Bully Revenge (Taking Revenge on Her Bully Book 2)

by Lia Ellison

  “Do you want my guard to help you?” she asked, and I glanced at Ryker.

  A guard.

  She had a guard with her, and who knew who else watching the house.

  We had to be careful, but it was also good that she’d fallen for our act.

  “There’s no need. I’ll go get them,” Ryker said. “We didn’t bring a lot with us since our house was supposed to be fully equipped.”

  “I knew that was too good to be true. But you never listen to me.” I shook my head at Ryker, who headed down the road.

  “Do you want something to drink?”

  “Oh, yes, please,” I said. “I’m parched. A glass of water would be just fine.”

  “All right. Follow me.”

  I strolled after Cassie toward her house.

  When I slid my hand into my pocket, my fingers closed around one of the bugs that Ryker and I were supposed to plant all over the house.

  I didn’t know where Cassie would take us or where our room would be, so it was better if I could plant the bugs as soon as possible in whatever room she took me first.

  The house was really nice and huge, and it had an expensive look to it, including a marble floor and fancy statues in the hallway. Expensive paintings lined the wall.

  I followed Cassie into the kitchen, and as she went to pour me a glass of water, I planted the bug under the counter.

  “There you go,” she said, offering the glass to me.

  “Thanks.” I grabbed the glass and gulped down the refreshing liquid. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Oh, I’m Cassie,” she said.

  “I’m Eve, and my husband is Dean,” I lied with a smile on my face.

  Hopefully, she wouldn’t suspect anything, but there wasn’t any reason for her to do so. I didn’t think we looked threatening at all.

  “Honey?” I heard Ryker’s voice just down the hallway.

  “Over here, baby!” I yelled, and he walked into the kitchen with our two duffel bags.

  “Where can I leave these?” he asked, lifting the bags.

  “Let me show you,” Cassie said, and as we trailed after her, Ryker and I exchanged a look.

  I gave him a small smile.

  My plan was working, and once Cassie left and the night fell, we should be able to do whatever the hell we wanted and plant the bugs everywhere.

  Maybe Ryker could even make sure that we can listen in on her phone if she had a landline.

  “This is the guest room,” Cassie said as she opened the door to a huge room with a king-sized bed.

  My eyebrows shot up.

  Well, hell.

  This was really, really nice. Spending the night here might not be all that bad or weird at all.

  Okay, it would definitely be weird knowing what we were doing, but it was way better than tying up the woman and torturing her.

  At least in my book.

  I just hoped we could get some useful info and that Cassie would talk to her husband or at least hint as to where he might be hiding.

  Chapter 12

  “ANYTHING?” I ASKED as I took a seat on the bed.

  We’d left Cassie’s house two days ago, and yeah, we’d bugged pretty much every corner of it, but no matter how much we went through the recorded audio, we still couldn’t find anything useful.

  “Maybe,” Ryker said. “It looks like she received a call a few hours ago.”

  “Play it.” I shifted closer to him.

  He pressed the play button on his laptop.

  For a few long moments, all we could hear was static, but then something clicked.

  “Hello, Cassie,” a male voice said. “Your fresh tomatoes are ready.”

  “That’s very good to hear. When can I come pick them up?”

  “Tomorrow at the market. 2 p.m.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be there.”

  The call ended.

  I raised an eyebrow at Ryker. “Could that be her husband?”

  “I don’t know. The voice sounded strange and not like him.”

  “But it’s possible he changed it so that no one would figure him out if they were listening in, right? I mean, the whole conversation was super weird, wasn’t it? Fresh tomatoes? Do you really think Cassie goes to the market to buy tomatoes? Or hell, to buy anything at all? I’m sure someone does all the shopping for her.”

  He shrugged. “We’ll have to check it out. It’s possible she doesn’t have anything better to do, or that she wants to do some things herself to make sure no one slips anything into her food.”

  “Okay, yeah. If I thought someone might try to poison me, I’d be very careful of my food. But I also wouldn’t be buying things from a random person. And this conversation didn’t sound all that friendly like that.”

  Ryker nodded. “You’re right. It’s possible she’s planning to meet with her husband tomorrow.”

  “And we’ll be there. But there will be a lot of people at the market. What are we going to do?”

  “Follow her. If it’s her husband, we’ll follow him, and I’ll take care of him when there are no witnesses.”

  “Okay. But we’ll need different disguises. Cassie thinks we went back home. She’ll be suspicious if she sees us and recognizes us.”

  “Yep. We need new ones.”

  “Let’s go shopping.” I flashed him a smile.

  I WAVED MY HAND IN front of my face because it was so damn hot.

  The market was full of people, and everyone was buying something, milling around and taking a look, or chatting with their friends.

  My wig was itching like hell, but I couldn’t risk touching it. My hair was dark red now and shorter than my real hair, and my eyes were dark brown.

  Surprisingly enough, my colored contacts didn’t bother me. I was hoping Cassie would show up already so Ryker and I could get away from the damn heat.

  But where the hell was she?

