Lovely Revenge

by Julia Derek

  “Yup.” I got to my feet and extended my hand to Chase. “Let’s go online and do some digging. You seem to be pretty good at that part with all that practice you got digging up info about me.” I pushed him playfully.

  He rolled his eyes at me. “Please don’t remind me of those days. I was in such pain, pining for you, you evil, little heartbreaker.”

  Then he took my hand and we went into the house and found my laptop that I’d brought with me from New York. We took it with us into the dining room where we took a seat at the big table and logged on.

  “Why don’t we just start by Googling her and see what she’s up to these days?” I suggested, punching her name into the search box.

  “Chrissy Tannenbaum?” Chase asked as he watched me finish typing and then click Search. “That’s her name?”

  I looked at him. “Yeah, why?”

  “I know someone with that name.”

  I stared at him. “You do? Who’s that?”

  “Someone who works at Morgan Stanley. Just an associate like you. I met her when I went to a function once and we spoke for a while. The reason I remember her is because she wouldn’t leave me alone. She just kept talking and talking, asking about what deals I was working on, suggesting that maybe we could work together on some stuff. I had to literally go into the men’s room in order to get rid of her.” He laughed. “I think I stayed in there for at least ten minutes to be sure she wasn’t still waiting for me when I got out.”

  “Was she?”

  “No, she had left, thank God. But she stuck with me for a while after that, so I looked her up online to see if she actually was an associate at Morgan Stanley, like she’d claimed. And she was, but I soon forgot about her. It wasn’t like I was going to work with her on anything anyway. When we were in that room, I did consider women who I competed with for clients, but this one never even entered my mind. I mean, she was just an associate at her team, so what would she gain by getting rid of me? It’s not like she and I are in direct competition. But let’s see if it’s even the same Chrissy that you’re talking about. Maybe it isn’t.”

  As the computer opened up the search results, I said, “I’m sure it’s the same one. She was always extremely annoying and aggressive. I doubt she’s changed much.”

  I clicked on the images link and several photos popped up on the screen.

  I pointed at one in the first row. “That’s her.”

  “Ha. Well, I’ll be damned. That’s the Chrissy I’m talking about as well…” He kissed me on the neck. “Honey, I think we’ve found our mystery lady.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Okay, so what do we do now?” I asked Chase. We had finally settled down after getting so ecstatic figuring out who our abductor was that we spent a couple of minutes making out to celebrate. “Should we just call up Nick and Gabi and tell them?” I reached for my new cell phone that I’d placed on the table next to the computer.

  Chase put a hand on mine. “We should definitely let Gabi and Nick know. But before we do that, let’s try to determine exactly why she abducted me out of all people. She obviously wanted to get rid of me for some reason. In order for the authorities to not only arrest her but to also have a case against her, we need to know what her motive was. I think it’ll be easier for the two of us to figure that out than for any cop, don’t you agree? We know the finance world a lot better than they do after all.”

  “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

  “Besides, if she’s smart, she has her tracks thoroughly covered. Which means we definitely need to come up with her motive.”

  I nodded. “She’s no dummy, that’s for sure.”

  “I’m sure she isn’t.” Chase narrowed his eyes. “I’ll bet you she has a great alibi for when she was at the house that night she fucked with us. And those thugs we dealt with are probably just hired hands, like Nick already suggested.”

  “Yeah, I agree. But how would we come up with her motive?”

  He let go of my hand and pushed out his lips, stroking his chin. “Hmm… I’m not sure. I think we might have to go back to New York to do that. Maybe talk to some of the people on her team. Find out what deals they’re working on. Maybe she has her eyes set on some of the same clients we do … Clients that would go for her team if only I was out of the picture. And if she could win them over, she’d get promoted to VP or even director real fast. At least if she got some of our top fish.”

  “Okay. But wouldn’t she find out right away that we’re on to her if we start asking around among the people she works with?”

