Seeing that he was going to get nowhere with Ellie’s friend, he nodded in reply to his statement and turned to leave, just as Josh’s walking tree of a boyfriend came in the entrance. Sean didn’t look behind him, but didn’t believe his story about just dinner. His instincts weren’t usually wrong and there was definitely something going on with him, but he wasn’t going to find that out now.
Right now, what he needed was a run with his dog and maybe some quality time on the eBay antiques market. Anything but the drama in his personal life right now. Anything at all.
* * *
Fuckety fuck. Ellie gave Pia a quick onceover, ostensibly searching for weapons, but finding that even though she didn’t like the bitch, she had great taste in shoes, and handbags. Flashing a quick smile, she stepped past her into the restroom. “Pia. Always a pleasure. Please excuse me.”
The only thing she could hope was that Pia would be gone by the time she left, but she certainly wasn’t expecting her to follow her in. “Surprised to see you here. Didn’t think this type of place was in your…range. Saved for a year, huh?”
Ellie closed the door to the stall and did her thing. It was either that or drag Pia in and work her over Joe Pesci style, and really, she did have to pee. In her ear, she heard Josh talking to someone about a tip.
When she stepped out to wash her hands, she was disappointed to find Pia there waiting, her structured hot pink crocodile bag with rose gold hardware hanging off her arm. Giving her a dismissive look, she washed her hands. “I was out with a couple friends of mine. This was their idea.” Truer words were never spoken.
“How thoughtful of them.” Pia’s smile was as real as her fingernails. “And you wore a nice dress, I’m impressed.”
Ellie smiled tightly at the compliment while waiting for the backhand. Then she decided to get one of her own. “Oh this?” She smoothed her hands over her waist and hips. “This is one of those dresses that I love the way it looks, but it always makes me feel…” she paused as she waved a hand in the air in front of her like she was reaching for a word, finally settling her eyes upon her opponent, “chunky.” Yes, it was childish, petty, and a lot like dangling a live chicken over an alligator pit, but damn, it felt kinda good. In her ear, she could hear Dane’s voice ‘Fire in the hole!’, but couldn’t be bothered to care. This little tête-à-tête had been a long time coming.
Pia’s eyes widened. “You bitch! I don’t know how, but you heard.”
“Oh, girl,” Ellie said on a devious little laugh as she leaned back against the sink counter with her hands braced on either side of her. “The how is so much less relevant than the what…or even the when. I knew well before today. Sean and I discussed it and agreed that since he was dropping the hammer, he would do it alone instead of with me there. And that’s where he is, by the way, with me.”
Pia’s lip curled in disgust. “You little whore,” she spat. “You always wanted him for yourself.”
Ellie gave a half nod. “I did,” she acknowledged with a vicious little smirk, “and I do. But still I stepped aside. Which is exactly what you’ll be doing now. Against your will or not, I couldn’t care less.” Evidently she’d moved on from baiting gators to teasing tigers.
Her eyes narrowed as her contempt grew. “Psh, you left after I sent my father to tell you to. I wonder what Sean would think? That you were too afraid to stand up for him? Maybe I should tell him.”
“Maybe you should. See how that works for you, since clearly everything else you tried has failed.” Ellie found that speaking her mind was disturbingly liberating, and the more she said, the more she had to say. She was goading someone she strongly suspected was crazy, which she knew from experience was a bad idea, but her mouth kept going without thought to the ramifications.
Pia’s eyes widened, giving her the appearance of a trapped wild animal. Or maybe it was just the latticework of veins that were beginning to show themselves on her forehead. “I’ll tell him about today. How you were spying on us. Listening to our private conversation. You think he has trust issues now? Wait until I tell him about his perfect little girlfriend thinking she’s Nancy Drew.”
That part was a problem, actually. She’d rather Sean never know about any of this. Pia hadn’t been wrong about his trust issues, and this godawful plan had backfired so spectacularly that she stood a real chance of alienating him, maybe even permanently. So yes, Ellie didn’t want Pia to go to him with that the damning information. She’d have to figure out a contingency plan. In the meantime, she couldn’t help but poking her nemesis just once more, because in these few stolen moments, she’d actually gotten to like it.
