An Unexpected Revenge

Chapter 3 - The First Task

Chapter 3 - The First Task

"So from what I've heard from Ricky..." I pause and look at Laurie. "Ricardo Martinez, age 28. He's one of Alec Vaughan's top security guys. Look him up." I bark the order, wanting to get the meeting over with fast, so I can get the stupid highlights in my hair that I told my new friends, the guards, that I am getting. Those gossips would notice if I didn't for sure, so I need to bleach my hair and hope I don't turn dumber and dumber the more I resemble Melody.

"... Vaughan apparently promised the dead guy that his sister will be taken care of if anything ever happens to him, but apparently Alec doesn't believe in people not earning their keep. So he set Melody up with a decent monthly allowance but in return she is to work for him. As. His. Maid." I clearly enunciate the last three words, making known my distaste for cleaning that murderous devil's home. I have somehow reached the bottom of the food chain.

"I'm sure you'll be just one of the many in his army of maids that he must have." Sean makes the mistake of saying. I glare at him, for a second both of us forgetting that he is the boss. I also could have sworn I saw him gulp, but he recovered quickly., so I continue to explain my ordeal at Vaughan's compound.

"You'd think, but no. It's just me. I have to clean that huge ass of a house all by myself. And apparently he expects me to cook. Me!" I shrill, resembling Melody more than I care to admit.

"Oh, come on, you're an excellent cook, Ruby." Laurie encourages me, munching from what looks like a bagel, but without the filling. Yeah, she's not the best judge when it comes to culinary art.

"Preparing a meal to avoid starvation hardly gives me chef credentials, does it? I retorted, silently dreading the day that the monster comes back home and I'll have to cook him his first meal. Maybe I should just poison the sick bastard and get this over with. I will be giving a killer the fate that he deserved, and punish his father, Old Testament style: an eye for an eye or some s**t like that. Yeah, that could work.

I smile. I kind of like this plan, because as Ricky so gently put it, Alec Vaughan is fussy about his food, to say the least. And as my luck would have it, Daniel apparently has been praising his sister's cooking, hence why Alec doesn't have a personal chef at the compound any more. Urgh, if Daniel wasn't dead already, I would have been happy to help him with that. On second thought, maybe that's why Vaughan killed him, for saying that Melody is a good cook.

"Do you have access to his bedroom?" Sean asks, most likely worried that since I am not the guy's lover, I might be restricted from moving freely and snooping around the large house.

"Unfortunately, yes. Did you miss the part where I told you he asked me to go change his sweaty sheets from his all nighter with that s*x doll?" I snap back and he raises his hands in surrender. Never in my life have I felt more humiliated.

"Great, so nothing changes guys. Ruby, here, take this and try to hide it somewhere in his bedroom. At the next meeting you'll get another one to hide in a room where he spends a lot of time; his office maybe or a gym. Tom and I will be listening for anything that is useful. You'll figure it out, Ruby." My boss hands me the small bugging device that looks like a black little dot. In my mind head I keep panicking that is not small enough, not inconspicuous enough.

"I've seen them do debugging of the house Sean, I'm never going to get away with planting this. They will know it was me." I tell my team, remembering how only yesterday I walked through almost the whole house with Ricky and another guy as they were scanning for this exact same thing.

"Perfect. Then you know when to go and disable the device so they wouldn't pick it up on the scanner. That's great Ruby." I look at Sean hoping to find any indication that he is joking, but I don't find any. Even Tom and Laurie seem a little on edge with the risk our boss is making me take.

We finish the rest of the meeting quickly, not having that much information to report back to the guys other than my need of moaning about the turn this mission took. The plan is still the same, as Sean put it. I have to get close to Alec, find evidence of what happened when Daniel was killed, and with a little luck, find something to tie his father to the crimes we know he committed. Sounds easy enough, that is if I make it alive for another week thanks to the bug I have to plant in the house.

Armed with a little more patience than I had when I left the compound earlier today, I reluctantly make my way back there. I'm freshly highlighted and looking like a deluxe bimbo. I would never admit it out loud, but I thoroughly enjoyed the scalp massage I was given by the hairdresser, and I give her full credit for my refreshed self. And yes, that's my weakness. I melt into a puddle as soon as skilled fingers touch my head.

At the last stop sign before I reach the compound, I look at myself in the rear view mirror and wish dear old Melody to drown while swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas or whatever the f**k she's doing at the moment. Because I'm sure as hell that she's not cooking or scrubbing toilets like I will be once I step foot back into that house.

I barely manage to park the car and kill the engine before the door is opened for me by none other than Ricky.