  Chase nodded. “Yeah, that is the challenge. How to find out what they’re working on without her knowing we’re trying to find out… But I’m sure a solution will come to us once we’re back in the city.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope so. When do you think we should go back?”

  “As soon as possible. Why waste more time to get to the bottom of this?”

  “That’s true.”

  Chase was right of course; why waste another minute on this? We wouldn’t be able to move on with our lives until we had confronted Chrissy and she was arrested. Still, I wouldn’t mind staying in L.A. for a few more days. Or weeks. Coming back home and seeing my family had been more of a relief than I had expected. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to go back to New York again. At least not without knowing that Chrissy and whoever else might be involved in this were safely behind bars. I didn’t care that I had a gun now and would always make sure not to be alone or if I was, be very, very careful. I knew myself; it would be impossible for me to relax knowing that Chrissy had gone to such great lengths to get back at me. Which meant that she might do something else, just like Nick had suggested, to take out both Chase and me now that we had outplayed her.

  I would feel so much better about everything if we could find out why she’d wanted to get rid of Chase while we were still in L.A. It seemed that the more we knew about the way her mind worked, the better we could anticipate her next move, and thus be safer. My mom’s house was as good as burglary safe with its intricate home alarm system, so she couldn’t get to us while we were here. But it was probably better that we were in New York as Chase had said.

  I got to my feet. “Well, I might as well start packing then,” I said. Unlike Chase, I had unpacked my suitcase as soon as we had gotten to my mom’s house yesterday, sure that we would stay in L.A. for at least a week or two. “In the meantime, why don’t you look for flights online?”

  “Sure,” Chase replied. “But I think I’ll use my iPad for that. It’ll go faster than using your computer.” He made a face. “I can’t stand that hypersensitive touchpad.”

  “Yeah, I need to fix that. It’s kinda annoying even though I’m used to it by now.”

  Together, we walked up the stairs to my childhood room, me to pack and Chase to get his iPad that he’d placed next to my bed.

  I opened the door to my walk-in closet where I’d left my suitcase. I heard the hiss right as I turned on the light at the side of the doorjamb. Something inside me must have known I was in danger before the snake’s jaws could reach me, because I had thrown myself backward before the long, yellow reptile even launched at me.

  “Chase!” I screamed, crawling backwards as quickly as I could to get away from the big serpent that was slithering toward me now. I tried to move my hands and feet faster, walking backwards, but the reptile was closing in on me. My heart pounded like a jackhammer and I was dizzy with terror. Then something big behind me stopped me and I realized it was my bed. Oh, God, by the time I get to my feet it’ll have gotten to me… Oh, God, no…

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  The shots were deafening —and at least one of them hit the snake’s head, blowing it into several disgusting little bloody pieces that flew in every direction. It stopped its terrifying weaving approach on the white carpet, clearly dead now, its long, slimy, yellow body revolting to look at.

  Still trembling, I felt a hand on my head. Slowly, I turn
ed in the direction of the person who was next to me. Chase stood there, staring at the dead snake, a gun in one of his hands, his face white.

  I’m not sure how I managed to get to my feet I was in such shock still, but I did, probably because Chase was helping by having extended his other hand that I gripped. He looked at me, his features tight with anger.

  “Are you okay?” he muttered through clenched teeth, his eyes black with fury.

  My breathing remained rapid and shallow, and cold sweat ran in several rivulets down the sides of my body, neck, and face. “Yes,” I managed, plopping down on my bed behind me. “I think so…”

  Keeping his gun up close to his jaw, Chase kicked open the door to my walk-in closet. The door stayed open and since the light was on, it gave us a good view of the closet’s insides. It seemed free of other nasty surprises, at least from what I could tell from where I sat on the bed. After some time, Chase closed the door and squatted deeply, peering under my bed while keeping his gun close.

  “Anything there?” I panted.

  He stood back up. “Nah, it looks completely clean.”

  He kept looking around my room, just like I was doing, to be sure nothing else was about to attack us.

