Elli’s hurt, and anger rose to the surface, and she threw the paper on the table. “Fuck.” She tried to keep the tears from welling in her eyes. She’d had bad reviews before, of course, she had, it was part of being a writer, but this was one step away from calling her a whore. She slumped into a chair and covered her face. Aldo stroked her arm.
“None of that is true, you know that, right?”
She nodded, but it didn’t make her feel better. Being called a whore in public wasn’t the way she wanted to start her New Year, but she knew that responding would only make it worse. Her cell phone rang, and she saw it was Viv calling.
“I may be about to be fired,” she said to Aldo, who shook his head, and Elli answered the call. “Hey Viv, guess you saw the article.”
“Yes, I did.” Vivienne sounded mad, “And when I get my hands on the writer of it, he’ll wish he’d never been born.”
“I’m sorry, Viv, I really am.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong, Elli. This article is completely unjustified and, what’s more, false in every way. I can’t believe the editor let it get through.”
Elli sighed, somewhat relieved. “Look, I’m coming in to work. We can talk about it in greater depth then, see what to do.”
“Good. See you soon.”
Elli put her phone back on the table. “Well, I guess the vacation is over.”
Aldo leaned over and stroked her cheek. “Don’t worry about this joker. Look, I’ll walk you to work, but then I have to go away for a few days for work. Will you be okay?”
Elli was surprised. “You haven’t mentioned it before, is all. Where are you going?”
“New York. I’m sorry, I thought I had.”
She shook her head. “But then again, there’s no reason you should have to run anything past me, so don’t worry about it.”
“You sure, Bella? You look a little annoyed.”
She shook her head, but the truth was, she was a little scared. This business trip seemed to come out of nowhere, and she wondered if Aldo thought a little distance between them would be a good thing after the article.
Aldo was watching her, and as she got up, he pulled her onto his lap. “Whatever it is you’re thinking right now, isn’t what’s happening. It’s just a short trip, and if I didn’t know you had work, I would have invited you to come with me. “
Elli leaned into him. “I know, I’m sorry.”
At work, after Aldo had kissed her goodbye, Elli went to see Vivienne, who asked her to shut the door behind her and sit down. “I called the editor of this rag,” she waved the offending newspaper in the air, still mad. “The article wasn’t from one of his own people, rather an anonymous submission. He thought it made good points – which, by the way, it doesn’t – and put it in. Elli, did you piss this guy off, at all?”
Elli thought back, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. But then that paper has never liked magazines like ours – we’re too ‘elite’ or ‘left wing.'”
Vivienne still looked unhappy. “Smearing one of my employees is not something I’m willing to let go, Els.”
“Fair enough, but if we engaged with them, it’s like saying their opinion is worth something. I hate to say it, but let’s just leave it alone. I’ll just have to make sure that my future articles are…”
“As good as they always have been,” Vivienne said a little forcefully. “Do not let this asshole make you feel as if you’re not talented. You were born to do this, Elli, and you know it.”
Elli thanked her and went back to work. During the day, she immersed herself in her work, calling Maceo Bartoli and setting up a meeting with him to discuss working together. “I’d love it if Ori would model for us,” Elli told Maceo, “if we could do something actually in your own gallery – I’ve heard it’s a beautiful space.”
Maceo laughed a deep, sexy chuckle. “You should come, have lunch with Ori and me sometime, have a good look around. Then you’ll see it’s chaotic and frenzied, but yes, I adore it. We’ve managed to build it up over the last few years so that we have a family atmosphere. You would enjoy it.”
Elli smiled down the phone. “I would love that.” They set a date for the following week, and Elli said goodbye, feeling a lot happier. She also got a message from her colleagues, supporting her after reading the article. A couple of journalists from local t.v. reached out to her but she politely turned down their requests for interviews. “I’m not the story,” she told them, wishing she could go back to the relative obscurity she had known a few weeks ago.
It was three o’clock before she looked up from her work, and then it was only because she heard a commotion out in the main office.
