then talk."

  As she plopped down on the couch, Sunday prepared herself for the burn. She didn't have to ask what was in it, just knowing that Adeline had made it was warning enough.

  "Got a second to talk to Conner today,” Sunday said casually.

  "You find out why he was there?" Olivia walked in, bumping Adeline's legs out of the way so she could pass and take the seat on the opposite side of the couch.

  "Yep,” Sunday replied.

  "You gonna tell us, or is this twenty questions?" Olivia asked as she sat up a little straighter.

  "Bo tried to hire him to tail me. Needless to say, Conner wasn't there very long."

  "Be careful, I don't like the way this Bo guy is acting," Melanie warned.

  "I know," Sunday agreed as she opened her laptop, logged into their home security system, and scanned through each of the feeds.

  Adeline, Melanie, and Olivia stopped talking as they watched Sunday. Her head tilted to the right then to the left.

  "She reminds me of Gerda," Adeline said, referring to Riley's German Shepherd.

  "Sun, is everything okay?" Olivia asked.

  "Not sure, can you pull up your camera feed around the house, I want to know if you get the same feeling as I do?"

  Olivia grabbed her iPad and logged in. "What am I looking for?"

  "Scroll back to when I pulled in and then watch that black Porsche pull onto our street and park at the corner."

  "On it." Olivia typed on her iPad.

  "How long after I pulled in does the Porsche park?"

  "I'd check, but I don't want to take my eyes off the car, I'm watching him on this screen." Sunday pointed to her laptop.

  "Who is it?" Melanie asked, moving to stand behind Sunday and stare over her shoulder.

  "My guess would be Bo Camden since Conner declined the job. He seems like he would drive a pricey, look-at-me car."

  Adeline choked on her drink. "Lovely, what an idiot."

  "I don't think he really is." Sunday couldn't believe that she was defending him. "I think he is desperate, and desperate people make mistakes."

  "What makes you say--" Melanie's statement was cut off.

  "The car pulled in about forty-five seconds after you did. How did you not notice that you had a tail?" Olivia asked, totally disappointed in Sunday

  "Really? We are just starting this case, we aren't exactly in the thick of it yet." Sunday paused for several seconds before continuing, "Umm, I have an idea. Why don't Adeline and Melanie go out the front door and keep him distracted?"

  "What exactly do you have in mind?" Melanie scoffed.

  "I don't know, let Adeline handle it, she'll know what to do." Adeline squinted. "Oh, don't give me that look." Sunday laughed.

  "Olivia, you come with me and we will go around the back and come up behind him. You go first so you can block his side view mirror. Then I'll come out. We will totally bust him."

  "I've got this, we will keep his attention averted toward the front." Adeline trailed one perfectly polished nail along her lips. "I love playing with my food."

  "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”

  "It's 'walk into my parlor,'" Adeline said as she stood.

  "My grandmother used to say come."

  "Your grandmother was wrong, that just sounds fucked up." Adeline smiled. She held out a hand to help pull Sunday up from her chair.

  "Hold on, got to go put on a bra." Everyone chuckled as Sunday bounded up the stairs to her room.

  A few minutes later, Sunday watched from around the corner as Adeline and Melanie walked outside. They were flaunting what the good lord gave them. Well, Adeline was. She was doing exactly as Sunday had expected. When Adeline stretched, Sunday was convinced that every man within eye shot knew that Adeline's shirt rose almost up to her breasts when she did that.

  "She is such a tramp," Olivia whispered from behind Sunday.

  "Nah, she's a tease. She's probably a tramp for Riley."

  "Is he looking?" Olivia asked.

  "What do you think?" Sunday smiled. "Adeline just turned around and pointed her butt toward him and is now bent over pretending to tie her tennis shoes."

  "Isn't she wearing sandals?" Olivia asked.

  "I don't think he is looking at her feet." Sunday rolled her shoulders back and took a deep breath. "Let's go."

