White & Black (17 page)

Ella’s eyes opened wide as she took in the identity of her uninvited passenger.

“Hi Ginger… How are you?” Asked Marcia brightly with a beautiful white smile.

“What do you want?” Ella asked in a wary voice feeling more than a little anxious and worried about this sudden surprise visit.

“Just saying hello” Marcia replied super sweetly.

“Look, you made no secret of the fact that you disliked me intensely before. Why bother making an effort to be friendly now. You don’t need to.”

Marcia turned her body sideways on the seat looking straight at Ella.

“Ginger I was jealous of you. All because of Dev, you know… he does that to you – gets into your head. You’ll see one day. It makes you act all nasty and stuff. Look, I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t have behaved like that, okay? So… New start?” She held her hand out.

Ella took it warily and they had a quick, new start shake. “Okay…” She really wasn’t getting good vibes about this at all.

“Hopefully one day I’ll grow on you” Marcia continued on with a sweet smile “Maybe we can go out sometime, huh? Me, you, Tori, Sonia… Get together properly and have some fun somewhere, a club or something?”

“Perhaps. I’ll think about it.” Ella wasn’t buying all this somehow. It didn’t make sense.

“Anyway, Ginger…. I mean Ella, I must stop calling you Ginger, sorry… I must dash, got a hot date tonight… meeting my new boyfriend. I just picked up something from the Arena and saw you leave so I thought I’d catch up with you. I kinda felt bad about things.” She opened the door to go “See you sometime then Ella, bye”

“’Bye then” Thank God for that, she was going. Ella sighed in relief.

Well that was easy! It looked like she’d bought it….thought Marcia smugly. She quickly shut the door waving at Ella through the window and making her way back to her car smiling to herself.

Marcia got in her car and drove off to the car lot opposite the Arena. She parked up in a semi hidden position behind some garbage containers and sat waiting for Ella’s truck to leave.

Ella sat quietly in her truck for a few moments. Did she really mean any of that? She was confused, concerned and unsettled by this sudden run in with Marcia. Tori had warned her about her evil streak. Leopards don’t change their spots for no reason, do they? But then again, it seemed like she was moving on, dating a new boyfriend… perhaps it did make sense that she wanted a clean slate.

She started up the truck and turned on the air con full blast. It was stuffy and too warm tonight. A flurry of dust shot out and she suddenly sneezed, and again… her eyes were watering. She leaned across to the passenger side into the door pocket digging her hand inside it for her pack of tissues. He hand brushed against a plastic bag and she pulled it out curiously. She froze with horror. She was holding a bag of what looked like drugs. It contained quite a lot of small wraps of white powder. She peered into the door pocket again to make sure there were no more. She saw a roll of cash wound up with a rubber band and picked it out.

“My God…! “ She said out loud to herself… Marcia really was evil, a conniving venomous treacherous snake. She’d actually planted cocaine… class A drugs… on her? And a lot of it too. She sat in confused terror thinking about what this all meant. She was setting her up. She quickly opened the window and threw it all out and drove across the other side of the lot to calm down, taking a few deep breaths.

She got out her cell and called Dev. He should be home by now. She hoped he was because she had few people she trusted enough to call about this. Maybe Rob or at a stretch Paul… He answered straight away.

“Hey baby, I just got in. Miss me?”

“Thank God you’re home… and yes I missed you like crazy… but Dev I’m so scared. Marcia has put a bag of drugs in my truck and a roll of cash, I just found it…” The relief at hearing his voice was beyond description.

“
Fuck!…
Throw it and leave right now
!”

“I’ve already thrown it” She was starting to cry now. The harsh tone of his voice had burst through her shock.

“Go home Ells, I’m coming over. Wait outside for me. Hopefully the cops won’t turn up before I do”

She drove home sobbing and sick with what Marcia had planned for her. She had nearly succeeded too.

***

Marcia sat in her car watching her leave. She picked up the brand new disposable cellphone she had bought the day before and dialled 911.

“I want to report a drug offence.”