Ellie pushed away from the counter and walked right up to Pia. She’d never wished for added height more in her life. Her voice dropped to a whisper, “And who do you think he’s going to believe? His psychotic, pathologically lying, cheating, delusional ex-wife…” Her laugh was ice cold. “Or me?”
The slap was coming, Ellie had seen that look enough times in other people’s eyes that she had a bit of a sixth sense for it, and when it arrived, she dodged it like a pro. What she wasn’t expecting was for Pia, dignified, regal Pia to launch herself out of her Louboutins and into Ellie’s face, scratching and clawing, knocking them both back into the sink and turning on the faucet. It was an impressive display from a former debutante, but absolutely no match for a kid from child services.
Ellie’s hands closed over Pia’s shoulders and shoved her back. She then grabbed the handles of Pia’s purse, stripping it from her arm and swinging it at her head in a vicious backhand, gratified when the bottom of the brick the evil heifer had been carrying on her arm connected with the side of her face. The contents fell around them like couture confetti. A Guerlain lipstick here, a Chanel compact there, concealer hitting the ground and rolling under the counter of the sink, which was a shame, since Pia would likely be needing it soon. Pia howled just as Josh and Dane came barreling into the room, separating the two of them.
“I’m good. I’m fine.” Ellie shook off Dane, the effects of the fight short-lived. She’d gotten her point across, more than her point, if Pia’s face was any indication, so she felt vindicated and just a little smug. Pia, however, took longer to contain, straining against Josh’s iron grip in her attempts to keep brawling, finally breaking down and crying on his shoulder with her makeup running in rivulets down her face.
“I liked this suit, god dammit,” he snarled quietly at Dane, who just shrugged. He turned his attention to Ellie, and she had to admit, even though his eyes were blue, they were blazing with anger. “You picked a helluva time to stand your ground.”
Rather than allowing her friend to see how much his censure had affected her, she took a finger and blotted under her nose, grateful to find that it was sweat and not blood. “She didn’t have to stay and try to pick a fight with me. She could have left.”
“As could you.” Josh plucked Dane’s handkerchief from his breast pocket and handed it to her. “You had to pick a fight. You couldn’t just walk away.”
She had been walking away her whole life. Ellie took a deep breath and sighed as she blotted her face and tended to her minor wounds on her face and neck. The fact that it was Pia’s fault for sticking around when she had gracefully exited would go undiscussed, as would the fact that the socialite had had it coming for quite a while, but whatever. “No. I couldn’t. I’m going home now.”
She pulled out the earwig and pressed it into Josh’s hand. After checking herself in the mirror, straightening her hair as best she could, she couldn’t help the smirk that fought its way to the surface as she looked in the sink. Pia’s phone had fallen under the running water during the fracas. Guess the bitch won’t be calling anyone now.
“What the hell do you want me to do with her?” Josh asked with both hands up. He wasn’t really holding Pia as she cried, more trying to shrink back from the way she was clinging to him, lest the evil be an unknown contagion.
Ellie shrugged. “Shake her off. Ev
eryone else is trying to.” She left the restroom to the sound of a new round of tears and the deep-voiced rumbling of two gay men trying to console, or at least placate enough to escape, her mortal enemy. Opposite day. Yeah. Apparently it was that kind of night.
* * *
Sean paused in his kata, wiping his face. He’d come home from dinner, taken the dog for a run that was punishing for both of them, and—not content to just relax—he got out his wooden bokken and began running through kata forms in his living room. There wasn’t much call for samurai sword fighting, but in the event of a zombie apocalypse, he was good to go.
The knock at the door was startling as it was unexpected. He made a point of not interacting with the neighbors and lived in a gated community, so having unannounced visitors was damn near apocryphal. Looking at his gun as he walked to the door, he thought about it briefly before thinking that showing up shirtless with a wooden sword might be enough of a deterrent for anyone who didn’t need to be there.