"Hey Mel. How was your appointment? You are looking extremely beautiful." He eyes me up and down, and I try hard to resit the urge of rolling my eyes. Lately Ricky has become more daring in eyeing me and I have to say I don't like it one bit. Sure, he might be considered handsome by most women, and he does have that gangster vibe than most men who work for Alec Vaughan have, but I swear he sometimes is as dumb as a rock, and I just hate how gossipy he is. He's almost like the male version of Melody, which, I guess makes sense why he would try and get into my graces.

"Hey Ricky." I force a girly giggle and bat my fake eyelashes while getting out of the car as seductively as humanly possible. He takes the two shopping bags that Laurie prepared for me, to make it easier to account for the long hours that I have been gone, and follows me inside the house.

"What did you get? Is is something for me?" Ricky teases, and I curse because I have no clue what's in those bags.

"Martinez!" A loud voice, similar to a bark or an order, reverberates through the whole house, the guttural sound bouncing off the marbled floors and piercing my ears. Ricky stiffens, the playful side of him completely gone and only the tough employee of a powerful man remaining.

"Yes sir!" Ricky replies with the voice of an obedient soldier that's answering to his captain.

"If you're done flirting with the maid, please tell her than I am hungry." I can feel my blood boiling at this point and I'm second away from marching to wherever the guy is and punching him square in the face. I am literally right here, he can very well ask me directly. I turn towards Ricky who just looks at me with an apologetic smile on his face, fully aware that I have heard his boss loud and clear.

"What would you like to eat, sir?" I ask in a sweet voice, channelling my inner Zen, but still trying to remember where I can procure some bitter almonds and 'accidentally' feed them to Vaughan.

"Surprise me." He says in a bemused voice, making me think he's deliberately setting up to fail. 

I trot towards the kitchen with Ricky on my heels. As I wash my hands and mentally think of what the hell could I feed Alec, I remember I didn't actually see him.

"Hey Ricky?" I ask getting the guards attention. "Where was he? I didn't even see him." I mostly whisper, my eyes darting around the kitchen in care the devil shows himself.

Ricky chuckles and proceeds to explain that he was most likely in his office, in the wing of the house I wasn't allowed to accompany them when the were doing the bug sweep yesterday. Apparently there are small hidden cameras all over the mansion both inside and outside, and the fucker has visuals from his office at all times. 

I try my best to sound impressed and not give away the panic that's rapidly filling me, yet I know there is one question I still have to ask.

"Are there any cameras in... the bedroom or the bathrooms?" I cringe thinking that Alec would have already seen me naked or worse, seem me in front of the mirror pretending to shoot him. The wholehearted laugh that comes from Ricky tells me that those places are free of spying, but I make a mental note to keep in character at all times. With this new found information that Alec is a total psycho, I don't want to risk him uncovering that I am not who I claim to be. I also start thinking of any ways that I could insert myself into that office, because if there is anything to be found, that would be the best place to look.

"He likes fish..." Ricky saves me once he sees me looking around the kitchen with a helpless look etched on my face. I smile and release a breath I didn't even realise I was holding. 

Fish, good. I can work with that. Fish, I keep nodding and open the fridge to see if we have any, and unfortunately we have, a lot. Is it so bad that I was hoping the only option were some potatoes that I can peel and boil? Picking up what looks like salmon, the only fish that I am able to recognise, I look towards the guard for more guidance.

"I have to go, but you got this, Mel." Ricky throws me a cheeky smile my way and exits the kitchen. leaving me on my own against a salmon of all things.

I take the large fish and get to work with a knife, pretending I'm cutting thin sliced into Alec instead. I curse in my head at the stupid rule the  guy has about cellphones in his house. A phone would have really helped me out right now, as I would have been able to search the internet for a recipe, or at least a tutorial on how to cut the damn fish. Alas, half an hour later, a lot of wasted salmon and too much smoke for the amount on food I manage to produce, and I have myself a plate with 2 pieces of salmon and steamed asparagus. 

"Bring it to my study!" I jump and nearly knock over the plate when the sound echoes through the otherwise silent kitchen. I discreetly look around for any cameras, but can't see any even if he has been clearly watching me. I shake the creepiness factor and pick up the plate, heading towards the study. Due to the scare he managed to induce earlier, I didn't even realise I was going to deliver his food right into the place I so desperately wanted to see an was told I can't. 

With a small smile of victory on my face, I walk past two guards and right into the wind I didn't previously visit. My joy is short lives though, because Ricky takes the plate from me and tells me I'm excused. I try to sneak a look through the door that Ricky opens and disappears though with the food, yet I don't see anything, so I make my way back to the kitchen to clean up the mess I've made.