Feigning nervousness, Olivia avoided his gaze and scanned the room. There were no photos of his wife, but there were several photos of him volunteering at soup kitchens and planting trees in the local park. Along the wall behind his desk, his diplomas, as well as several certificates and awards, were on display.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled, biting her lip. “I don’t know if that’s it.”
“It’s okay, Olivia,” he crooned, leaning forward and beckoning her gaze in his direction. “A beautiful woman like yourself is bound to feel abandoned when all of her friends are finding love without her. You want someone to remind you that you are desirable, and that is totally understandable. It’s human. It’s nothing to feel ashamed of.”
Dr. Bannon was toeing the line of inappropriate, but it was just barely subtle enough that she couldn’t call him out on it. He wasn’t blatantly coming onto her, but he was doing a very good job of framing the conversation so that he came across as a big, strong man consoling a sad, lonely girl.
Olivia wanted to smack him in the jaw, but that wouldn’t serve the case.
“I guess,” was all she muttered.
“I want you to think about that over the next few days,” he said.
“Oh, okay…” That was it? Ten or fifteen minutes?
Drake turned to his desk and opened a datebook.
“I think that you and I will work together nicely,” he said and then turned to wink at her. Olivia fought the urge to cringe. “I would like to get you on a regular schedule, so how about Tuesdays and Thursdays? Today was more of an introductory session, but your following sessions will go for an hour. Also, I recommend that you don’t wear jeans or other constricting clothes. Wear something looser.”
“What? Why?” Olivia asked.
“So you can be more relaxed, silly.” He chuckled, offering her a patronizing grin. “It’s very important to me that you are comfortable here.”
“Oh, right. Of course,” Olivia replied. This man was fluent in bullshit. “So, same time on Thursday?”
“Yes, it’s all set,” Drake confirmed. He stood and held out a hand to help Olivia up from the chaise. “I’m looking forward to working with you.”
Olivia nodded and quickly slipped out of his office. She smiled politely at his secretary as she hurried past, wondering if the kind-faced woman knew that she was working for the sleaziest man in the city.
Outside in the parking lot, Adeline was waiting for her in her car. Adeline let out a long sigh when Olivia slid into the passenger seat.
“That was quick,” Adeline said, brows raised in confusion. “Did he heal all of your mental ailments that efficiently?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “No, it was apparently just a preliminary session to determine if he can help me or not. Or rather, if he can manipulate and use me.”
“I see…so, he’s just as gross as Lila’s complaints suggested?”
Lila was his wife’s name.
“Oh, yeah.” Olivia laughed as Adeline pulled out of the parking lot. “But if I’d known who he really was beforehand, I could’ve already drawn that conclusion without even needing to speak to him.”
“What do you mean?” Adeline asked.
Olivia grabbed her phone and dialed the downtown office that the Iron Ladies used as their headquarters. She connected the call to the vehicle’s Bluetooth system so that Adeline could participate.
“What’s up, Liv?” answered Melanie after the first ring.
“Where’s Sunday? Can you put me on speaker?”
“Sure thing, boss,” replied Melanie with a snort on the other end of the line.
“I’m here,” Sunday said.
“Okay, girls, do you remember when I competed in that paintball tournament in college?” Olivia continued. “You know, the one where I won that huge gift card to Paula’s Pancake House?”
“Oh, yeah.” Laughed Melanie. “God, I miss those pancakes.”
“Well, do you remember the guy I beat?” Olivia pressed.
“That annoying douchebag?” Adeline asked.
Olivia nodded, but then remembered that the other two girls couldn’t see her.
“Yep,” she said. “That annoying douchebag is Dr. Drake Bannon.”
“No way!” gasped Sunday.
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Melanie, letting out a surprised shout of laughter.
Adeline whistled low, tutting her tongue as she maneuvered through the midday traffic.
“Yeah, crazy, isn’t it?” Olivia said. “It almost makes me want to refund Lila’s money and do this one just for the hell of it.”
“Well, how did it go?” Melanie asked.