  “I thought you said your mom’s security system was unbreakable,” he said a minute or so later.

  “I thought so, too,” I replied, breathing normally finally. “We’ve never ever had a break-in and as soon as someone tampers with the alarm code, the police are notified.”

  “Well, it sure seems like someone has found a way to get through it somehow…”

  Yes, that much was clear. I tried to think. How could someone have gotten through it? I froze then. Oh, God, could it be as simple as my mom not having changed the code since I was in high school? Because, in that case, Chrissy as well as a couple of my other friends from back then knew the code. Each time my mom had gone away for a night or two and I had promised to stay at one of my friends’ houses, we had used the code to “break into” my house so we could live it up there instead, undisturbed. The code to turn off the alarm system was easy to remember —I had finally figured out that it was just mine and Dylan’s birthdays —and there was even a hidden place by the garage outside the house where you could get to it. Which Chrissy also knew about as we had used that place to turn off the code before “breaking into” my house.

  Not even in my wildest fantasies had I ever imagined that Chrissy or my other old friends would use it to try to kill me. I huffed to myself. Then again, nor had I thought that one of them would kidnap me, either. I really shouldn’t be very surprised.

  I picked up my phone that I had dropped on the floor when the snake had appeared and dialed my mother.

  “Mom,” I said as soon as she picked up. “When was the last time you changed the code to our security system?”

  “I’ve never changed it. It’s the same as ever.” Her voice became anxious. “Why, did something happen? Are you and Chase all right?”

  “Yes, now we are, but someone planted a snake in my closet —”

  “What?” my mother cut me off. “A snake? How did they do that? Where is it now?”

  “It’s dead. Well, I guess they knew the code and turned it off to be able to get in at some point.” It must have been during the night when we were all asleep. As far as I knew, none of us had gone into the closet since yesterday. I inhaled. “Mom, we should have a team of exterminators come over here and comb through the house to be sure there aren’t any other nasty creatures planted somewhere. And then you need to change the security code to something completely different. While these people go through the house, we should all stay at a hotel. You too, just to be safe.”

  “Oh, my God…” She sighed heavily. “This is just getting worse and worse. But you’re right. Get out of there immediately and I’ll have a team come clean out the house right away. And I’ll be sure to change the code.”

  We exchanged a few more words and then hung up.

  I turned to Chase. “Okay, let’s go. Bring whatever stuff you need and we’ll go stay at a hotel for the night. But make it quick. I really don’t feel like hanging around here until someone has made sure this house is safe again. This girl is clearly not to be taken lightly.”

  He grabbed his iPad and took my hand. “Let’s go.”

  Needless to say, we were very careful as we went downstairs, keeping both our guns up and looking carefully everywhere before we took a step closer to the front door.

  Instead of taking my car—for all we knew, Chrissy had had a bomb attached to the ignition as well last night—we called a cab, and soon we were lounging by the big pool inside the Beverly Hills Hotel. On our way over there, we had called Gabi and Nick and told them that not only had we figured out who was behind everything finally, but we had just been attacked by a friggin’ snake that had been planted in my closet—and all arrows pointed toward Chrissy being behind that. At first, Gabi had barely been able to believe any of it and had just gasped through most of my words. But after it had all sunk in, she and Nick both agreed it was best we stayed at a hotel until the house had been thoroughly checked. They would come join us at the hotel as soon as they could so we could figure out the best way to handle all these new developments.

  As I had spoken to Gabi, she had mentioned that it might be time to involve the FBI now that we knew who we were after and the person in question was striking bi-coastally. The snake incident had turned this matter into a national instead of local law enforcement matter. I told Chase this.

  “And do you know what else,” I told him.

  “No, what?” he replied, having a drink of his iced coffee while stretching out on the green-and-white striped sun lounger.

  “I think there’s another way for us to find out why exactly she wants to get rid of you without actually having to go back to New York.”

  Chase tilted his head. “Oh. And what would that be?”