  It was already 2 p.m., but I didn’t see her anywhere, no matter how hard I looked.

  Too bad we’d have been too obvious if we’d waited for her closer to her house, but we couldn’t risk her spotting us or being suspicious enough to go back instead of meet with her husband.

  “There,” Ryker said under his breath, and I followed his gaze.

  Cassie was making her way through the crowd in a white dress with big red flowers. She had a big hat on her head, which made it a bit easier for us to follow her, especially because she was tall.

  We moved through the crowd after her.

  “Whatever you do, don’t lose her out of your sight,” Ryker said. “Even if I disappear, don’t panic.”

  “Okay.” If Ryker saw the chance, he was going to go after Cassie’s husband, and I knew I shouldn’t interfere with what he was going to do.

  The last thing we wanted was for Easton to escape and figure out we were after him. I was sure it would be harder for us to find him then.

  Cassie stopped, and I turned away when her gaze moved in my direction.

  When I looked back at her, she was talking to someone.

  A man.

  He had a hat too, and it was hard to see his face.

  “Come on,” Ryker said as Cassie and the man strode together through the crowd.

  We followed them down the narrow streets, but when the crowd thinned, we had to slow down so they wouldn’t see us.

  Cassie kept glancing behind her as if she could tell someone was after her, or maybe she was just being cautious.

  Before I ducked behind a building, I spotted her going through a blue door.

  “Where are they?” Ryker asked as he pressed himself against the wall next to me.

  “They went through that door.” I nodded toward it.

  We waited for a few moments, and then we headed toward the door.

  It was cracked open, and Cassie was standing in the hallway with the man, her mouth on his, his hand on the small on her back.

  Ryker placed his hand on my arm and pulled me with him down the street. I mus
t’ve been staring for too long, too hard.

  Once we were far away enough, we stopped.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “That’s not him.”

  “What?”

  “That’s not her husband.”

  “Oh.” I bit down on my lip. “I guess she found her fresh tomatoes after all.”

  Ryker tried to keep his face serious, but his lips twitched.

  “Are they still there?” I peered around the corner, but it looked like the door was closed.

  “They’re inside. Probably in one of the rooms.” He took a quick peek at the building.

  “Are you sure she’s still with her husband?” I asked. “I mean, I know she might be having an affair, but what if she and Easton divorced? Maybe no one got the memo.”

  “No, they’re still married, and there’s no way Easton would ever give her a divorce.”

  “Well, hell, then. I don’t think she’s talking to him. Or maybe she does it once a week or so.” I shrugged.

  Ryker’s lips were pressed into a tight line, and I had a feeling he already had an idea.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “I know what to do. We don’t have to look for Easton. He’ll come to us.”

  “What are you talking about? Why would he do that?”

  “We’re going to let him know his wife is cheating on him.”

  I furrowed my brow. “How is that going to help? Do you think he’ll come here to check if it’s true? But why would he believe you?”

  “Oh, he’s going to be sure. Because I’m going to get proof. I’m sure Cassie will meet with her lower again soon.” A small smile quirked Ryker’s lips.

  “You’re scaring me. You look like you’re some evil guy plotting someone’s utter destruction.”

  He shook his head at me. “I am. Easton’s destruction.”

  “I still don’t get why he would come here to us.”

  “Because he’ll come for his wife. He’d never allow for her to embarrass him like that.”

  “Are you saying he’ll want to kill her?”

  “Probably.”

  “Whoa, wait. That’s not how this is supposed to go.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll get him before he gets to her. He’ll be too mad to be able to think clearly. It will be exactly what I need.”

  “Right.” I didn’t like that plan at all.

  Chapter 13

  “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT to do this?” I asked Ryker as he was eyeing the building in front of him.

  Since Cassie had received another call about tomatoes, we figured she was going to meet with her lover again, and Ryker wanted to make sure he could snap some photos of them or record a video.

  But the house where Cassie and her lover had been the last time was very closed off from the street, and the windows on the first floor was closed.

  We assumed their room was somewhere upstairs and looking the other side, maybe to the alley behind the building. But the damn alley was so narrow that it was impossible to see anything.

  Sure, there were some windows and they were open, but we couldn’t tell if it was a room of some kind or someone else’s apartment.

  Still, Ryker was sure that Cassie and her lover would go there, and that he could see something from the building across from it.

  The only problem was that the building from which he was supposed to spy on Cassie was hard to get into. The door was secured with an alarm, and Ryker didn’t think we had what we needed to break in, especially without anyone seeing us, so he thought he could climb up onto the balcony.

  But I wasn’t so sure about that.

  What if his foot slipped and he fell?

  The balcony wasn’t too high up, and there were plenty of vines and indentations on the wall to hold onto, but that didn’t mean Ryker wouldn’t fall and hurt himself.

  “It’ll be fine. Trust me. I climbed up houses more complicated than this one. All I need you to do is to alert me when Cassie’s coming. The balcony has a direct view on the windows across from it, and I don’t want her to see me immediately.”

