“Yes,” he agreed.
Eleni thought about the possibilities that this presented. “You know, my mother is pretty desperate right now. For money. For a plane ticket. For lots of things.”
“Yes?”
Did he really not see the angle that Eleni was suggesting? Good gracious! “They were still very close during the period of time when your father was killed.”
Silence. She could actually see the wheels spinning in his head. “You’re talking about bribing your mother to tell us what she knows.”
“Sure. You don’t think she has something?” Eleni snorted and figured her mother would know far more than either of them would probably want to hear. “We could get it out of her.”
“How?” He sounded almost businesslike. Sitting on the edge of his seat, he rested his powerful forearms against the tops of his muscular thighs. The guy looked like a magazine ad come to life. “What’s the angle you think we could pursue to get the information we need?”
There was no doubt in Eleni’s mind how it could work. Of course, she also knew that Orion wasn’t going to like her answer. “So I’m thinking you should probably pretend to hit on her.”
“What?”
Oh yeah. Surprise did not even cover the expression on Orion’s face. He was utterly dumbfounded. Eleni cleared her throat. “It’s really not that big of a deal. It’s not like I’m asking you to sleep with her or something. You could just flirt with her a little. Go over and check on her. Make sure that she’s all right after her embarrassing night at the mall. Whatever. She’s so desperate for someone to buy her a plane ticket to Italy that she’ll probably sing like a bird!”
Orion leaped to his feet. He buried his fingers in his hair and tugged until Eleni was afraid he might pull it all out. “Why does she want to go to Italy anyway? What kind of sense does that make?”
“She was happy mooching off of my sister and her husband. She wants to go to Italy so she can continue to mooch.” It was sort of a duh thing for Eleni, but she realized that Orion didn’t realize just how far this whole thing went for Alaina Ariosa.
That also reminded Eleni of the meeting she was supposed to have with Skye Kincaid today to discuss just that. Her mother. Dammit. It felt like she had agreed to meet Skye at the coffee shop about a billion years ago and not just yesterday. Eleni needed to go if she was going to make the meeting. Maybe this was the perfect opportunity to hit the mall with Orion too. That would give her an excuse not to hang around too long at the coffee shop.
Orion was still focused on Alaina, Embry, and the Italian debacle. “Wait. So your mother is actually planning to just show up uninvited on your sister’s doorstep, which is also your sister’s in-laws doorstep, and just move in?’
“Yep.”
“Who does that?”
“Alaina Ariosa,” Eleni said helpfully. “Which is why it shouldn’t be that hard to pump her for information.”
He exhaled a curse and then suddenly started to laugh. Finally, he let go of his hair and shook his head as though he were a dog shedding excess water. “Fine. I’ll do it. But if your mother attacks me, I’m holding you responsible for my safety.”
Eleni snorted. Even when they were contemplating something truly awful, the man was still cracking jokes. You could not help but respect that kind of machismo. Eleni stood up and began shooing him toward her front door. “Tell you what. I have to meet someone this afternoon, but I’m free to do some Christmas shopping after. Would that work for you?”
“Yeah. Where do you want me to pick you up?” He sort of looked apprehensive as though he were expecting her to beg off or something.
Eleni was going to keep her word. Besides, the idea of hanging out with Orion wasn’t actually all that distasteful. “Do you know a place called The Corner Shop?”
“I think everyone who works in downtown Dallas knows that place.” He frowned. “Are you meeting Skye?”
“Maybe.” Eleni gave him an arch look. “Guess you’ll just have to find out when you pick me up at three.”
“I’ll plan on it,” Orion told her. He was still smiling and shaking his head as he headed for her front door to exit the house.
Chapter Eight
“Medium coffee, please.” Eleni gazed at the case full of pastries and knew she should just walk away. It wasn’t like she was overweight or needed to worry about her figure, but it was Christmas and she was going to the staff holiday party tonight. That meant she had to fit into the dress she had picked for the occasion. “And I’ll take a chocolate croissant, please?”
“Of course!” The man behind the counter had what could only be called an infectious smile. He was tall with dark curly hair shoved beneath his cap and glasses. His nametag read SHAWN. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can get for you?”
“Actually, I’m looking for someone named Skye Kincaid. Is she here?” Eleni was half hoping that she had somehow missed Skye. Not that Eleni wanted to sit in the coffee shop for nearly two hours waiting for Orion to come and pick her up, but it would have been a lot less uncomfortable than sitting there talking about her family problems.
But Shawn was already gesturing to the very back of the coffee house. “Skye? She always sits right back there. I haven’t seen her leave yet today. I would think that she’s still back there. She’s a writer, you know? So she likes to sit in here and write her newspaper stories.”
“I gathered that.” Eleni took her coffee and the plate with her pastry and headed out. It was apparent that the staff was very fond of Skye. Maybe the woman was less abrasive when you were just having a conversation that did not involve her trying to convince you to do something for her.
“You have a wonderful day!” Shawn smiled broadly. “And if you need a refill on that coffee, just come right back to the counter. There are always free refills on straight coffee.”
“Thanks.”