Suddenly, a girl with bright blue hair burst into the room. “Konnichiwa!”
Elli gaped at the girl. “Tandy? Oh my god!” She got up, and the two women embraced, hugging each other tightly. Tandy, a part Japanese, part Italian woman in her early twenties had been Elli’s best friend for a few years, ever since the younger woman started as an intern at the magazine. Tandy Li had only one ambition – to travel to every country in the world and over the last two years, she had been doing exactly that, working her way (sometimes illegally) through the Americas and Canada, down to the Caribbean, and then to Europe.
Elli made some coffee, and they sat in her office. Tandy told her she was in Italy for just a week. “I’ve finally got enough money to go to India,” she said, “but I couldn’t do Europe without coming back to say hi to my bestie. How're things? Viv said you’re getting some decent sex at last.”
Elli nearly choked on her coffee, but then laughed. “Nothing is sacred, is it?”
Tandy grinned. “Nope. You look good, Els, I have to say.”
Elli smiled. “Well, I’m excited you’re here, Tandy. Where are you staying?”
Tandy looked a little guilty, and Elli laughed, having expected her to ask her to stay with her. “You can stay as long as you want, Tee, you know that.”
“The boyfriend won’t mind?”
“The boyfriend is in New York for the next few days, so you’re all set, as long as you don’t mind sharing a bed with me.”
“Have I ever?” Tandy rolled her eyes. “We’re going to have so much fun. Listen, I have to go meet another friend, so can I come by your place around nine tonight?”
“Of course. I’ll even go grocery shopping.”
“Don’t buy anything healthy.”
Elli chuckled. “Oh, I won’t.”
Elli lugged the grocery bags up the stairs to her apartment. She didn’t notice the envelope that had been slid under the door until she dumped the bags on the table and took off her coat.
A plain brown manila envelope with no name on it. She opened it and shook out the contents.
A photograph slid out, face down and when she flipped it over, she felt a cold fist in the stomach. It was a picture of her, from about, she guessed, twenty minutes ago. What the fuck? She studied the envelope and photo minutely but could not see any trace of a clue to who might have sent it. It was such an invasion of privacy – and so creepy. She remembered how she’d felt at the art gallery on New Year’s Eve. If this is you, Indio Navaro, stop it. I’ve moved on.
Maybe he had seen the picture of her and Aldo kissing. Don’t kid yourself, girl. Why would he care?
Elli shook herself and stuffed the photograph and the envelope in the trash can. She unpacked the groceries and was wondering if she should cook something for a late supper with Tandy when her cell phone rang. Not knowing the number, she said hello hesitantly. The caller whispered down the phone.
“You look beautiful, tonight, Elli.”
Her flesh crawled, and anger flashed through her. “Who is this? What the fuck do you want?”
A low chuckle and she tried to pick out anything she could recognize in the voice.
“You, of course, Elli. Always you. It’s always been you.”
Elli gritted her teeth. “Well, asshole, you don’t get to have me, do you
. Who are you?”
“You know me, Elli Bella.”
The shock was icy cold. “Indio?” Her voice, a whisper, broke as she said his name.
He chuckled. “Who knows? All that is certain is one thing, beautiful Elli.”
“What’s that?”
“That soon you’ll be bleeding out, whore.”
And the line went dead. Elli dropped her phone and sank to the floor, trembling violently, unable to stop the panic attack, and that’s where Tandy found her an hour later.
Tandy insisted on Elli reporting the call and the photograph to the police, but the terse officer taking her statement evidently thought she was a hysterical female, and soon Elli stomped out, followed by a furious Tandy.
“Motherfucker,” she raved as she wrapped her arm around Elli’s shoulders. Tandy had the height from her Italian father, almost six feet of her to Elli’s five-five, and Elli was weirdly glad of it as they walked home through the dark streets. It was bitingly cold. Elli looked at Tandy a little sheepishly. “This isn’t the homecoming I wanted you to have, Tandy. Maybe I’m making too much of this.”