“It was fine. Men like Drake naturally see women as weak and stupid, so he had no reason to suspect I was trying to fool him,” Olivia replied. Her friends scoffed in synchronized disgust. “He’s now officially my psychiatrist, so hopefully we can wrap this case up quickly so that poor Lila doesn’t have to deal with his slimy ass much longer.”
“Amen.” Adeline said with a laugh. “All right, we’ll be back at the office in about fifteen, so we’ll talk more then.”
“Roger that,” replied Melanie before ending the call.
Olivia sat back in the seat while Adeline turned on the radio. She cared about all of their clients, of course, but this time, she felt a particular strong desire to help Lila escape her husband. Not just because he was manipulative and showing early signs of abuse that bordered on physical or because Lila was stuck in a miserable marriage to a pompous jerk.
No…this time, it was personal.
Rhys
“Gosh, I don’t know what I’d do without you, Rhys.” Sighed Lila, pouting on the other side of the table.
“Well, gosh, Miss Lila, I wouldn’t know what I’d do without the likes of you either,” Rhys replied in a thick southern accent, poking fun at Lila’s polite and southern-belle-esque way of speaking.
She giggled. Rhys thought that it was nice to hear his sister-in-law laugh. She rarely did it when Drake was around. Even he struggled to feel happiness when he was around his brother, and he liked to think that he was generally an upbeat guy.
“I’m serious, though.” Lila smiled. “Drake doesn’t really like to spend time with me like this, so I really look forward to our weekly brunches.”
Rhys snorted. “You make me sound like one of your lady friends.”
“Oh, please. You know I don’t have many friends,” she said. The smile was still there but her eyes were sad. Ever since Lila met his brother and became Mrs. Drake Bannon, the liveliness slowly drip out of her.
Rhys frowned. “Lila, I don’t want to overstep again, but…”
He’d been trying to find a way to encourage her to leave his brother for ages, but he didn’t want her to think that he was trying to insert himself in her business.
Surprisingly, Lila lit up at his words.
“Well, actually…I did something,” she said, lowering her voice and leaning forward across the café table conspiratorially.
“Did something?” Rhys asked.
She bit her lip and nodded. “Yes, I hired someone. Well, four someones. They call themselves the Iron Ladies, but they’re essentially a team of private investigators. All women, of course.”
Rhys cocked his head to the side in confusion. “And what exactly have you hired the Iron Ladies to privately investigate?”
Lila tapped the top of his hand with her butter knife in playful annoyance.
“Well, the only thing that’s stopping me from leaving Drake is the prenuptial agreement,” Lila continued. “I’ll get nothing if I just divorce him without being able to prove that he violated it. I’ll be nothing, too. I mean, I gave up my entire life for him. I think you and I both know that he has, so…”
“You hired them to help find proof?” asked Rhys, proud of her for seeing the type of man his brother was and not denying it any longer. “You know that Drake is careful about his image.”
“He is, but he isn’t so
careful that you and I didn’t find ourselves being suspicious. I’m pretty sure he’s sleeping with his patients,” Lila admitted, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “He comes home smelling like a different perfume every night of the week. The only problem is that I don’t have any concrete proof beyond that.”
Rhys let out a surprised chuckle when the realization dawned on him.
“But if a private investigator can get proof…” he said, nodding along.
Lila grinned. “Yes, exactly. It’ll be the information I need to get out of this situation safely and with something to my name. It will probably be enough to go to the board with too, so I’ll give him a choice to either allow the divorce with a fair distribution of assets or I’ll go after his license.”
He nodded thoughtfully, proud of her for making such a brave move toward securing a future independent of his cruel brother, but he was also worried that this scheme with the private investigators might get messy. What if Drake caught wind of what was going down?
It wouldn’t end well.
Still, Rhys wasn’t going to discourage her. She deserved to be happy and free, and this was a better plan than he was capable of dreaming up.
“Well, good luck.” He smiled. “And if you need any help with this genius plan of yours, you just let me know.”
