“We’ll let him hang himself today. But I swear to you, should he get on my nerves today, I won’t be responsible for what happens. Have you heard from that man at his place? Fred Snyder?” Bentley flushed, and she smiled at him. “I’m an old woman, Bentley, and have heard a little about men.”
“Mr. Delaney has had sex with him recently. Fred is…he is becoming very sick of the man and wishes to leave his employment. The women are fine, he says, but not Delaney. What shall we do?” Evie wasn’t surprised to hear that about Delaney. The man was sick and had to take drugs too. She knew a great deal about the man that no one else was privy to. “He wishes to quit, and I can’t say that I blame him.”
“Send a car for him. Tell him to meet the car at…I don’t know, you arrange that part. Have him go to the house in Paris. He should be safe there until this is over. The butler there passed on a few weeks ago, and I’ve not even looked into replacing him.” Bentley told her he’d take care of it as soon as Mr. Delaney left. “No. Now. He can cool his heels. I just wish it was raining on his sorry ass.”
Ten minutes later Fred had his arrangements set and Evie was in her parlor. A wooden tea trolley had been set up, and the camera’s that had been set up in this room without her permission were staring right at her. She was going to take care of those too when Joel left. The nerve of the little pisser to spy on her. Soon, she kept telling herself. Soon she’d be talking face to face with her little Addie.
“Mrs. English-Simon. I thought you’d forgotten about me.” She told him she’d tried, but he kept coming back. “I wish I knew why you disliked me so much. Whatever have I done to you? We’re going to be related by marriage as soon as I find—”
“Cut the shit, Delaney. I don’t dislike you at all. I loathe you. What do you want? And if this is about my Addie, then you’re wasting your time. Again. I’ve told you that I don’t know where she is, and nothing has changed since yesterday.” He sat down and leaned against the back of her sofa like he owned the place. “What do you want now?”
“I’ve come to ask you again where you have her hidden. And I will continue to do so until I get her back where she belongs. I know that you have something to do with her being gone. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll find out. And when I do, there will be hell to pay. By both of you.” She only stared at him and sipped her tea. “She’s going to be my wife. Come hell or high water, I’m going to marry her and then fuck her. You should know that I always get what I want.”
“Do you?” Evie looked at Bentley, and he nodded to her. “Do you really? And the woman you wanted several weeks ago? Did you get her? Or the man from three nights ago? Did he come to you willingly, or did you have to pay him after you raped him in the back of your limo?”
Delaney paled and sat up straighter on the couch when Bentley handed him a thick file, filled with all sorts of photos…all of them of Delaney and all of them with him and some other person in a compromising position. She could have had recording devices planted too if she wanted, but preferred the old fashioned method of cameras. For now at least.
“Where did you get these?” She noticed that he didn’t deny any of them, but stared at a few like he was memorizing them or something. “This one shows my best side. I’d like to have a copy of this one, if you don’t mind. But as far as forcing anyone? No, I didn’t have to. And you won’t be able to prove it even if I did.”
She knew the moment that he found the letter from the woman in the pictures. It was a signed document that stated that not only had Delaney raped her, but had given her cash to keep her from going to the police. The money that he’d given her was there as well, all five grand of it.
“That poor girl is not going to be easy for you to find, Delaney. I’ve taken her under my wing and she’s going to be safe until such time as I can have you taken care of.” He asked her what that was supposed to mean. “And you might need to find another bed partner in the way of a butler. Mr. Snyder has left your employment as well. Poor man couldn’t take it any longer.”
“Who?” She told him who the man was. “Fred won’t leave me. I have enough dirt on him to keep him under lock and key for a good long time.”
Evie sipped her tea and then ate a scone while he stared at her. She wasn’t worried. Fred was on her private plane right now. The man was so happy to be gone from the house that he’d left immediately, and when he’d been picked up by her car, her driver said he was dancing. He, too, would sign a document telling all that he knew about the man in front of her.