  Olivia moved in front of Sunday and tried to stay out of the direct line of sight of his side mirror until she was close enough to tap on his driver's side window.

  "I've never seen you in this area before. Tonight is my night for neighborhood patrol. You've been out here for a while. Are you lost?" Olivia asked.

  Bo stared at her. "Congratulations on your job, neighborhood patrol, your parents must be so proud. But this is a public street, and what I'm doing is none of your business."

  "Wow, you sure are an asshole, no wedding ring, no woman stupid enough to put up with your behavior?"

  Bo's window started to roll up.

  Sunday stepped forward. "You may not think it is her job to know what you're doing out here, but it is mine since you are watching my home, asshat." Sunday had no clue where her Adeline-esque behavior had come from, but she liked it.

  Bo

  Bo met a pair of olive-green eyes that he already knew illuminated to a bright, emerald-green when she was pissed. Placing one hand on the latch, he glanced up and raised one brow to see if either lady would take the hint and step the hell back.

  "I'm going to leave you two. See you inside?" the woman next to Sunday said.

  "Yep. Be there in a few. Laptop is still open."

  "Beretta?" the woman asked.

  "Of course," Sunday confirmed.

  Bo watched as the woman pulled out her cell phone and snapped a photo of the VIN number of Bo's Porsche before moving to the back of the car and snapping a picture of his license plate. She made no attempt to play off what she was doing.

  "I've tagged your ass, I'll be watching you," she said as she headed off.

  Sunday took a step back so Bo could get out. "So, are you going to tell me what you are doing here? I know that you followed me and parked less than a minute after I walked into my house. You've been sitting here ever since."

  "Who are you?" Bo was taken aback by Sunday's recap of his movements.

  "Miss Prescott, remember?”

  "No, don't lie, tell me who you really are." Bo was quickly losing his patience. "You're carrying a Beretta, were able to spot me the second I pulled in, and Conner Reid, the top private investigator--"

  "He isn't the top," Sunday corr
ected him.

  "Yes, he is, I checked."

  "Newsflash, you are lousy at research. The top PI company in this state is one you've probably never heard of. They aren't listed in the phone book and don't have a website. They are referral only."

  "Then how do you know about them?" Bo leaned back against his car in a relaxed, yet, closed-off pose. His arms were crossed, his legs were crossed at the ankles, and he was trying to look cool.

  "Tell me why you're here."

  "I want to know who you are. Are you sleeping with my dad?"

  Sunday pounded on her chest in a mix of coughing and laughing. "Would you like a black eye? I've never met your dad. Besides, I don't sleep with married men."

  "Then who are you?"

  "Answer me this, why did you really try to hire Conner Reid?"

  "I tried to hire him to follow you and see what you were up to and to try to help with something going on in the company. Now you." Bo stared at Sunday, waiting for an answer, but she was looking anywhere but at him.

  "We need to call your mom first."

  "My mother? What does she have to do with this?"

  "She's my boss," Sunday explained.

  "Which makes me your boss."

  "Not the same. Just call her, tell her where you are, and be honest."

  Bo rolled his eyes but did as Sunday said. He pulled out his phone and dialed his mother, preparing for the lecture of the century. When she answered, he pressed speaker.

  "Hi, Mother, I have you on speaker phone."

  "Hello, honey. What's going on?"

  "I'm standing here with Sunday."

  "Oh, hello, Sunday."

  "Hi, Traci."

  "I thought both of you left the office."

  "We did. I'm at Sunday's home. I followed her."

  "You what?" Bo cringed at his mother's tone and looked up in time to see the glint in Sunday's eyes. "Mother, what is going on? I seriously doubt that she's an assistant."

  "No, she's a private investigator. You can't tell anyone, though, especially not your father."

  "Why would you need to hire a PI?" Bo was barely holding on to his temper. If there was something wrong, why hadn't she gone to him about it?