Lila’s eyes twinkled as she grinned happily. “You’re one of the good ones, Rhys. If one good thing came out of my marriage, it was gaining you as my brother.”
Rhys felt the same way. Lila wasn’t just his sister-in-law in title alone. She genuinely felt like a sister to him. He hoped that, once this whole thing was over and the divorce was finalized, he and Lila could remain close like siblings.
“Likewise, buttercup,” he replied, using his favorite nickname for her. “You’re more like family to me than my own family. If there was a sibling factory, I’d happily trade my brother in for you in a heartbeat.”
Lila threw her head back and laughed musically. She was easy to amuse when Drake wasn’t around to bring the mood down. Soon enough, his sister-in-law would be laughing like that all the time.
Olivia
It was late on a Wednesday morning and she was at a café near the office, picking up a to go order for her and the girls.
The last thing she expected when she walked in was to find her client, Lila Bannon, sitting at one of the tables in the back with her husband.
Olivia cringed at the sight of Drake. Subpar paintball player turned sleazy psychiatrist. The couple was too absorbed in their conversation to notice Olivia, but she felt like she couldn’t just leave without doing something. It was such an unexpected coincidence that Olivia almost felt like the universe was giving her a golden opportunity.
She recalled the way that Drake subtly came on to her yesterday in their brief meeting at his office. Even though she loved her job, she wasn’t looking forward to meeting with him again tomorrow for their first full session.
But maybe she wouldn’t have to.
It was a long shot, but maybe if Olivia approached him and convinced him to make a bold move on her right there in the café, it would be enough proof for Lila to get out of the pesky prenup.
Olivia watched the couple chat from her place by the counter where the to go orders were placed. She hoped she would get an opportunity to approach the table, praying that the universe was on her side that morning.
Sure enough, Lila stood and made her way toward the restroom in the far corner of the café.
Olivia mussed up her hair, drooped her shoulders, and turned her usually steely expression into one of endearing shyness. She approached the table and cleared her throat quietly.
“Dr. Bannon?” she said. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your meal, but I noticed you here and I couldn’t stop myself from saying hello. I hope that’s okay.”
“Oh,” he said, looking up at Olivia with a baffled expression. For a minute, he looked at her like he didn’t recognize her, but then he seemed to catch on to her delicate flirtation and smiled easily. “No worries at all. I’m happy to see you.”
“Really?” Olivia batted her eyelashes. “Happy to see me? God, that’s good to hear. I’m really looking forward to our session tomorrow. I had a difficult time sleeping last night again, and I’m praying that you’ll be able to help. Or, at the very least, maybe you can find a way to tire me out.”
Olivia let out a nervous breath of laughter to try to hide her disgust at having to flirt with this asshole. Still, she was determined to egg him on just enough for Lila to return and witness it.
Dr. Bannon’s expression was amused, almost relaxed in a way he hadn’t been in his office. He wasn’t carrying himself as arrogantly as he was yesterday. Furthermore, he was wearing a pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt with a paint stain on the sleeve. And Olivia had a hard time turning her head from his elaborate sleeve of tattoos. Sure, he might’ve been off the clock, but it seemed uncharacteristic of the pompous psychiatrist to be dressed like the classic bad boy archetype of every teenage rom-com.
“Yes, I’m sure that we can figure something out for you,” Dr. Bannon replied. Though his words were suggestive, there was no blatant sliminess to his tone. Was it possible that Olivia had read him wrong yesterday? Could it be that Drake was actually capable of being a halfway decent person outside of work?
No, that didn’t make sense.
“Oh, goodness!” came the sound of a high, feminine voice from behind Olivia.
Lila was dressed in a lovely, pastel pink dress, and a string of freshwater pearls sat on her throat. She stood in sharp contrast to Olivia, who was wearing jeans and a white button-down.
“Oh, hello,” Olivia said, feigning confusion. Dr. Bannon wasn’t supposed to know that she knew his wife, so she resisted the urge to greet her by name. In turn, Lila should’ve understood that she needed to pretend that Olivia was a perfect stranger.