She was put through to narcotics and started talking fast.

“I just saw someone selling drugs in a layby near the Arena Hilton. It was a girl, she got out of her black truck… I saw her giving someone what looked like cocaine and taking loads of cash”

She gave a quick description of Ella and the number plate of the truck. Then she rang off without giving her name, got out and threw the cell in the trash can in front of the car. She wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

She smiled wickedly to herself as she got back in her car and drove home. Job done. That would be the end of her short Angel career for sure. The fucking bitch can rot in jail. Lucy and Tony would soon be begging her to take her old job back.

***

Dev drew up outside Ella’s house before her and he stood outside his car waiting anxiously. She parked and got out and rushed up to him in tears and they leant against the side of his car hugging tightly. He brushed her hair away from her tearstained face with both of his hands and kissed her long and hard. He was so completely in love with her and the thought of something bad happening to her cut him up inside like a thousand knives.

“Tell me what happened Ells… exactly as it happened”

She explained about Marcia getting in the truck and their conversation.

“Yeah, I thought as much… I expect she’s called you in for dealing. The cops will be here soon, I’m sure of it. Look Ella, when they do act natural and innocent obviously.”

Right on cue a police car turned into the road ahead of them.

“Okay Ella, start kissing me baby… we’ve got to be real natural”

The car stopped in front of his and two police officers got out and walked up to them.

“Evening… Ma’am are you the owner of the black truck parked just there?” One of them asked as he gestured at her truck.

“No, my dad owns it, but he’s disabled, so I drive it. Why?”

“Can I see your license please ma’am?”

She took it out of her purse and passed it to him. He looked at it and handed it back.

“Can we take a look inside the vehicle please?”

“Why?”

“We have reason to believe you are carrying illegal substances”

“That’s ridiculous, why would you think that?”

“We are not obliged to say. Unlock the truck please ma’am”

“It’s already unlocked”

The two police officers spent some time going over the truck, pulling everything out and poking about. They shut the doors and came back to her, standing next to Dev and his car.

“Can I check you over and your purse please ma’am”

He patted her down and looked through her small bag.

“And now you sir… license please…”

Dev and his car got the same treatment.

“Have you been inside the house tonight?”

“No, I just got home and my boyfriend was waiting here. We were just saying hello when you arrived. You are welcome to go inside if you like?”

“No, that won’t be necessary ma’am. Well, thank you both for your co-operation. It appears we may have been misinformed. Our apologies for interrupting your evening.”

They both got back in the police car and left.

Ella was shaking and exhaled loudly with relief. Dev held her tightly stroking her hair and kissing her head.

“Is that the end of it Dev? She must hate me so much. I’m really scared now. That must have cost her a lot of money. What’s she going to do next, when she finds out her plan went wrong?”

“I’m going to make sure she leaves you alone. Don’t worry Ells.”

“Oh my God… I’ve just remembered… what about the drugs in the lot Dev?”

“They’ll be gone, don’t you worry about that.”

Dev picked his cell out of his jeans pocket. He sent Marcia a quick text. He was way beyond angry.

‘good try bitch’
This should get her nicely annoyed, then he’ll hit her with it.

“C’mon Ells, let’s go see your dad for a while. Then I’m going to take you out for some late dinner and then to mine for a couple of hours. I have some nice bad things I want to do to you.”

She shot him a curious “I
so
like the sound of that idea” look.

***

Marcia lay on her bed reading the text message from Dev with a wild fury. Her head was ready to explode. How could her plan have gone wrong? All she had to do was fucking drive home! Fuck no… all that money gone to waste! And why was
he
involved anyway? She couldn’t even breathe properly she was so mad.

She text him back.
‘what do you mean’

He replied.
‘dont fuck with my GF ever again’

The last message she received was the greatest shock of all. Ella was now Dev’s girlfriend? This was fucking unreal. Would someone please give her a gun… she needed to shoot herself, or both of them, or everyone…

She stood up and looked at herself in the bedroom mirror.

