Ellisandre stood and shook themselves out, letting the energy of uncertainty fall away. “Not interested, but if it will get him to turn someone else’s head, I’ll send a few more decent outfits to his closet. The boy is brilliant, but dresses like a donkey.”
“That ‘boy’ is thirty-two, and I’m not sure how donkeys dress.” Linda picked up her mascara.
“Like Tristan.” Ellisandre swooped in and kissed the top of Linda’s head. “I’ll order two more suits for him and charge them to the business account. That way he looks the part if he’s taking more meetings with you.”
Linda shook her head in exasperation. “Then he will complain. Or fall in love with you. Employees aren’t dolls.”
“I’ll insult him until he accepts his fate.”
“I’ll get Sam to compliment him when you’re done.”
“Perfect.” Ellisandre smirked and headed toward the door. “See you this afternoon.”
Ellisandre
Driving Ash, Alice, and Dana to the Estate wasn’t a cover so much as a convenient way of wrapping up multiple goals and hiding the primary motive behind the secondary.
The Estate stood on expansive forest acreage. The drive up to the main residence was at the end of over half a mile of private drive, all through land owned by the Reevesworths. Dana grew quiet in the back seat as the trees arched overhead. Alice, in the front passenger seat, looked back and then unbuckled. Ellisandre glanced over, still guiding the vehicle over the gravel road.
“She’s scared,” Alice said, and put her heels up on the seat and pushed back, sliding head and shoulders first through the space between the front seat and into the back.
Ellisandre raised their arm, and helped with leverage. “Don’t do that in front of Linda.”
“As if,” Alice said.
Ellisandre checked the rearview mirror. Alice pressed her body around Dana’s, offering comfort and protection. In the very back seat, Ash slept slumped against a pile of equipment. He’d probably stayed up all night prepping. Ellisandre made a mental note to wake him with a can of root beer from the cooler. He would be a pill until his blood sugar was restarted.
“Thinking of something?” Alice asked Dana, pointing at the woods.
Dana kept her eyes on the window. “There were trees, when we were running away.”
“Because trees are a good place to hide,” Alice answered. “That’s why Uncle Richard has lots of trees around his house out here.
Dana thought over what Alice had said. “Is that why you drove through the dark trees?”
“Yep. And Ash told us where to go. If there were lots of trees, it was harder for them to try to find us from above.
“So they can’t find us here?” Dana said.
“Nope. There’s a lot of things here to protect us, just like at home,” Alice said. “That’s why our 5N friends are here. Remember, we were here for Christmas? It was safe then.”
Dana took a deep breath and sat up straighter. “But Uncle Richard and Aunt Linda were there then. And Aunt Hypatia and Uncle Matthew. When will you teach me to shoot like you?”
Alice’s eyes met Ellisandre’s in the rearview mirror. “Guns are too big for your hands,” Alice said. “You have to be calm when you use them. If I hadn’t been calm, I could have hurt you, instead of just shooting the guy who wanted to hurt us. You have to train your mind. First, we have to make sure you know how to use your phone, your headset, and how to get out of grapples. Then we’ll work with you on stun guns and kubotons. Remember how I used the phone to talk to Ash while we were running, and I did a lot of things with money and watching people?”
Dana glanced toward Ellisandre. “I remember. Will it take a long time to learn all that?”
“For you, I don’t think so,” Alice said. “But most of the time, those are the things you’re going to need to protect yourself more than guns. Guns are dangerous. If you have friends around, you might shoot the wrong person. What if a bad guy showed up and you had a gun but everyone was moving very fast and you shot Ash or Aunt Linda instead of the kidnapper?”
“I’d hate myself,” Dana said.
Alice squeezed her hand. “That’s why we train our minds first. And we learn a lot of other things. Daddy Ellisandre has a lot of training. And they always use the other skills first.”
Ellisandre suppressed a smirk at Alice referring to them as Daddy. This was certainly an interesting development. They weren’t mad about it.
“How much training?” Dana asked, looking forward.
Ellisandre met Dana’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “For learning to use a gun?”