Okay, so Eleni could kind of see the draw of a place like this where customers were actually welcome to stay and get refills and potentially purchase more food. There was something friendly and welcoming about the entire set up. From the eclectic collection of chairs and tables to the black and white photographs of Texas scenery hanging on the wall. It seemed like the coffee version of that old bar where everybody knew your name.
Eleni found Skye exactly where Shawn speculated she would be at the far end of the coffee house’s main room. She was camped out at a table with her back to the rear wall and a tablet and keyboard spread before her. With her head bent to her work she was muttering to herself about whatever she was writing.
When Skye glanced up and spotted Eleni, it was obvious that she most definitely knew who she was. Eleni didn’t know if that was good or bad. She rather preferred to be the Ariosa daughter that everyone forgot about. Ms. Ariosa, second grade teacher at Addison Elementary School.
“Hey! I was beginning to think that you had changed your mind.” Skye had the pale strawberry hair and intense blue eyes exactly as Eleni remembered. Her narrow face was probably more earnest than Eleni would have expected of a drama-seeking journalist. In short, Skye appeared to be on the level.
“Mind if I sit?” Eleni set her pastry plate on the table a respectful distance from Skye’s tablet. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get over here, but it’s been a very strange day.” Not that Eleni really wanted to go into that right now.
“No problem and of course! Have a seat.” Skye was suddenly all business. Her fingers flew over her keys as though she were setting up a new screen to take notes. “So can you tell me what happened the other night at Orville’s Department Store between your mother and the Dallas Municipal Police?”
Eleni exhaled a shaky sigh. She hadn’t though that this would be a walk in the park, but it was really more embarrassing than anything else. “My mother has been on what you might call a carte blanche with Orville’s ever since my sister, Embry, married Joseph Orville, Junior. That’s been a few years ago now.”
“Carte Blanche?”
Eleni realized how ridiculous it sounded. “Basically, my mother has been able to go inside the store and pretty much get whatever she wants without paying. It was never necessarily an agreement between my mother and the Orville family, mind you. It was more that they kept trying to set my mother up with lines of credit and she just refused to pay. She would call my brother-in-law and rail at him until he would forgive the debt. About four or five months ago she had gotten to a point where she just walked in and out of the stores whenever and wherever she wanted with anything that struck her fancy.” Eleni thought about the piles and piles of merchandise that her mother had purchased over the last few months. Where was it? There were so many things that her mother couldn’t even wear. Not that Alaina Ariosa would ever admit it, but they still weren’t wearable. The closets at her mother’s Highland Park house had to be packed full!
Skye was typing away at a furious rate as she got all of this down. “So really it would be fair to say that nobody set any boundaries with your mother.”
Eleni frowned. She had heard those words before applied to that situation. “You got that from Jason’s family.”
“Yes. Edward actually. He and Diana kept telling the Orville family that they needed to set some kind of boundary with your mother. I don’t know if you realize it, but your mother was actually beginning to steal enough that the loss prevention was becoming a threat to the department store chain’s actual profit margin.”
“Seriously?” Eleni was baffled. “That means she had to be going a lot more often than I realized.”
“You thought that she never went without you?”
Eleni bobbed her head and took a bite of the yummy chocolate croissant. “That was the assumption, yes. Let’s just say that my mother doesn’t like to go anywhere without a lackey.”
“So you were there the other night.” Skye brought the conversation right back to that horribly embarrassing evening. “When the police were called.”
“Yes. I was. I didn’t stay until the police got there.” Eleni outlined the night’s events in what she hoped was a clear, concise way. “I’ll admit that my mother’s behavior baffles me. I don’t understand why she’s behaving like a spoiled child. I don’t understand what the purpose of acquiring all of that stuff that she can’t even possibly have time or reason to wear could be. Shoes, clothes, jewelry, housewares. My mother doesn’t even cook!”
“And she is currently single?”
“Yes.” Eleni sighed. “Her last boyfriend left her a few weeks ago. He was fed up. I couldn’t blame him.” Eleni cocked her head and sipped her coffee. “So what did Edward King tell the Orville family to make them abscond to Italy so suddenly?”
“It wasn’t actually sudden,” Skye offered.
That pretty much told Eleni everything she needed to know. “So they tied up their affairs here, made some investments, and then carefully sold the department store chain so that they had the money to retire?”
“Mrs. Orville had some ties to the area.” Skye was being very careful not to give out specifics. Interesting. She apparently did not trust Eleni’s motives.
“My mother is hoping to fly over there and somehow move in with my sister and Joseph.”
“She’ll find that she has a really hard time getting anywhere near them,” Skye snorted. “Edward and Diana were so very careful when they helped the Orville family and that was why. They’re tucked into the countryside and they’ve got protection that will prevent any unwanted guests from setting up shop on their doorstep. Your mother might as well realize that if she goes over there she’s going to be redirected to the nearest hotel and if she can’t pay, they will ship her ass to a hostel or to the airport.”
“Honestly,” Eleni mused. “I would be very glad to hear that happen. I think my mother needs to stop mooching off my sister.”
