Page 35 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“It was an old joke. Her ex-husband’s last name was Schmitt, but his first name was Conway, so, you know, Conway Twitty, but Schmitty? But we just called her Twitty—”

“What about Retty?” Ellery asked, suddenly so eager for this windfall of information that he could almost jump over the desk andsiton this woman for intel. “Do you have any background on her?”

“You can’t make me say anything!” Piper Lutz screamed. “You can’t make me sayanything! Now tell me your filthy little secret!”

Ellery blinked and had to scramble before he remembered what he’d meant by that.

“Oh,” he said, rocking backward. “Absolutely everybody in this business complex thinks of your organization as the Ku Klux Krazies. There is aplethoraof lawyers in this immediate vicinity that would love to sue you for inflicting unnecessary trauma with your little spiel. I’m a criminal attorney, so you don’t have to worry about that coming fromme,but my partner in the firm is dying for a shot at you. You’re lucky he’s not here—he would have stripped the skin off your body with his acid tongue. But seriously, nobody here likes you. By all means, take your shit and go.”

He threw all but one flier at her, and she gathered them up, stuffing them into her Coach bag before fleeing out thedoor Jade was holding open for her. They both heard the ring of the glass door to the walkway outside the office, and before the hydraulics would let it close, the clatter of her pumps as she hauled ass down the concrete-and-iron staircase next to the elevator.

The door rang closed, and they both heaved a little sigh of relief while Jade slumped against the door.

“Holy God,” she murmured. “Ellery, I haven’t seen a takedown like that since you had Jackson on the stand bleeding.”

Ellery shuddered, remembering that moment. Jackson had testified willingly, shown the wound on his back from the plaintiffs without judgment, but Ellery had never forgotten the fury that had coursed through his veins and how hard it had been to control.

This had felt worse somehow.

Maybe because Henry wasn’t able to defend himself. Maybe because Jackson was out there suffering, on a mission of vengeance, hurting inside while missing his friend, his partner, and needing so badly to get the people who’d hurt him.

It was the helplessness, Ellery realized wretchedly. The helplessness bred the fury, and the fury… he took a deep breath.

The fury bred mistakes.

“Oh, I shouldn’t have done that,” he murmured.

“I don’t know why not,” Jade said with a snort. “That was really impressive.”

Ellery shook his head. “I tipped our hand,” he said. “I just made things harder for Jackson. I just made things harder forus.” He swallowed sickly, thinking about all the things a group like this could do to the people in their office complex. “I made our entire office complex into a target for these assholes.” Oh hell. “Oh, this is bad.”

“No,” she said soberly. “I mean, yes. It’s possible they’ll take some shit out on us. But I’ll go talk to Nate, the receptionist next door, and to Rico and Derek next to them, and warn everybody. Nobody has the right to make you eat shit, Ellery. Everything that woman said was abhorrent. I’ve rescheduled everybody for today, and AJ and Crystal are still on research and backgrounds. As you can tell, it’s a slog. You call Jackson, because we’re both dying to check in with him, and then we’ll get back to work. Tomorrow we’ll make the firm run. Today we’re hunting down whoever did this to Henry. But what you just did? That was part of who weare. Like you told her—Galen would have left her in tatters. Neither one of you has it in you to lie down and take it, even if it would make it easier.”

“None of us does,” he said with a sigh. “Maybe we should have AJ take some time off research to beef up security around our building. I… I’ve got a bad feeling about these people, Jade. I just pissed them off and made it personal. You make sure the other offices know this, okay?”

“Will do,” she said. “I’ll order lunch when I get back.” She gave a little smile. “Sushi.”

Against his will, Ellery found himself chuckling. “Chopsticks only,” he said primly, and she winked before grabbing her coat and venturing into the windy bright sunshine of the post-rainy day.

Ellery sat thoughtfully down at his desk and checked his phone for a text from Jackson, pleased to see that he had one.

Just saw Cowboy’s mother. Ugh. OMW to see Henry. Talk when done.

Part of him was disappointed. He wanted to talknow,and he was not ashamed to say he wanted comfort. Dammit, the office was unnervingly silent without Henry and Galen, and Ellery’s heart hurt because he was missingfriends,notmerely coworkers, and Jackson’s voice would take some of that loneliness away.

But part of himwascomforted, because Jacksonhadtexted. Ellery knew he was on task and where he was heading.

It hadn’t always been like that. Ellery could take the win.

But he couldn’t go back to reading those dossiers with all those fake identities sliding from one picture of a smiling white woman with botoxed cheeks and streaked blond hair to another. After his confrontation with Piper Lutz, the thought made him nauseous—but also curious. Where had all these women come from? Florida State University seemed to be the epicenter, but what had happened there, and who had been involved, to send them all on a quest to ban books and bully anybody who wasn’t exactly like them?

Ellery had one major resource in this matter, and he wasn’t afraid to tap it.

Besides, his mother had a soft spot for Henry, and she’d never forgive Ellery if he didn’t update her on his injury. If nothing else, she’d already asked for his hospital room number to make sure his room was overflowing with flowers.

And she’d be really hurt if she wasn’t asked to assist with the vengeance part too.

Undiscovered Talent

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