Page 65 of Viper

“I will. Butyou’rethe one in his sights. He’s focused on you.”

Hearing the bell above the door chime, Ella glanced over. Her body went still. Because Maxine and Dionne were filing inside the store. Wonderful.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ella’s demon sneered, in no mood to tolerate either female right now. It was clear by their tight expressions that they weren’t here to browse the shelves or buy something. And while there was nothing particularly confrontational about their posture, it was veryall business.

Moving a little stiffly, they purposefully made a beeline for the counter. Reaching it first, Maxine gave a strained smile. “Ladies,” she greeted simply. “Dionne and I would like to apologize.”

“You would?” asked Ella, because it didn’tseemas though either of them truly wanted to.

“Yes. My behavior last week was uncalled for. I was simply defensive on hearing you accuse my daughter of theft. But she has since admitted to me that the accusation was not actually false.”

Ella exchanged a quick look with her sister.

“All right,” said Mia.

Dionne did a little head flick that made her hair bounce. “I’m sorry for taking the cash. I shouldn’t have. And I should have apologized before now so, yeah, sorry.”

Neither of them are being sincere, Mia telepathed.

I know, it’s weird that they’d even come here.“Apologies accepted.” Not entirely true, but there was no sense in dragging out the conversation, so it was best to round it up.

Maxine’s mouth curled into a placid smile. “Thank you. For Jocelyn’s sake, I would like for there to be no friction here.”

“As would we,” said Ella.

“Wonderful.” The harpy turned her smile on her daughter … only to see that the hellcat was idly scrolling through her cell. “Dionne?”

The hellcat didn’t look up from her phone screen as she absently responded, “Uh-huh?”

“Dionne.”

The young woman’s head snapped up. “What? What now? I said what you told me to say. Can’t we just go?”

Ella clamped her lips shut to hold back a smile.

“You’re supposed to be … ” Maxine trailed off.

“Come on, Mom, they’re not going to give me back my job.Iwouldn’t give me back my job.”

Which clearly pleased Dionne immensely, Ella noted, but the same could not be said for Maxine. “You’re right, we won’t. But we wish you the best of luck in what comes next.”

The hellcat gave a whatever shrug and then headed for the door. Maxine bounced her gaze from her daughter to Ella and Mia, clearly torn on what to do. Reluctantly, she followed Dionne, muttering something too low for the words to carry.

Watching them leave the store, Ella frowned as a thought came to her. “You know, it just occurred to me …Dionne’s had a lot of jobs.”

“Yeah. And?”

“And Maxine is always the one to get her these jobs.”

“Right.”

“And Dionne never seems to want to work in any of these places.” Or so each of her past employers had claimed when Ella spoke to them before hiring the girl.

Mia lifted her shoulders. “Yeah, so?”

“So, what if Maxine is choosing her daughter’s jobs for her? And what if it’s because she wants to use Dionne as a plant?”

---