“A death threat? No way, Elli, this is scary stuff.” Tandy sighed, shaking her head. “You know what’s weird though?”
“What?”
Tandy glanced at her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I always was waiting for something like this to happen to you.”
Elli was shocked. “Why?”
“Because look at you, Elli. You’re so beautiful, so friendly and yet when anyone gets close, they’re banging up a brick wall. Someone was always going to get nasty, and I think this is it.”
Elli was silent. “So, it’s my fault?”
“Hell, no,” Tandy was vehement. “It’s the fault of a civilization that leads men to believe they’re entitled to any woman they want, and that murder is an option open to them if they don’t get what they want.”
“But I have let someone in,” Elli insisted. “I hope you get to meet Aldo…he’s just the sweetest sexiest guy. And he and I are growing closer every day…in every way.” Elli flushed, and Tandy grinned.
“Then he’s probably not the one playing these games. You think it might be Indio?”
Tandy knew everything about Indio, about Elli’s love for the man. Elli sighed.
“I would hate to think so. Besides, Indio knows that if he came back…”
“You would dump Aldo in a second if Indio showed up.”
Elli was stung. “I wouldn’t.”
“Hey, I’m not judging – but are you being honest with yourself?”
Elli could feel the tears coming again, and she looked away from her friend. “Please don’t make this harder than it is,” she said in soft voice. Tandy hugged her.
“Sorry. Now, let’s forget this nonsense and go eat our body weight in front of the television.”
Tandy did a great job of distracting Elli for the evening, but when Tandy fell asleep on the couch just after midnight, Elli put a pillow underneath her head and blanket over her and went to her bedroom.
She grabbed her laptop and opened Skype, hoping Aldo would be online. She had been debating with herself all night whether to tell him about the threats but when she saw his smile as he logged on and greeted her, she demurred. “Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hi, Aldo, how’s the Big Apple?”
“Lonely without you. I only got in a little while ago. Did you talk to Viv about the article?”
God, the article…she hadn’t thought about that at all since the threats. “It’s all good. We’re not going to respond to it.”
Aldo looked a little surprised. “Wow.”
“What?”
“Well, you were so fired up, and now it seems like you’ve let it go.”
Elli nodded, not quite meeting his eye. “Yeah, well.”
“You okay?”
“Absolutely. Actually,” she said, seeing Tandy stumble into the bedroom, bleary-eyed, and using it to change the subject, “I do have to tell you that I’m sharing my bed with someone else tonight.” She grinned as Aldo’s eyebrows shot up and Elli moved the laptop around. “Say hello to Aldo. Aldo, this is Tandy, a good friend of mine. She’s crashing here for a few nights on her way to India.”
Aldo chuckled and said hello to Tandy, who greeted him, then promptly went back to sleep. Elli grinned at Aldo. “She showed up at the office today, no warning.”
“Serendipitous,” Aldo nodded, “I like you’re not alone.”
Elli gave a half-smile. “I’m a big girl now, Aldo, I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Sorry,” he smiled ruefully, “I’m overprotective, I know. Scuzi.”
“You’re forgiven.”
They chatted for a little longer until Elli felt herself wilting and said goodbye. Aldo blew her a kiss.
“I love you, Elli, sleep tight.”
“Goodnight, Aldo, I miss you.”
After she’d shut her laptop, she lay back. She felt guilty about not telling Aldo she loved him when it had been her mind, lately, that she might be falling for him. Certainly, she was very, very fond of the man, and she loved the sex, exciting and a little dangerous. Aldo being a billionaire didn’t faze her – she had never been the gold-digging type, it was his money, not hers.
Elli closed her eyes and was asleep in minutes. The nightmares came back, bloody, violent and she woke, crying, Tandy waking too and comforting her. The two women lay as Eli calmed herself, and Tandy studied her.
“It’s still Indio, isn’t it?”