“Hi, Olivia.” Lila giggled, sitting back down in her chair. Olivia’s eyebrows shot up, and the gears in her brain quickly churned to come up with a way to cover Lila’s obvious slip-up. “It’s okay! Don’t worry. I probably should’ve mentioned this before, but Drake has an identical twin brother.”
Olivia glanced at the man who was apparently not Dr. Bannon.
“Identical twin?”
Rhys interrupted, “Well not exactly identical, we are nothing alike.”
“This is Rhys,” Lila explained. “Drake’s totally different personality brother.”
Twin brother. That explained why Rhys seemed a little less arrogant than Drake as well as the starkly different manner of dress. Though, it did annoy her that Rhys hadn’t corrected her when she called him by his brother’s name.
“Rhys, this is Olivia Vinning,” Lila continued. “She’s one of the Iron Ladies.”
“Ah, I see.” Rhys grinned, offering a hand for Olivia to shake. “One of the formidable women tasked with digging up dirt on my insufferable brother. I understand now. Were you attempting to flirt with me just now? Thinking that it was him?”
Lila bit her lip to hide a smile as Olivia pursed her lips at Rhys.
“It’s part of the process,” Olivia explained, shucking off her false demeanor of meekness and taking on a clipped, businesslike tone.
“No, it was impressive.” Rhys chuckled. “Drake loves bashful women. Extra points if they’re a little awkward and in obvious need of a self-esteem boost.”
Lila pouted. “I’m still not sure why he fell for me, I mean, I don’t think I’m like that, at all.”
Olivia offered Lila an encouraging smile. “You’re nothing like that, you are strong and that is why you realized you needed to get out of the relationship. Now that I know there’s a carbon copy of him wandering around town, I’ll be more careful with my methods, too.”
Rhys smirked. “Are you saying you won’t be flirting with me in the future, Olivia?”
“Not if I can help it,” Olivia quipped, raising an eyebrow at the man. Although they were identical, it wasn�
��t lost on her that Rhys was somehow more attractive than his brother. Perhaps it was the way he styled his dark hair free of any product that would tame the loose waves. And Olivia would bet a million dollars that the slimy psychiatrist didn’t have a sleeve of tattoos.
She hated to admit it, but Rhys was exactly her type.
Too bad she was already involved with Drake, albeit disingenuously. She didn’t need to be juggling a set of twins, especially if it might compromise the case.
Rhys must have found her biting comment amusing because he chuckled, and it was in sharp contrast to the patronizing laughter that emanated from Drake during their meeting the day before.
“Well, for the record, I’m different from my brother. I like it when a woman plays hard to get,” Rhys remarked.
“Oh, hush.” Lila laughed before turning to Olivia. “Ignore him. He’s an incurable flirt, but he’s harmless.”
Unlike his brother, Olivia wanted to say.
Olivia
In a last-ditch attempt to avoid meeting with Dr. Bannon tomorrow morning, Olivia decided to do some surveillance of his office that Wednesday evening. If Olivia could catch him getting intimate with one of his clients, she wouldn’t have to subject herself to spending time with him until he made a move on her. Of course, that was the entire point of the strategy, but that didn’t mean Olivia was thrilled about it.
She sighed and lowered the binoculars. She was parked in the lot of the building where Drake’s office was located, tucked away in a spot that gave her a reasonably clear view of his windows while still being inconspicuous.
The problem was that Dr. Bannon seemed to be out of his office. His desk lamp was on and the blinds were open, but there was no one inside. It was seven in the evening, and Olivia had already been out there for about an hour.
Suddenly, there was a tap on the window of the passenger side and Olivia jumped, quickly stashing the binoculars out of sight.
She nearly shrieked when she saw a familiar face peering through the window at her. Several seconds passed in which she stared with wide eyes at Drake, thinking that she’d just been stupid enough to get caught red-handed, until she realized that it wasn’t Drake.
Olivia, Striking Back (Iron Ladies Book 4) Page 2