  “Where are you even going to hide? The balcony only has a railing, and you’re not invisible.” I wanted to talk him out of this because I had a bad feeling about it, but I supposed he knew what he was doing.

  “Behind those vines, but I’ll have to lie down. That’s why I need you to whistle when she shows up.”

  “What if she sees me?”

  “Just stay behind that tree over there.” He nodded toward it.

  “It’s a really thin tree.” And really, it was more like a big branch than a tree.

  “It’ll be fine. She’ll be more focused on her lover anyway. She’s clearly meeting with him often and no one has ever spotted them or told her husband anything. At this point, she’s probably feeling safe about it.”

  “But she’s still doing the whole fake-call thing. Doesn’t she think her husband will suspect something?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Maybe next week, she’ll switch to fruit or some other vegetable. Unless she’s telling her husband that she’s making herself a tomato bath every week.”

  The corners of Ryker’s lips twitched up. “I’m going up there.”

  He took a good look around us, and when he was sure no one was in sight, he started climbing up.

  My pulse sped up when of the vines crunched under his feet, breaking into pieces, but he held onto the indentations and pulled himself up very quickly.

  Oh hell.

  He was really good at that, wasn’t he?

  A hidden skill I didn’t know he had.

  How was he going to climb down, though?

  When I’d done a similar thing to escape my kidnappers, I’d hurt my ankle.

  It’s going to be fine. Just breathe, Lexi.

  I hid behind the tree, although I felt ridiculous doing it.

  Getting hold of my phone, I was hoping that, even if Cassie saw me, she’d think that I was just taking a selfie or whatever.

  My disguise was different again, but I still hoped she wouldn’t spot me. If she did, she might figure out that strangers were around here way too much lately.

  But as Cassie and her lover showed up, it didn’t look like they saw anyone except each other. Actually, they looked so damn carefree.

  How could Cassie not think that her husband’s men might see her? Or was she sure that they weren’t around and that no one was going to tell her husband?

  Maybe the people here didn’t even know her husband or that she had one. Hell, she was supposed to be in hiding here, with a fake identity.

  I had no clue how Ryker’s men had found her at all.

  Once she disappeared from my sight, I whistled.

  I didn’t know how long it would take for her and her lover to get to their room, or if they’d even get there.

  For all we knew, they might stay on the first floor, with their windows closed. But who the hell wanted to feel trapped in a dark room?

  I moved closer to the building where Ryker was again, leaning my back against the wall. And then all I could do was wait.

  After what seemed like an eternity, something rustled, and when I looked up, Ryker was climbing down.

  I held my breath for a few moments, and when his feet finally touched the ground, relief flooded me.

  “Do you have it?” I asked.

  He didn’t say anything, but there was a huge smile on his face.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said.

  Cassie and her lover could come out at any moment, or maybe they wouldn’t. Who knew how long they’d stay here?

  But if we had what we needed, then it was better for us to go before anyone spotted us lurking here. Someone might alert Cassie about us, and our plan could go to hell if she ran.

  “I have a video and a bunch of photos,” Ryker said when we were far enough away.

  “That’s great.”

  “Yeah, it is. Now all I have to do is find a way to send t
hose anonymously to Easton.”

  “Actually, Nia can help you with that,” I said. “I can forward her the files, and then she can send them to Easton.”

  His face became serious.

  “You can trust Nia. She’s really good at what she does, and she’s a very good friend of mine. I trust her with my life.”

  He was quiet for a few moments, but then he nodded. “Okay.”

  “What happens when Easton sees the video?” I asked.

  “Then we wait for him.”

  “And what if he doesn’t come?”

  “He will. I’m sure of it.”

  “But Cassie will be safe, right?” I eyed him carefully.

  “She will. But I’m going to need to get a few things. We’ll need them if we want to catch Easton without anyone figuring us out. And we’ll have to find the best hiding spot as close as possible to Cassie’s house.”

  “Then it’s a good thing there are a lot of bushes. But what about her guard?”

  “I bet he won’t be a problem. Easton hired him, which means he’ll probably send him away before he shows up. Cassie won’t even know.”

  “Then we might be able to figure out when he’s coming.”

  Ryker nodded. “We just need to make sure we catch him.”

  Chapter 14

  I CROUCHED BEHIND A large bush, glancing at Cassie’s house, which was in darkness. Ryker was next to me, his phone out.

  “Easton should be on his way,” he whispered. “When he triggers one of the alarms, we’ll know he’s here. I need you stay here and be careful. I don’t want you to run out or go after Easton, even if he’s getting away. All you can do is alert me of his presence. Let me handle this.”

  “Yeah, okay.” I wasn’t really about to run after a criminal.

  Although, if I thought Cassie’s life was in danger, then maybe I would. But what could I do to help her?

  Not much.

  Ryker could handle Easton, and he was armed. I wasn’t.

  Maybe Ryker thought that not having a gun was going to stop me from doing anything crazy, but if his life was in danger, I wasn’t exactly sure I could stay calm and wait.