Elli sighed. “Less so. I think. I think I just need closure, you know? I have no idea where he is – even Googling him brings up his company but nothing, and I mean nothing about him personally. It’s as if he’s wiped himself off the face of the earth. Even gossip sites have nothing on him and seeing he was married to that model, I’m surprised.”
Tandy sighed. “Look, I wasn’t going to tell you this…but I saw him. Now, because I never met him, I could have been wrong, but I don’t think so. You can’t replicate his kind of beauty. In Seattle. He was having dinner with a couple. This was about six months ago. He looked tired, worn down and they were having a pretty intense conversation by the looks of things as if he were upset and they were trying to help him.”
Elli’s heart was thumping with a sad heaviness. “He looked tired?”
Tandy nodded. “I didn’t feel as if I could go over, so I thought it would be best if I didn’t tell you. But he is out in the world, safe, if not happy. Does that help?”
Elli considered. “I don’t know.” She hesitated. “I keep thinking I see him, just a brief glimpse and then he’s gone. Sometimes I think I’m going crazy. If it hadn’t been for Aldo, I might have.”
Tandy smiled. “You like Aldo, don’t you?”
Elli smiled. “He says he loves me, but I haven’t been able to say it back yet.”
“Where is he at the moment?”
“Four Seasons in New York. He’ll be back on Friday.”
“Huh.” Tandy was frowning.
“What?”
Tandy shook her head. “No, just something struck me. He’s a solid-gold billionaire, right?”
Elli half smiled, half frowned at her friend. “So?”
“Well, it’s just, if I had his money, I would be staying in the penthouse suite. From what I saw, that wasn’t the penthouse of The Four Seasons.”
Elli shrugged. “Maybe it was already booked. It was a last-minute trip.”
“Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I’m getting off the topic. You’ve probably heard this a million times from Viv, Elli, but…”
“Indio is history, concentrate on the sexy man in your life now. Yeah, and I know you’re both right. I am trying.”
Tandy scooched down in the bed and tucked her arm around Elli. “Good. Now let’s get some sleep, or you’ll look like shit in the morning.”
“So will you, bitch,” Elli laughed.
“Not possible. Go to sleep.”
Elli had loved Tandy bei
ng home, and so when her friend left for India on Thursday, Elli hugged her tightly. “Please come back soon, I miss you too much.”
Tandy got a little choked but hid it with her usual bravado. “Don’t get all mushy. I’ll be back before Christmas.”
“Too long,” Elli grumbled but waved her goodbye at the gate.
Elli took a cab back into the city and went straight to work. It was still early, six-thirty a.m. and the office was empty as Elli sat down and flicked on her computer. She filled the coffee pot as she waiting for her ancient laptop to boot up and then wondered if she should grab some pastries for breakfast. She patted her flat belly – she could do with gaining a couple of pounds, she thought, she had lost weight lately, mostly due to the Olympic sex she’d been having.
She decided to go down to the nearest bakery, a couple of streets away. Venice was just coming to life in the dark January morning, but there were few people around. The bakery was just opening, and Elli bought a couple of breakfast rolls, and some pastries for her colleagues when they got into the office.
She was almost back when it happened. Suddenly she felt someone slam into her from behind, knocking her flat against a stone wall. Elli cracked her head hard against the stone, but couldn’t scream before her attacker knocked her to the ground and landed a vicious kick to her stomach. Elli tried to curl up in a ball, pain ripping through her, too shocked to cry out or fight back, but her attacker straddled her and reached into his pocket for a knife.
Oh, god, no…
“Please, don’t.”
As he raised the blade to drive it into her, there was a shout, Elli heard footsteps running towards them. Her attacker took off, and Elli struggled into a sitting position on the ice-cold ground. Two men helped her up. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, shell-shocked. She touched her forehead, but there was no blood. Thank god. The men told her they would get the polizia, but she shook her head. “No, it’s okay, thanks.”
Filthy Commitments: A Submissives’ Secrets Novel Page 136