She was pretty gorgeous, wasn’t she? She was famous and popular. She’d played things his way. So why hadn’t he wanted her? Tears started to run down her face. She had loved him so much… why hadn’t he loved her? She had wanted to be his girlfriend. Love was so cruel.

She had never felt so goddamn miserable since she’d been around him. It wasn’t how love should be.

She took a long deep breath. She needed someone new to think about. Dev was never going to get back with her, not that he’d ever really been with her… she couldn’t delude herself that it might happen any more. It was also very unlikely she would ever get her old job back either.

Things had changed. She needed to move on and make a new life away from Dev and all the old crowd at the Arena. She would have to stop being such a bitch and fucking people about. She was turning into an evil witch. She wasn’t normally like this, well not quite so bad as this anyway. It was him. He’d done it to her.

A new dawn arose in her mind. A Devlin Black free world.

Fuck the bastard! Ginger girl could keep him. It wouldn’t last long anyway. How could it? The way he was… He couldn’t hold down a long term relationship with anyone even if his fucking life depended on it.

He was gone. Out of her head forever. She should thank Ginger for this. She was finally fucking free!

She’d have to celebrate somehow… Oh yes indeed! She’d just had a wonderful idea too. That lovely tall photographer William with the incredibly fit body and wild blond hair… He’d been flirting outrageously with her last week when she did her last glamour modelling assignment. She’d give him a call right now and ask him to come over and take some very private extremely glamorous photos of her in her underwear in her bedroom.

Chapter 27

Ella woke up Wednesday with a list of things to do. She was in a serene mood and a sexed up smile was fixed permanently on her face. Dev’s bad things had gone down a treat with her. She might ask for some more bad things next time. She’d never done it on a kitchen worktop before, or on a moonlit balcony either…

By lunch time she had hired a housekeeper, starting the next day… and had seen two potential carers for her dad. The second woman seemed to be particularly nice. She was mid forties, similar in age to her dad. She was willing to stay over, to sleep in their spare room. Ella went on to explain that she had a boyfriend and wanted to stay at his from time to time. Carla Jacobs, the carer had said that was fine with her. She’d look after dad until she wanted to come back. She was paid hourly and wanted as many hours as Ella was prepared to give her. She offered to cook some meals for them, she said she loved to cook and was prepared to help Ella out. She asked if she could bring her small dog with her if she was doing long hours and Ella agreed that would be fine, her dad liked animals, it would be good for him. She offered her the job on the spot, she just needed her references from the company she worked for and she could start. She text Dev the good news about the new carer.

Along with the dozen texts she’d received today from him which made her luminous with love, she had quite a few from her friends too. She scrolled though and replied where she needed to. One was from Paul. He said he was coming over at 6 to see her, after his shift at the casino. He asked if she’d like to go out for a quick burger with him. He wanted to speak to her, no strings. She wasn’t that comfortable about seeing him but agreed anyway. They could bury the hatchet and get back to where they were perhaps.

She text Dev.
‘Out with a friend for fast food this evening, see you at 8 if you want to drop by’

Paul arrived just after 6 and called in to say hello to her dad. Then they got in his car and set off for a burger restaurant not far away. He seemed to be fine, chatty and pleasant with her. At least they had broken the ice that had frozen over their relationship.

“How’s the new job going” He asked her

“Well you won’t believe this Paul…” She explained what had gone on at the Arena and her new contract.

“That’s just amazing Ells! I’m so pleased for you.” He really was genuinely very pleased for her. She had a lot to cope with without being short of money.

They continued to chat about this and that over dinner, just like the old pals they were. He didn’t mention their little bit of passion and nor did she. It was now a past event, no point dragging that up again, was there?

It was a little after 7.30pm when he dropped her off. He got out of the car with her and they both made their way up the driveway to Ella’s front door. She got her key out and opened the door a little, preparing to go inside. Paul suddenly pulled her back to him. She turned and he gave her a very tight hug pressing his lips to her cheek and whispering in her ear.

“I’m gutted it didn’t work out for us. I still feel a lot for you Ells. Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind?”