Page 62 of Ashes of Us

The rest of the week flew by for Danica as she got back into the rhythm of working consistently again, got caught up on everything she fallen behind on and got in contact with the hotel in Seattle to confirm her and Alex would arrive Sunday night, went over what they would be discussing, what records Alex wanted made available to him, and let them know she would need a pet friendly room.

She was a little concerned about how Indie would handle six hours on a flight and spent a few hours looking up ways to make flying comfortable for her, including visiting a veterinarian to see about potentially getting a sedative or something for motion sickness, even though she loved going for car rides, not wanting to put her through being sick or uncomfortable while they travelled.

She wished they were going to Charlotte first, since it was only a two-hour flight, and wouldn't be as stressful for Indie's first time flying, but had a feeling Alex would not be open to making even more changes to the audit schedule, especially since he had been so accommodating with everything that had happened between Jasper's accident and the final day in court.

She was walking back to the hotel on Friday with Indie after bringing her to the park across from the hotel on her lunch for a pee and walk break, not paying much attention to her surroundings as she responded to a text from Emilia about their trip to Salem in the morning, when someone stepped into her path and blocked her.

She started to apologize as she looked up from her phone, but saw it was Heidi, and the apology died on her lips.

“Oh for -” Danica sighed and pushed her hair back off her face in annoyance.

“What do you want?” She noticed that Indie immediately sat on her feet, keeping herself firmly between them.

Danica wasn't sure if it was her response to Heidi's presence that made Indie, who usually loved everyone immediately, react that way, or if she picked up something about Heidi she didn't like, but she clearly was not a fan of the other woman.

“Don't you have better things to do than bother me?”

“I know you and Alex aren't really together.” She announced it like she had figured out who Jack the Ripper really was, making Danica roll her eyes at her smugness.

“Congratulations, you figured out your ex-husband was so desperate to make you fuck off out of his life, he pretended to be in love with another woman so you'd take the hint.” Danica shifted slightly on the balls of her feet as she pointed out just how badly Alex wanted Heidi gone.

“With brains like yours, I don't know why you haven't tried out for Jeopardy yet.

I'm sure you'd win back your fortune in no time.” Danica looked her over.

She seemed to be clean and reasonably well put together, so she didn't think she was living on the streets or in the airport for the last four days and wondered vaguely where she was staying.

Heidi seemed determined to ignore her sarcasm, because besides a slight frown, she didn't respond to Danica's Jeopardy dig. “Look, I just want to talk to him, that's all.”

Danica shrugged, completely nonplussed about Heidi's wants.

“Yeah, well, he's made it very clear that he doesn't want to talk to you, so I don't know what to tell you.” Heidi narrowed her eyes at that and took a step closer to her but backed up immediately when Indie let out a low, warning growl and seemed to decide to try another tactic.

“Look, I just need some help getting him to see me.” She made a weird sort of grimace, and it took Danica a second to figure out she was trying to smile.

“And since you control his schedule, I was hoping you could arrange a dinner meeting.” She held up her hands when Danica raised her eyebrow, folded her arms and let out a scoff of disbelief.

“Like I said, I just want to talk to him. If he decides he still wants nothing to do with me after, I will concede defeat, go back to London and stay out of his life.”

“Right, so let me make sure I've got this straight.” Danica was flabbergasted that this woman thought she would agree to help her do anything after the way she spoke to her every time she called and how rude she'd been on Monday.

“You want me to set up a dinner meeting with Alex for you and.

.. What? Don't tell him it's you he's meeting? Just spring you on him?”

“Exactly.” Danica stared at the woman, who looked impressed and pleased that Danica had caught on so quickly to her plan. “I just need an hour or two with him, that's all.”

“And I suppose I should make reservations at Harborlight and tell them to put champagne on ice for you, too?” Danica named the most expensive restaurant in the city, amused by the woman's audacity and decided to see how far she was willing to take this.

“Maybe I should steal the key to his condo and fill the place with roses, more champagne and some fancy French bonbons for you two while I'm at it.”

