Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency) Read Free

touch. So the
latest mark is a bit craftier than the others we’ve come up against. Randi
herself said how smart he was. Apparently smart enough not to be led around by
his dumbstick . We’ll just have to come up with a more
unique punishment for Jude Layman. One befitting his treatment of Mandy Sims.” Avery
flashed her soul sisters a conspiratorial smile. She wouldn’t let Jude Layman,
or anyone for that matter, mess with the closest thing to a family she’d ever
had. “One befitting his treatment of a TGEA girl.”
    All four women put their hands out and entwined them in their
ritual hand hold.
    All for one, one for all.
    Just like the three musketeers, only there were four of them
and they were a whole lot smarter, prettier, and more vengeful.
    * * *
    Running a major publication wasn’t always an easy job. Not when
you were surrounded by egos who thought the universe evolved around their trite
selves.
    Jude rubbed his temple and checked his watch. Only nine-thirty in
the morning and his head throbbed with the intensity of a twelve-hour work day
already.
    Could anything else possibly go wrong?
    He hit the intercom button. “Mrs. Sedwick ?
Bring me some aspirin and a glass of water, please. Otherwise I’m not going to
be responsible for my actions when Mrs. Yamaguchi arrives.”
    Without waiting for her reply, he picked up the handset and
called to check on the proofs that were supposed to be on his desk yesterday. The
proofs for Mrs. Yamaguchi’s mega-dollar campaign for her herbal sexual
dysfunction product and other sexual pleasure enhancers.
    “Not yet,” was the reply he got to his barked demand to know if
they were ready.
    Hell fire.
    What was wrong with him? He was crankier than a bear sitting in
a briar patch.
    Missing proofs.
    Headache.
    Mrs. Yamaguchi and her sly looks and interested innuendos.
    Two weeks without sex .
    Ding. Ding. Ding. We had a winner.
    Hell, that wasn’t it. Not really. He’d gone two weeks without
having sex before.
    Not often since hitting puberty, but he had gone without.
    He’d broken things off with his current girl. Not that they
were exclusive, but he knew she wouldn’t understand the sudden change in their
physical relationship. He sure as hell didn’t want to explain his “no more sex till
my friend gets laid” vow.
    Abstinence had nothing to do with his crankiness.
    But perhaps Marcus’ continued depression did. The fool missed
three days of work last week. For no good reason except that he hadn’t felt
like going. He had to get out of this downer before Joy stole even more of his
life. Like his career and reputation.
    As his best friend, it was Jude’s duty to make sure that didn’t
happen. Somehow.
    Only problem was that he didn’t know how to pull his friend out
of his depression. Didn’t know how to help him get beyond his broken heart.
    His quick and easy answer was to get Marcus laid, but what if
sex wasn’t the answer?
    Who was he kidding? Of course, sex was the answer. Indirectly,
if not directly.
    If he could get Marcus interested in a woman, natural instinct
would cure the rest.
    A light tap on his door let him know Mrs. Sedwick had his aspirin. Thank God. His head pounded and Mrs. Yamaguchi and her
eye-watering perfume hadn’t even invaded his office yet.
    “Come in,” he called, picking up a report on next quarter’s projected
features.
    Without looking, he knew it wasn’t Mrs. Sedwick .
    Mrs. Sedwick never smelled like fresh
baked cinnamon toast. The kind his mother had made him on Saturday mornings
years ago.
    Nor had he ever gotten a quickening in his gut at Mrs. Sedwick entering his office.
    “Where would you like me to put them?” a feminine voice asked. A
voice that despite its no-nonsense attitude was also sultry and seductive. Hell,
he could listen to a voice like that read the telephone directory and not get
bored.
    But the voice wasn’t his beloved assistant’s gravelly-from-smoking-for-forty-plus-years
voice.
    “Where’s Mrs.