Page 62 of Prior Claim
He had to find a way to fall over this cliff. And it had to be now.
Ellisandre
Ellisandre gathered up the last of the folders. Linda was at the end of the conference room shaking hands and making sure the right people spoke to each other. She was smooth with these things, better than Ellisandre. They always left her to it.
Tristan slipped in the door, a note in his hand, looking good in his new suit. He nodded to the VIPs passing in and out and crossed to Ellisandre. “This just came in for you.”
Ellisandre frowned. They extended a hand. Tristan bowed a little as he passed it over.
Your place, please - Bal
Ellisandre’s breath stopped in their throat. They touched the surface of the paper, caressing the words. Written in pencil, they were etched in scrawled handwriting. It was exactly as Sevastyan would speak when he was their precious Bal and not their spite-filled Vast. The note looked like Vast’s work; it had the tone of Bal.
There was no time given. Which meant now. Ellisandre drew a deep breath in. “I’m going to need you to finish cleanup. Can you?”
Tristan squared his shoulders. “Yes. I’ll have to stay a little late.”
“Finish the printouts tomorrow morning. They’re not due until noon, then you can leave on time.”
“Yes, captain.” Tristan’s lips twitched. Ellisandre rolled their eyes. Tristan had settled on a nonbinary honorific all on his own, insisting he needed one. There was a reason he’d been kept close to Linda’s inner office circle. Trainable and yet his own person. It was a good cocktail as long as it could be stuffed in the right clothes.
Ellisandre pulled out their phone and called Ash. Ash picked up on the third ring. He sounded breathless. “El?”
“Can you cook for Linda tonight and eat with her?”
“Uh, you . . . trust me with that?”
“Would I ask if I didn’t?”
Ash groaned. “Takeout?”
“Do the greek salad. Everything’s in the fridge in our place. Take it up to Linda’s and heat up the rest of the spinach and garlic lasagna that’s in her fridge.”
“What will you eat?”
“I’ll be out, last minute meeting. Stay at Linda’s tonight, please.”
Ash didn’t respond for a moment. “This something you can’t tell me? Something going down?”
It was Ellisandre’s turn to pause. “I don’t know. Yet.”
“I’ll bring my computers with me.”
“Do that.”
Ellisandre hung up and immediately dialed again, this time calling Linda’s head of security. “Hal. I’m going to be out of pocket tonight. We’ll need a detail to accompany Ms. Reevesworth from the office to home.”
“You got it, boss,” Hal said. “I’m in the lobby now. Will be right up. I’ll see Ms. Reevesworth home myself. Jeffreys is on the night shift.”
“Ash will stay over at Linda’s. Minimal security on my place; keep the manpower on Linda.”
“Got it, boss.”
Ellisandre thumbed off their phone, mentally sorting through the rest of their responsibilities. Alice and Dana were still on the Estate with Jun and the rest of his K-Pop group. Maribel had already been walked and would be fed by Linda when she arrived home. If she got caught up in her work and forgot, Ash would make sure the dog didn’t suffer. They slipped their phone into their pocket and moved through the thinning crowd to Linda. They touched her elbow and leaned in.
“Have a meeting. Hal’s walking you home. Ash is making dinner. Eat it.”
Linda gave Ellisandre one of her professionally sassy side-eyes. There were too many people present for her to say what she wanted to. “I can feed myself, Ellisandre Sollunae.”