“And you? What about you?” Skye was still typing notes and that made Eleni unwilling to say much about herself.
But she could offer a few things. “My mother doesn’t want anything to do with me, Ms. Kincaid. I’m a teacher. I make a modest salary that can’t come anywhere near supporting my mother the way that she thinks she deserves.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” For just a moment Skye bit the inside of her cheek. She was thinking something over very hard. Eleni could see the wheels turning in her head. And then she finally sighed. “My mother-in-law is like that.”
Eleni laughed. She took a bite of the flaky croissant and washed it down with coffee. “I know your mother-in-law well. Believe me. Her and my mother were best friends from the time they were small girls up until my mother tried to mooch a little too insistently from the King family coffers.”
“I forget that sometimes,” Skye murmured. She paused for a second and then seemed to very deliberately close down her tablet. It was like she wanted to make sure that Eleni knew this was off the record. “Do you think that Tisha Olivares-King is responsible for her husband’s death?”
“Absolutely.” There was actually no doubt at all in Eleni’s mind. “I don’t know how because I know that she didn’t do it herself. But I believe she made sure that it got done when and how she wanted it to and that she got what she wanted out of the deal. She is a ruthless woman.”
The bell over the front door of the coffee shop jingled merrily. Both women looked up, but Eleni was the only one who did not looked shocked to see Orion King walk in.
“What is he doing here?” Skye muttered. Obviously she wasn’t a huge fan of her brother-in-law.
Eleni waved to Orion. “I asked him to pick me up here. He’s asked me to—” Eleni cut herself off when she suddenly realized that she would be Christmas shopping for this woman before the evening was over. What an odd thing.
“He asked you to what?” Skye’s instincts were sharper than sharp.
Fortunately, Orion walked up just in time to derail whatever thoughts were going through Skye’s head. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go where?” Skye demanded. “Are you two dating or something?”
Orion offered nothing more than a smirk. “Or something.”
“You are so bad,” Eleni said with a shake of her head. She stood up and picked up her empty plate. She thrust it at Orion. “Go take that up to the counter. pretty please?”
Orion waggled his eyebrows and disappeared for just a moment.
Eleni pursed her lips at Skye. “I’ve known Orion almost all of my life. I’m helping him with his Christmas shopping.”
Skye’s mouth literally fell open. “Christmas shopping?” She acted as though she were about to choke on the words. “Seriously?”
“Yes, and then we’ve also got a plan to try and figure out what happened to Big Mac King.” It was a risk telling Skye that much, but for some reason Eleni trusted the journalist when it came to this bit of information. “It’s just a plan right now, but I think we’re heading in the right direction for sure.”
“Keep me posted.” Skye looked determined. “If you need help, Jason and I are on board.”
Eleni nodded, but she could feel Orion’s gaze on her back as though he were reaching out to physically touch her. They might have a plan to seduce information out of Alaina Ariosa, but Eleni really had no idea where all of this was heading anymore.
Chapter Nine
So there was a plan. That was good. Except as Orion drove toward the mall for the second time that week, this time with Eleni in his passenger seat, he felt as though he needed to say something more about this plan.
“Thank you for agreeing to come with me on this shopping excursion,” Orion said, turning and offering Eleni a smile. “I know it can’t possibly be something you like to do.”
She passed him a droll look. “What? You don’t think I enjoy fighting crowds a few days before Christmas just to try and buy a scarf or something equally boring?”
“That’s fair.” He chuckled and jerked his chin toward an Orville’s Department Store. “We could hit Orville’s. It’s free standing so at
least there would be less in the way of teen-aged shoppers since there’s no Goth section.”
“Yeah.” She gave a shake of her head. “I really don’t care to walk inside another Orville’s. Ever. I have a feeling they’d prefer to keep me out too. Or at least they would look at me and be afraid that my mother was close behind.”
“I’m really sorry you had to go through that.” Orion turned into the parking lot and began the agonizing search for a place to park his mid-sized truck. The parking lot was basically acre upon acre of cars packed in as tightly as possible. “Your mother is certainly unique. But I can’t help but think my mother would be the same given the circumstances.”
“That’s because your mother is just as crazy and selfish as mine.” She exhaled a sigh. “I think that’s one of the things that I appreciate the most about being around you, Orion. I don’t have to explain it. Sometimes my mother will do things or I have to explain to my friends or my coworkers that she’s done something and they look at me like I’m either lying or exaggerating. It’s embarrassing.”
“Believe me, I know.” Orion thought of the current corporate climate at King Security Services, Inc. “The employees at our company are totally baffled when we try to explain that one of the management team has decided spontaneously not to pay anyone this week, but that we’re working on it. They don’t understand why she would want to ruin the company.”
“I think she wants to sell your company to the Dunlops.” Orion nearly steered into another car as he craned his neck around to stare at Eleni.
Then she waved her hand. “There! Quickly! There’s a spot. It’s right there!”
Orion turned his attention back to his driving just in time to slide the truck into a parking spot right in front of two other cars who had decided to try for the space. There was a lot of honking and foul un-Christmas-like words shouted out their windows before they finally drove on to continue their search for a spot.
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 101