Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Maxine’s eyes flickered. “She is young and has much to learn.”
Which did not answer Ella’s question. In fact, it was a clear evasion.
“She could learn working for you,” Mia pointed out.
“I would be thrilled to have Dionne as one of my staff,” the harpy claimed, “but she has no interest in fashion.”
“She has no interest in working here either.” Another good point by Mia.
The bell above the door went again. Another woman walked inside—this one equally familiar, but more welcome. Ella cast her a quick smile before refocusing on the harpy.
Maxine’s eyes narrowed. “Does your aunt know that you let Dionne go?”
“Of course,” said Ella. “The decision to fire her was a unanimous one.”
The harpy’s gaze hardened. “Knox will not like this.”
“Not like what?” asked the woman behind Maxine.
The harpy whirled to face the dark-haired, long-legged nightmare. “Oh. Piper.”
Ella bit back a smile at the nervous tremor in Maxine’s voice. She had probably planned to embellish what happened here on reporting it to Knox, whose name she often wielded like a sword. But now she couldn’t lie. Because Piper would be able to tell him it was pure bull. And, as Levi’s mate and a close friend of Harper, Knox would take Piper’s word over Maxine’s any day.
The harpy flicked a hand. “Nothing terribly important. Do say hello to Levi for me.” With a dignified haughtiness, the woman left the store.
“What was that about?” asked Piper.
Mia puffed out a heavy breath. “We had to fire her daughter.”
Piper’s nose wrinkled. “It’s a pretty frequent thing. She always tries intimidating Dionne’s ex-employers into giving her ‘one last chance.’ You know, personally, I think Dionne purposely gets herself sacked just to get at her mom.”
Ella cocked her head. “Like an attention seeking thing?”
“Maxine is a workaholic who doesn’t have much time for her daughter,” Piper reminded her. “I think Dionne sabotages every job both because she’s determined to be the opposite of her mom but also because it’s the only time Maxine really notices anything that’s happening in Dionne’s life.”
Mia sighed. “It’s kind of sad. I feel sorry for Dionne, but we can’t keep her on.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Piper stated firmly. “Maxine might whine about it to Knox, but he won’t step in on her behalf.” Her pale-green eyes glinted with concern as they cut to Ella. “You look tired.”
Ella really wished people would stop pointing that out. “I’m not sleeping well.”
She’d had more dreams last night. Each had woken her at various times, but she’d never managed to cling to the threads of them. They’d slipped from her mental grasp, leaving her clueless as to what she’d dreamt about.
“Can’t you whip up some kind of potion that would help you sleep right through?”
“I could, but they always leave me feeling bleh the next day. I have zero enthusiasm, and my vigilance level suffers.” Rendering herself drowsy and unalert wouldn’t be smart when she clearly hadn’t shaken off her stalker.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be making her a talisman that fends off dreams,” Mia told Piper. “All she’ll need to do is stick it under her pillow. That should work.”
“Fingers crossed it does.” Piper looked from her to Ella. “Hey, why don’t you both come have a drink with me and my girls at the Xpress bar later?”
Ella pulled a face. “Last time I went there, I nearly got into a fight.”
Piper waved that way. “Pretty much everyone almost gets into a fight with Khloë. It’s like the law.”
A snort popped out of Ella. The almost-fight hadn’t whatsoever tainted the growing friendship between her and the imp. On the contrary, it seemed to have strengthened it, since Khloë had found the whole thing wildly entertaining. “I’ll think about it. Now, what can we do for you?”
Music blasted, drowning out Ella’s voice as she yelled at Khloë, who got right up in her face. Ella couldn’t hear her words, could barely hear anything over the music. Only her pulse pounding in her ears and … and Khloë suddenly wasn’t Khloë anymore. It was a tall brunette. And the club wasn’t a club anymore. It was a dingy bar.
Everything here was … different. Accents. Music. Smells. People.
The brunette pointed in her face, accusing her of trying to flirt with the bitch’s boyfriend—a guy Everleigh had just rejected at the bar, for Christ’s sake.
Everleigh would have lunged at the little bitch for then calling her a whore, but her friend held her back. Pushed her toward the restroom. Encouraged her to calm down.
Everleigh stumbled through the crowd, a strange fog at the edges of her vision that distorted her view of everything else. That fog thickened and churned, only to part as a stranger appeared. No, not a stranger. She’d seen him here and there. There was no way to miss someone who looked like that. A guy who was hot as hell and had ‘danger’ written all over him in capital letters.