Free PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 by A. J. MENDEN Page A

training me first. Then you should come with me.”
    “You want me to come with you?”
    “Well! This is the last place I expected to find you!”
    We both jumped as a huffy tornado stood by our table, fuming. It was Victoria Dupree.
    “Good evening, Miss Dupree, and how are you?” Robert said. His tone was pleasant and yet still conveyed that he couldn’t possibly care.
    “I thought you were unavailable for dinner.” Victoria’s tone was shrill. “And then I find you out with some little tramp young enough to be your daughter!”
    I stared at her in shock. Wow, talk about overreacting.
    “My assistant and I had matters to go over in town and we decided to stop to eat before returning home.”
    She gaped at me. “You’re that rude girl? Never mind, I don’t care. Robert, I need to speak to you.”
    “Well, I am busy, but if you would like to call the house tomorrow, I am sure Lainey can set up an appointment for you.”
    “And you’ll show up this time?”
    “If it is about that trifling party, then no. Lainey is taking care of that.”
    “
I’ll
take care of all of that,” she hissed. “I need to speak to you about private matters.”
    I was uncomfortable watching this exchange. She was just a little too wound up to only be bent on snagging him. That was more the tone of an ex.
    “Fine, then. Call the house tomorrow. Lainey will check my schedule and pick a convenient time.”
    I nodded. “First thing on the agenda tomorrow.
Robert
.”
    She shot me a nasty look at the use of his name. I maintained a bored expression that only seemed to irritate her more.
    “Fine. I will,” she snapped, stomping away.
    Robert and I looked at each other. And then burst out laughing.
    “That was dinner and a show,” I said, trying to stifle my giggles before I started snorting.
    “Get her an appointment for fifteen minutes, no more. That is about all I can stomach.”
    “She’ll love the ‘rude girl’ even more.”
    “She needs to give up the idea of ever landing my money.”
    “Well, I hate to tell her this, but coming over and throwing high drama all over the place is not a way to win friends and influence people,” I said with another laugh, tossing my hair back. “Wow, I’ve never been ‘some little tramp’ before. It’s kind of exciting.”
    He leaned forward to speak in my ear. “Do you think you could have this much fun with the Elite Hands of Justice?”
    I smiled. “Nah. Only with a man old enough to be my father. I think her math skills leave something to be desired, unless you’ve been fathering kids at the tender age of fourteen.”
    “Unlikely, since I have not been fourteen since my first time around. And every woman on this planet is young enough to be my daughter. Including the woman right over there.”
    I turned to look where he was pointing, at a grand woman dressed to the nines who had to be pushing ninety.
    We both started laughing again.
    “We’d better get out of here before the second act begins,” I said.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    When I descended to Robert’s lair the next morning, after a quick gulp of breakfast, he was already surrounded by mountains of files. Did the man ever sleep?
    “Good morning,” I said, taking the chair across the table from him. “Anything I can do to help?”
    He gave me the barest acknowledgment. “No, it is my usual busywork from the Elite Hands of Justice. Time to run the magic-level estimates again.”
    “Pardon me?”
    “Every year, the Elite Hands of Justice takes all the intelligence they have on every magic-user in the country, from students to villains, and has me work up a profile on each to estimate how powerful their magic ability is or will be, and then enter it into our shared database.” He gestured to the large computer screen behind him.
    “That sounds a bit intrusive and paranoid.”
    He gave a slight shrug. “Magic-users are the most dangerous of all powers. Our abilities are only limited by our knowledge and strength of will.