Episode 6 #9
“I’m out many nights.”
“And Damian’s “spermandor” showed up in the police station the next morning.”
“He did, didn’t he.” Ellisandre looked between the two teens, suppressing their amusement. Having young people about was entertaining. Especially these two. They were perfectly odd and deserved to be kept close.
Ash made a high-pitched sound of distress. “Daddy is not going to admit to anything, Alice. I told you this was a bad idea.”
Alice shrugged. “I want to know how they did it. The police weren’t finding him. Damian and Jun and the kids have been hiding out in hotels for weeks.”
“Who said I did it?” Ellisandre kept working the cantaloupe over with the blade. The top section was coming together.
“You didn’t have to say.” Ash leaned against the counter with his rear and crossed his arms. “You were in a bad mood and then you were in a good mood. And then you had bruises the next morning.”
Ellisandre’s lips twitched. They looked between the two young adults—well, not quite eighteen in Ash’s case, for all that he was emancipated. His birthday had to be soon. Ash and Alice were both staring back, matching mulish looks on their faces. They truly were a pair.
“You know your evidence would never stand up in a court of law.” They took a ball of cantaloupe and popped it into their mouth. Sweet, succulent, perfect ripeness.
“I knew it!” Alice slapped the counter and then spun around, checking the stove. She pushed the mushrooms around the pan and turned back around. “You did do it.”
Ellisandre raised one eyebrow and smiled, saying nothing.
Ash groaned dramatically and slumped forward.
Ellisandre chuckled. “You can’t prove it. Maybe those bruises were from a lover.”
“You don’t have a lover,” Ash retorted. “You said so yourself, when I moved in.”
“Hm . . . yes. But that was months ago. Perhaps I found someone.” Ellisandre fluttered their fingers and their eyelashes.
Ash cringed. “Ew, no.” His cheeks turned red. “Not thinking about it. Not thinking about it.”
Alice was watching, though, with more brain cells firing. She wasn’t in the least embarrassed. Her eyes narrowed. “If you had a regular lover, you’d come back relaxed more often.”
“Perhaps we have a tumultuous relationship.”
Alice shook her head. “You don’t do drama. Which is why I know you delivered that piece of shit to the police where it belonged.”
“Because I don’t do drama? Dropping a prisoner unseen into the middle of a police station sounds dramatic to me.” Ellisandre couldn’t keep their lips from twitching with suppressed amusement.
Alice pushed the mushrooms around the pan and then pointed with the spatula at Ellisandre.
“You don’t do drama, you end drama. So yes, it’s exactly what you would do.
And if it takes drama to end drama, you will do that too.
Actually, you do do drama. Just not relationship drama. All your drama is everything else.”
Ash nodded in agreement, looking proud of Alice’s convoluted reasoning.
Ellisandre’s phone went off. The one connected to Sevastyan. They checked the screen. All thoughts on Ash and Alice’s accusations snapped out of existence. “Someone’s put a hit out on Jun.”
Ash uncrossed his arms. Alice visibly braced herself against thin air.
Ellisandre read through the rest of the message twice. “Ash, computer. Need you to look something up.”
Alice finished making lunch while Ash tracked the agent who posted the hit down to Connecticut, just north of New York City.
Linda and Dana made it upstairs in time to eat warm food.
Ellisandre, Alice, and Ash kept their news to themselves, bantering their way through the meal.
Ellisandre pulled Linda aside as the dishes were being cleared away.
“Can you keep Dana with you until tomorrow morning?”
“I could. Richard and I were going to meet up. Maybe she can stay with Collin while he and I talk. Any particular reason?”
“No reason.” Ellisandre shrugged.
Linda shook her head, rolling her eyes. “No reason, of course. And now the kids are involved. If you have a huge vat of acid somewhere to dissolve the bodies in, don’t let them near it.”
“I’m only involving two out of our three kids,” Ellisandre whispered back.
“Oh, so Dana is like me?” Linda quirked an eyebrow back, in almost perfect imitation of Ellisandre themselves. “Too delicate?”
“Ash was already on the dark side before I got my claws in him. And Alice started her training under her grandfather, if you’ll remember. I’ve corrupted no one.” Ellisandre lifted their chin. “Delicate has nothing to do with it.”
Linda narrowed her eyes, but her gaze was teasing. “Of course. Pure as driven snow. Not a devious bone in your body.”
“Only for us.” Ellisandre leaned in, wrapping one arm around Linda’s waist and pulling her close.
Linda gripped Ellisandre’s arm in return, squeezing affectionately. “Just bring everyone home safe.”
“Promise.” Ellisandre planted a kiss on Linda’s shoulder.
They left the cleanup to Linda, signaling Alice and Ash to go back down to their apartment with them.