  I lowered my voice. “We could always ask Nick and Gabi if they know someone at the FBI that could hack a certain someone’s computer. We’ll probably find all kinds of interesting things that way.”

  Chase wiggled his eyebrows appreciatively. “That’s a great idea, Elle!” Then he frowned. “Except, I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. And if it’s not legal, whatever we find that way will be inadmissible in court.”

  “Maybe we won’t have to use whatever we find in court. Maybe we can use it to get to her another way.”

  “Yeah, that’s very true. Let’s hope Gabi or Nick knows someone who’ll agree to do it.”

  ”Yeah, let’s hope.” I checked the time on my smartphone. Two o’clock. Gabi and Nick should be here shortly. To kill time and relieve stress, we took turns jumping in the pool to swim a little. While one of us got tired crawling, the other lapped up the sun that shone from a cloud-free sky in the bathing suits we’d bought in the hotel store. We were both too antsy to entirely let go after the snake attack to swim at the same time. Who knew what the hell Chrissy might do next to try to get to us? It was best not to relax completely at the moment, but keep looking over our shoulders. By the time Gabi and Nick arrived, we had both managed to get tan lines.

  I waved to them as I spotted them enter the pool area. They waved back and walked in our direction. Chase was just finishing a lap, so I stuck my hand into the water to notify him that they were here now.

  Nick looked like a new man having shaved his thin beard and wearing silvery surf shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt that showed off his muscular arms around which there were a couple of tattoos. Gabi wore a white miniskirt and a black tube top, looking equally as relaxed. Their flip-flops made slapping sounds against the flagstone-covered ground as they approached me where I was sitting on my sun lounger.

  “Hey guys,” I said and motioned for them to take a seat on any of the nearby sun loungers. Chase came out of the pool and sat down beside me. A waiter came by to ask Gabi and Nick if they wanted something to drink and they both ordered iced coffee like Chas
e and I had done.

  “So how are you guys doing?” Gabi asked when the waiter had disappeared and we were all alone. “This is just getting crazier and crazier, huh?”

  I nodded in agreement. That was an understatement. I decided I might as well get straight to the point.

  “You know how you mentioned that it’s probably time to involve the FBI in this,” I said, looking at Gabi. “I agree. Do you think someone there could help us hack Chrissy’s email communication? We can probably figure out why she wants Chase to disappear so badly that way. You know, find out what exactly her motive is.”

  Gabi didn’t answer but pressed her lips together in a way that didn’t seem encouraging. Then she inhaled and opened her mouth.

  “My contacts there would never let us do something like that. Not unless this was an ongoing investigation already. Which it isn’t. Not within the FBI.” She glanced at Nick. “What about yours?”

  He looked pensive. “Not sure. Maybe. But it would take some time. Lots of bureaucracy there. My contacts are more within the NYPD.”

  My heart sank. Oh, well. At least we’d tried.

  Then I caught Gabi beginning to smile. “But, actually, that’s okay, Elle. We don’t need the FBI in order to hack those computers… I know someone much better than the snails there. A guy who helped me hack into some computers at the airport when I was undercover. I’m sure he’ll do this for us too—if we bribe him a little.” She smiled at me. “Or if you just ask him really nicely. He has a thing for pretty, tall blondes like you. And he’s on the shy side, so he’ll enjoy the attention we’ll give him.”

  “Who doesn’t,” Chase whispered in my ear and squeezed my leg where I sat beside him on the sun lounger. I rolled my eyes at him, then turned back to Gabi.

  I laughed. “Well, that’s convenient. How do we go about talking to him about this?”

  “Why don’t you and I take him out for an early dinner and then you can tell him your story?” Gabi suggested. “No guys allowed.” She threw Nick and Chase a stern look, then glanced back at me. “If you look really devastated by what happened —which you are, so that would be no lie—and explain that this is the only way we’ll get to Chrissy, I’m sure he’ll do it that same night.”