Olivia, Striking Back - Danielle Norman Page 0,4

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