“Puh-leaze say you can take a break!” Faye whines then joins in laughing.
“I can. I was just going to get my lunch.” She does a little happy dance, shaking her butt and spinning around. “I just need to put my cart away.” She waves a hand toward the double doors at the end of the hall and pushing it toward her destination.
Just outside the doors, she suddenly stops and raises her finger to her lips, confusion furrowing her brows. Raised voices inside cause the three of us to glance around nervously. Ellie's eyes are big with surprise.
“That's Ms. Smith’s voice.” She whispers, confirming what I suspected as well. Margot. Quietly we crowd closer to the door, pushing it open the smallest bit so we can hear better what is going on inside.
“Yes. Today. I will get them for you today.” She is saying to someone, but the rumble of a male voice is not clear enough to decipher the words being said.
“Yes. No one will be up there. They were all going out today. Dress shopping or something Mr. Cerelli said.” Again there is an unintelligible response.
“No one suspects me.” Her voice is closer this time. She is coming toward the door. Ellie looks at us, clearly panicked.
“Hide.” She mouths, and I turn and waddle as quickly as I can back toward the bustle of the casino floor, Faye right beside me while Ellie makes a fuss as she pushes her cart through the swinging doors. I can hear her over the voices and clanging slot machines, “Oh, hello Ms. Smith! I was just going to park this thing and take my lunch break! Do you need me to do anything before I go?”
Margot’s answer is lost in the hustle as we turn the corner, I want to turn back and look, but Faye's hand closes around my wrist and she pulls me toward the cafe.
“What the actual hell was that about?” She squeaks, her voice ringing with anxiety.
“I don't know, “ I whisper back, “but I think Xavier's housekeeper might be the one who bugged our apartment.”
Faye's nod is hesitant, her face bemused. “Kinda sounded like it.”
“We need to tell the guys,” I say, and she nods again.
“As soon as Ellie gets here, let's go upstairs”.“ she says. I quickly agree, and we sit on a bench outside of the cafe to wait for our friend.
Xavier
“Fuck!” I rake an agitated hand through my hair. “Fucking Margot?” I know I'm shouting, but damn! I trusted that woman. In my home, around Ana, and all along, she has been betraying me. For how long? Weeks, a month? As long as I have been here? The girls burst through the doors to my office, their friend Ellie in tow. Stumbling over each other to tell me what they overhead my housekeeper saying to a man they didn't see, but there is no way it was anyone but Dominic.
Ellie didn't get a look at him when she pushed her way into the housekeeping room. She said she only saw the back of a tall grey-haired man as he went out of the service entrance. She didn't see his face, but I'm sure it was him. What was he doing here? Or more accurately, why was he here? The only reason Margot isn't already here answering questions is because Travis convinced me to let Margot go up and do whatever she had planned. That way we get irrefutable evidence before I pull her into my office and demand to know just what the fuck is going on.
There is an angry throb in my blood that is demanding answers. Recompense. I trusted her. A middle-aged single woman with a teenage daughter. Years of employment with the casino before I bought it. She was supposed to be trustworthy, and yet she betrayed me. It pisses me off.
Calm.
Down.
I need to calm down and breathe. Before I do something I can’t take back.
Calm. Down.
Through the pounding in my ears, I hear Travis on the phone, filling Blake in. Ana is beside me, her arms squeezing me, her small hands rubbing my back, her cheek pressed against my sternum as she tries to help me regain control of myself.
“Sweetpea.” I can finally hear past the rushing in my head, “why don't the three of you go have lunch so Ellie isn't late getting back to work.” It’s not a suggestion, and we both know it. Travis is giving Faye a gentle order.
I nod my agreement, pressing a kiss to the top of Ana's head and taking a moment to admire her silken locks. I'm looking forward to the day that it is a long gleaming curtain again. I have dreamt of it falling around us while we make love for months. Years, really...
“He’s right, sunshine. Go have some girl time. I’ll come get you once we have this under control.” She hugs tighter to my waist for a moment, and I see Faye doing the same to Travis, as if the thought of being separated, even for just a while, is unacceptable. I feel it too, but there is work to be done, and it could get ugly. Ana has seen enough ugliness to last a lifetime. I won't be the one to subject her to more.
Gently setting her away from me, I drop a kiss to her cheek and pat her belly. “Go feed my babies,” I say, forcing a lightness I don't feel into my tone. I’m relieved when she smiles and turns to her friends.
“Guess we should take a hint, girls.” She laughs and the heaviness in the room breaks, but her eyes race back to mine and I can read the concern in their depths before she leads the way out of my office and into the hall.
The biggest difference between the surveillance equipment in my apartment that Blake set up and what our mystery spy set up is that Blake’s technology sends live video to an app on my phone as well as to my laptop. Once the girls leave for lunch, I log in and pull up the live feed of my apartment. We don’t have to wait long before the door opens, and Margot enters pushing her small cart of cleaning supplies.
She goes straight to work, sanitizing the counters and doing the deep cleaning that I have asked Ana not to do. I’m restless. Impatient to see what is going to happen next. Thank goodness Ana and I are both neat freaks, because it doesn’t take her long to get everything done. As we watch, she sits down on the edge of the big leather sofa, her phone in her hands. She is texting someone.