The Ex File (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 1) (11 page)

“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 almost 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.

Ellie shook her head and kept her silence, her embarrassment and chagrin obvious in the way she fidgeted and shifted from foot to foot. Her whole body had an attitude of self-preservation and protection; they were in deeply personal territory now, and he knew he had to tread lightly lest she make a break for the door.

“You don’t trust me,” he said softly. It wasn’t a question.

Her eyes widened in panic. “Not at all! It wasn’t you I didn’t trust.”

Sean tilted her chin so that she looked him in the eye and could not mistake his intention. “You know me. Better than damn near every other human being on the planet. Why would you think I would betray you, especially with her?”

Ellie stalked out of his light embrace and over to stare out at the growing night. “Because she had you before. Because I…” her voice trailed off on a slight sniffle. “Our friendship was shredded because of her before, and I didn’t want her to get the chance to do it again.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What does that mean?”

She rolled her lips between her teeth and turned her gaze up to the sky. She appeared to be choosing her words carefully. “Just that she is capable, very capable, of wreaking all manner of havoc, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her fallout.”

He had a feeling there was more to it, but he would get to that later. “I would have told you,” he whispered. She had to know that, if nothing else.

She nodded tightly. “I know. Josh and Dane saw themselves as my back up, making sure that she didn’t try anything shady.”

“And did she?” He came over to lean against the opposite side of the window. “Was that what the fight was about?”

Ellie’s lips twitched and she snorted a laugh. “No. It started off as the usual high school mean girl BS. Too poor to eat there, my dress was all wrong, whatever. It didn’t pick up in earnest until I started striking back verbally; pretty sure she wasn’t ready for that.”

He nodded, a wry smile on his lips despite the situation. His Ellie was definitely not a shrinking violet. “I bet not.”

“I started pushing her buttons, and damn she made it terribly easy. The more wound up she got, the calmer I was, which only wound her up more. I told her about us, by the way.”

He feared his eyes might roll out of his head from the shock. She’d been so vehemently opposed to that very thing; it was amazing to hear that she did it herself. He was impressed. He was pleased. He was…
curious
. “What changed your mind?”

“I just…” She looked away and toed the floor like a chastened child. “I hadn’t planned to, but it came out, so I owned it.”

He was pleased, surprisingly pleased, with her going public with their relationship, even though the circumstances left a lot to be desired. “And how’d she take it?”

“Badly.” Ellie turned her head to show off the scratches on her face and neck, angry red slashes in groups of three or four marring her skin.

Sean went over to her, touching her chin lightly to turn her head and inspect the damage more closely. He hissed in sympathy as he examined her wounds. “Do we need to clean those?”

Ellie’s lips danced as she fought a smirk. “Probably wouldn’t hurt. We’ll get to it in a minute.”

“How bad off is she?” He had this image of hair pulling, screaming and clawing, with music swelling in the background like a soap opera and a piteous lack of baby oil.

She shrugged and sniffed dismissively. “Eh, she’ll live. I popped her in the face with her purse. It’ll bruise, and hopefully that’ll be the last damn time she thinks about doing that.”

“You hit her in the face?” He didn’t mean to sound so surprised, but Ellie had managed to wound not just her opponent’s face, but her pride as well. And knowing Pia, it was the pride that would probably scar.

“Weren’t really a whole lot of options.” She looked at him with dark eyes glistening. He knew she wouldn’t cry if she could help it, but appeared dangerously close.

“And you just left her there?” Not that he blamed her, but since he figured he’d be getting a call whining about it, he should know.

She squared up her shoulders and looked back out the window. “In Josh and Dane’s capable hands. She’ll live.”

He ticked off on his fingers, counting times and gaps. “So if that happened right after dinner, where were you between then and when you showed up at my door?”

“Driving around. Marinating in my shame and embarrassment. The usual.” In addition to the tears she kept at bay, now her cheek jumped periodically in her effort to keep her composure. “So are we cool?” she asked in a quavering voice.

He dropped his head on a laugh and ran his fingers through his hair, and then he took her hand. Regardless of how badly this evening had unfurled for both of them, he understood where she was coming from. Two battered souls who were still finding their way together, mistakes would be made, even expected.

“Come on.” He led them back to the couch and arranged them so that he was stretched out and she was sandwiched between him and the back of the couch with her head on his shoulder. Yeah, he wasn’t the freshest peach in the drawer, but she needed—hell, he needed—some reassurance. When they were comfortable, he sighed. “It’s easier to talk this way. Your walk is distracting.”