The Ex File (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 1) (10 page)

“I miss you. I know you miss me. We belong together.” To anyone else, her words would have sounded vulnerable and full of contrition. This was just another move on her part to secure a deal, the first of a full-court press that he wasn’t even sure the threat of potential witnesses could contain.

“Only one of those statements is true, and I’m pretty sure you know which one.” Fingers moving absently as he folded and refolded the small white pouch, mutilating it. He gave her a hard look across the table, pleased when she broke eye contact to stare at the dregs of her coffee. “We are over. As soon as you walked out that door all those months ago, it was done. You had to know there was no coming back from that.” To further illustrate the point, he crumbled up the mangled sugar packet and tossed it into his empty coffee cup.

Pia shuddered like his words were physical slaps. She straightened suddenly and folded her hands in front of her. “You’re seeing someone new, aren’t you?”

As if that would be the only reason he would refuse her. Sean shouldn’t have been surprised at her change in attack, but he definitely hadn’t planned on discussing Ellie with her, especially since Ellie had been so opposed to even being in the same room with her. “Not really your business, is it?”

“C’mon,” she winked at him conspiratorially, “you can tell me. Even if we’re not going to be together, I’d like to think we can still be friends. Who is it?”

“Pretty sure I said I wasn’t gonna discuss it.” Sean finished his beer and made eye contact with the waiter. They were done here. He’d told her they were over, and he had no further desire to be here. Yeah, he was out a couple hundred bucks, but he considered it a down payment for his, and Ellie’s, peace of mind.

“Do I know her?” she asked playfully. Now it was a game, wear him down until he gave up what she wanted. It was always about the end game with her.

“I don’t think I copped to there actually being a ‘her’.” He raked his hair back out of his face and blatantly looked around the room for their waiter.
Christ on a cracker, could they be any slower with the bill?

Pia’s lips stretched in a predatory grin and her eyes began to glint. “You didn’t, but there is. I know her, or you would have told me already.” She narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment before clutching her throat in horror. “It’s not Ellie.”

It was a statement, not a question from her. One he was happy to let go. “It’s not.” He had reservations about denying her, but he knew Ellie wanted no part of his prior relationship with Pia. They’d never gotten along and he didn’t see a reason to force the issue now.

Relief washed over her features. “Oh good. I may not be able to have you, but you can do
so
much better than her. I never did like that chunky girl.”

* * *

“Chunky!” Months of work and sacrifice, twenty pounds off her frame and still it wasn’t good enough. She wanted to scream, she wanted to howl, she wanted to take the lobster fork left on the next table over and gouge out that triflin’ heifer’s eyes.

“Ellie. Eleanor,” Josh’s tone and face said that he’d been trying to get her attention for a minute now. She answered him with a low, menacing growl. “You can’t kill or maim her. Think of the witnesses.”

“Do you have any idea how few fucks I give about that right now?” she bit out. In case he wondered, she formed her hand into a circle and looked through it at him like a telescope.

The look in Josh’s eyes was desperate. “Please, remember where you are, remember what we’re doing, and why.”

Dane wasn’t nearly so placating. “Going Defcon Crazybitch is not going to help us here, no matter how warranted. We got what we needed; we now know where they both stand. All we have to do now is wait for them to vacate and then we can leave.”

She barked a quick laugh at ‘Defcon Crazybitch’. That was definitely where her head was, but she knew he was right. “Okay. I’m cool. I’m gonna kill her, but I’m cool.”

Josh patted her hand. “Sweetheart, I have four words for you: accessory before the fact. And maybe two more after that: premeditated murder. Keep that in mind, okay?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, her sigh sounded like another growl. “Take all the joy out of it.”

Josh grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “I know. I’m a bastard like that.”

“Let’s move.” Dane stood and Josh followed suit. He also held her chair while she stood.

The plan was to pick up the listening device and leave.
Easy peasy
. Except. “Guys, I gotta step out for a minute.”

Dane threw some cash on the table and stepped to her side to escort her out, as had been the plan. Josh was going to watch them leave, make sure they weren’t discovered, recover the device and tip the waiter extra well for his services. “What for?”

She sighed in impatience. “I gotta pee. You happy now?”

“You can’t hold it?”

Ellie blinked at him. “Would I have brought it up if I could?”

At her distinctly nonplussed look, Dane pursed his lips and looked around the room. She imagined that his great height would be an advantage when looking for their quarry. “Okay, be quick. It’s across the room; the hallway is just to the left of the kitchen doors. I’ll watch for you.”

She nodded and took off as quickly as dignity and her clingy black dress would allow. They were golden. Ellie could barely believe it. The plan, as crazy as it seemed in the beginning, worked. Perfectly. Hanging a left at the hallway, she was amused that through her earwig, she could still hear Josh and Dane conversing.

The door to the ladies’ room flung open right as she reached for it.

“Oh hello, Ellie. What a surprise seeing you here.”

Sean got all the way to the Challenger before he realized he’d forgotten his bank card on the table. He’d been in such a hurry to be out of there, away from Pia, he’d completely overlooked that extremely important piece of plastic. Though he hadn’t seen her leave, he’d hoped maybe that was just because he’d missed her and not that she was still around, because he had to go back into the restaurant to retrieve his bank card, and he wasn’t in the mood for a continued discussion from dinner.

He crossed the parking lot and headed back inside. At least she finally seemed to understand trying to win him back was not going to happen. For that alone he was eternally grateful. Now maybe he could move on without having to worry that she or her father were going to impose themselves on his, and now his and Ellie’s lives.

The
maitre d’
didn’t have his card, but let him go back into the dining room to see if the waiter had left it on the table. All the while he was on the lookout for Pia, and felt a bit like he was jumping at shadows every time he heard high heels on the tile floor or saw a black dress. He was so focused on not running into her, it wasn’t until he was almost to the table that he saw Josh, Ellie’s Josh, standing there talking to the guy who’d been their waiter.

Hanging back for a minute, Sean watched the exchange between the two men, comfortable, but not overly familiar, his trained and discerning eye caught the exchange of money in the handshake-cum-hug. All his spidey senses now on high alert, he decided now was the time he was going to head over to the table to check for his card.

The waiter saw him first. “Oh, Mr. O’Leary, thank goodness you came back! You left your card.” He handed it back to Sean promptly, and didn’t exhibit any of the behaviors one would expect of someone who felt guilty about something.

Sean grinned. “Yeah, I must have been in a hurry and forgot. Thank you for looking after it.” The waiter nodded and then headed back toward the kitchen, leaving Sean to face Josh. “So… making sure I left enough tip?”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “No? I came over to see Armand. We’ve known each other forever. Not that it’s your business.”

“It is when you’re both hovering over my bank card. I find it kinda interesting that you’re here, actually.” No point in being coy about it.

Josh’s face settled into a mask of skepticism. “We weren’t hovering, but do go on.”

Sean leaned against the chair next to him, not giving a single damn about the way it would wrinkle his suit. “I’m sure you saw who I was with. Are you planning on running back to Ellie?”

The thin man’s eyes narrowed, then he looked down, flicked a nonexistent fuzzy from the sleeve of his suit, and adjusted his cufflink. When he looked back up, his eyes were like chips of ice. “I don’t gossip, and I don’t run around spying on people. You wanna dine with painfully malnourished women with questionable fashion sense, that’s your business. I was here enjoying an evening out with my man, plain and simple. If
you
, however, are feeling guilty, that’s something
you
might want to take up with Ellie…or not. Also not my business.”

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. Everyone 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.”