The very last person he expected to see was Ellie, especially not looking as hot as she was in her black dress clinging in all the right places and mile high heels. “Damn! I mean, Ellie, what a surprise.”
The corner of her mouth kicked up into the start of a wry grin. He also didn’t miss the look of appreciation that passed over her features as she eyed him. Sweaty and shirtless was a thing for her, apparently. “Hey, Sean. You got a minute?”
“Of course!” He stepped to the side as he held the door, grinning when she subtly sniffed him as she swished by. She was no slouch herself, in addition to looking amazing, she smelled practically lickable. “You look incredible, by the way.”
“Thanks.” Her shy smile was almost as endearing as the light blush that covered her cheeks.
As he closed the door, he reached for his house phone to make sure it was on. Normally he would get a call from the gate about a visitor, but his phone was working, so there had to be another explanation. “How’d you get in?” At her raised eyebrows, he amended, “I mean, I’m always happy to see you, but I didn’t get a call.”
“Drove in behind someone else. Your fortress is not that secure, detective.” She was laughing as she said it, and walked over to take a seat on the couch.
“I’ll have to shoot the guards and get new ones, then.” He tried not to make a spectacle of himself as he ogled her legs as he sat down across from her on the edge of the coffee table. He would have joined her on the couch, but didn’t want to risk cementing his skin to the leather upholstery since he was still very sweaty. Studying her face, he saw the scratches. Bruises on her neck and arm also became apparent. “El, what happened to you?” He took both her hands in his, examining her knuckles, the marks on her arm, tilting her chin with his hand to get a better look at the scratches.
“Um, yeah. That’s kind of what I came to talk to you about.” The look of chagrin on her face was worrisome.
“Okay?” His worry only grew as she chewed on her bottom lip.
“See, I went to dinner, right? With some friends.” Odd place to open, but he was willing to go with it.
“Is that why you look so lovely? Did your friends beat you up?” The urge to protect her was so strong; it almost had a flavor on his tongue.
“Yes to the first, no to the second. It all kinda goes together. Anyway, we had dinner, and I was getting ready to leave and I went to the ladies room.” The long, roundabout answer was doing nothing for his nerves.
“And you were set upon by juvenile ninjas?”
Her eyes closed at his attempt at humor, but her smile looked pained. “I got in a fight. Well, not really. I walked away from a fight and it came to me.”
He was sure his eyes couldn’t open any wider and he might have to get his jaw rehinged. “You got in a fight. Dressed like that. At a restaurant.” His recap only underscored his vast confusion at her statement. On no planet did any of those phrases go together where Ellie was concerned.
Ellie fell over sideways and grabbed a throw pillow to hold it over her face. “I know! I walked away from the confrontation and she followed me into the ladies room! I was cornered!”
Sean moved from the table to the couch, rubbing Ellie’s hip in an attempt to comfort her. God, leave her alone for a night and she gets into a public brawl. He shook his head with a chuckle. She was his thug in princess clothing. “Did you know her?” Not that he imagined her engaging in a brawl with a stranger, but he had to ask.
Ellie mumbled a response into the pillow.
“I didn’t catch that.”
She looked at him over the pillow, and in a small voice said, “I got into it with Pia. At the restaurant tonight.”
He held a hand up, trying to physically stop the conversation. “Wait, what? You weren’t at Dunaway’s tonight.”
Ellie sat up and hung her head. “I was, but it’s not what it looks like.”
Sean stood up and began pacing in front of the coffee table. “So, to sum up so far, you turned me down for dinner, right? You then went out to dinner with friends at the same restaurant where you knew I was going to be. Then you proceed to get into a fight, with my ex-wife, no less, in the restaurant. All this, and it’s not what it looks like?” He felt bad raising his voice, because he saw her flinch every time he did, so he sat back down next to her and took a deep breath. “Tell me from the beginning.”