“There's no reason for you to be in his condo, but yes, a reservation at Harborlight would be perfect.” Heidi nodded happily, and it was all Danica could do not to burst out laughing at her.

Did she seriously think Danica would go out of her way to do any of that for her?

Or risk her friendship with Alex, not to mention her job, by setting all that up behind his back?

She thought her sarcasm was pretty obvious, but apparently not.

Tired of dealing with her stupidity and knowing Alex would send someone to find her if she didn't get back to the office soon, she decided to humour her.

“You know what? I'll help you.” Danica smiled at her, fully intending to go right to Alex's office and fill him in when she got back to the hotel. “As long as you swear that if he turns you down, you're on the first flight back to London and out of his life.”

“Hand to god.” Heidi held up her hand like she was swearing on a bible, but her smile was so smug, Danica couldn't help but make another dig at her.

“The earliest I'll be able to get a reservation at Harborlight is on Monday.” She informed her as she walked around her.

“I'll text you the details when I get them.

In the meantime, you should go get your nails done, those roots touched up and find a nice dress to wear, they won't let you in looking like that.”

Danica smirked as she walked away, Heidi's outraged spluttering music to her ears as she jogged across the crosswalk before the 'Don't Walk' light came on.

She entered the lobby and went to the front desk, asking if Heidi had tried to get into the hotel at all since Monday.

The desk clerk, a young girl named Sofia, checked the incident reports and shook her head.

“Nope, if she did, whoever she spoke to didn't make a report.”

Danica thanked her and made a mental note to ask security to check the cameras, wondering how Heidi figured out that she and Alex weren't seeing each other.

If it wasn't someone at the hotel who let it slip, then the only thing she could figure was Heidi had searched for her online and found Jasper's obituary, since she locked down her social media's privacy after Maverick told her most his job was googling people, but even if she had found the obituary, that didn't mean anything.

Heidi wouldn't know the state of her marriage going by that; they could have been separated or had an open relationship for all she knew.

Reaching Alex's office, she knocked on the door lightly.

They had a meeting to go over the Seattle Hotel records they had access to anyway, so he was expecting her.

When she heard him tell her to come in, she opened the door and let Indie off her leash so she could get attention from Alex, who was definitely her second favourite person.

“Guess who I just bumped into in the park?” She hung the leash up on the coat rack next to the door and walked over to the table where their laptops were set up next to one another so they could figure out what, if anything, needed to be addressed in Seattle.

“Lucy?” Alex finished petting Indie and brushed her fur off his legs with a lint roller before joining Danica at the table.

Indie seemed to realize she wasn't going to get any more love from them for the next few hours, because she went over to the bed Alex had set up in the corner for her and lay down with a slight huff.

Danica shook her head, not surprised that he went there first, as far as they knew, Heidi had gone back to London.

According to Sergeant Galvin, who had passed his evidence over to the DA and was helping them and the Sexual Assault Unit build a case against Lucy, there had been no sign of her at all and they had actually made the warrant for her arrest statewide and sent it to Florida, since that was the only other state she had lived in.

“I'm not covered in blood and mud, so no.” Danica chuckled as she woke up her computer.

“Heidi, however, is still in town, knows we aren't actually together and believes if she just had an hour or two with you, she could make you see reason and take her back. She wanted me to arrange a meeting between the two of you and keep it a secret.”

Alex covered his face with his hands and let out a sharp exhale. “Please tell me you told her to fuck off and walked away laughing your ass off.” His voice was muffled, but Danica noted that he sounded completely exasperated.

“No, I agreed to help by making a reservation at Harborlight for Monday evening.” Danica smiled at him sweetly as he dropped his hands and frowned, confusion crossing his face as he tried to make sense of what she said.

“We'll be in Seattle on Monday,” he pointed out slowly, making Danica give him a “Well, duh” look, and his expression cleared as he understood that she was setting Heidi up, then he started to laugh. “You're evil.”