Ellie was engaged in a detailed study of her hands, palms, fingers, knuckles. “I walked away,” she whispered. “She walked up and I walked away. Then she followed, cornered me.”
Sean knew very well what her childhood had been like and how bad an idea that was for Pia. “How bad was it?” he asked gently. The way she looked right then, small and defeated, made him want to cuddle her close, but given the conversation, he didn’t think that was wise.
She shrugged but didn’t look at him. “Not too bad. A little tussling, a little scratching—most of that was her.” She stared out the window with a tiny grin tugging at the corner of her lips as she was obviously reliving it in her mind.
“You hit her?” He could only imagine the damage she could do if so moved, even though she went out of her way to avoid confrontation in general.
Ellie bristled at the notion. “I didn’t hit her. Well, okay there was the once, but that was it.” She turned to him with a pleading look, like she needed him to understand her on that point. “Josh and Dane broke us apart, it was really quick. She was crying, the contents of her purse now decorate the bathroom, but no permanent damage on either side. I walked away from her. She came after me.”
Sean couldn’t fault her for that. However, she had yet to explain why she’d been there in the first place. He nudged her shoulder with his. “Looking past that, why were you there with Josh and Dane?”
She was back to looking at her hands. “I don’t suppose you’d believe that I really like the ravioli there?”
He raked his hair out of his face and turned on the couch to face her. “‘Fraid not. What’s the real story?”
“You asked me to go with you, and I would love to go there with you, but not with her. I really, really cannot be around her. She’s nuts, bugnuts in fact, and I couldn’t see us making it through a full meal with metal cutlery and such a high potential for collateral damage.”
He hummed a quick laugh. “Clearly.”
“But,” she shrugged and sighed heavily, “I didn’t want you there with her alone either.”
“Afraid she was going to fork me over the dessert?” He was only kind of joking.
“No, she likes you,” she muttered quietly.
“So what then?”
Ellie kicked off her shoes and got up to pace. “I told Josh, who told Dane, and they came up with a plan.”
“A plan that you went along with.” Sean threw his shirt back on and leaned back against the couch cushions. He crossed his arms as he watched her move, more than a little enamored with the way that dress clung to her hips and moved with her.
Her look of affront a
lmost made him laugh out loud. “Not entirely willingly. They plied me with liquor first.”
As if the story could get any stranger. “So you’re dressed like the best ice cream sundae ever, in this obscenely expensive restaurant, eating ravioli against your will. Is that my understanding?” At her mute nod, he asked gently, “What was the plan exactly?”
A shy grin cut dimples into her cheeks. “Really? Ice cream sundae?”
He pursed his lips. “Focus, El.”
She closed her eyes and drew herself up straight, pausing in her trek across his living room. “They needed supervision. They’re nuts, both of them, even if they mean well.”
Sean thought back to his after dinner conversation with Josh, the cool indifference, the smug attitude, the cash changing hands. “You had waiters running intel?” It was ludicrous, laughable, but he could totally see her commanding a cadre of clandestine agents bearing reconnaissance in addition to menus and wine lists.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she cringed. “Not. Exactly…” The pacing resumed though at a bit of a higher clip.
Her adorable little scrunched up face notwithstanding, Sean was completely at a loss. If not the waiters, how could she possibly know…“Listening devices. You planted listening devices at our table?”
Ellie exhaled a sigh that sounded a lot like “Fuuuuuuuuck.” She stopped pacing and faced him. “Yeah, they planted listening devices.”
He ran both hands through his hair as he stood. It wasn’t possible, was it? How would they even…? He didn’t even know where to start with this information. He’d only been somewhat joking. And now he had to think about the ramifications. “You must be crazy! You could go to jail!”
Ellie crossed her arms and gave him a sullen glower. “Pia doesn’t know and I’m not planning on telling anyone, are you, Copper?”
He pulled one hand down his face, stretching his features taut and rubbed the back of his neck with his other one. Oh, the positions she put him in. Dammit. “Of course not.” He walked over until he was just inches from her. “Why?” he demanded urgently.
The Ex File (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 1) Page 10