Free Catherine Nelson - Zoe Grey 02 - The Trouble with Theft by Catherine Nelson

used to buy when I was making
six figures a year. I had never thought it was possible, but I actually hated
her more just then.
    “What are you doing
here?” she asked. Her voice had gotten a little more nasally with age, I
noticed happily. “And what happened to your face?”
    “I’m actually in the
middle of something. Excuse me. Come on, Ellmann.”
    I grabbed his arm and
turned, starting back through the crowd.
    “Now, is that any way
to treat an old friend?”
    “We were never
friends,” I said, turning back to her. “Don’t tell people that.”
    She grinned; it was
that disgusting I-know-something-you-don’t grin. It always made me want to hit
her. That’s something that hadn’t changed.
    “Aren’t you going to
introduce me to your friend?” she asked, eyeballing Ellmann like she was
starving and he was a steak on a dinner plate.
    “No,” I said. “Excuse
us.”
    I took Ellmann’s hand
as she offered him hers.
    “I’m Priscilla. Zoe
and I went to school together.”
    “I’m Alex Ellmann. I’m
her boyfriend.”
    I was annoyed he’d
responded. It was like letting her win. The whole point of an archnemesis was
to not let her win. Duh.
    “Geez, Zoe, why do you
call your boyfriend by his last name?” she whined.
    I couldn’t keep my
eyes from rolling. I’d lost track of how many times people asked me that, and
how many times I’d heard it today alone. In my opinion, which I held above most
others, it was no one’s freaking business what I called my boyfriend.
    I was about to respond
when I saw an employee pushing a mop and yellow bucket around the corner from
the bathrooms. It was Dix. I knew he’d bolt if he spotted me. I wanted to get
to him before he could get too far. I shifted slightly so Ellmann blocked me
from his view, which bought me some time.
    “Listen,” Priscilla
went on. “I just moved to town. You may remember, I graduated high school a
year early and got a full scholarship to Stanford. After that, I went to law
school at Harvard. I just started with a large, prestigious Denver-based firm
that has an office here in Fort Collins. I’ve been working for about a month
now, and I caught my first really big case today. It’s the kind of case that
will get me noticed. I plan to work here for a couple years then transfer to
the larger Denver office, where I’ll take on big, public cases and become a
partner by the time I’m thirty.”
    The barista called a
drink that was apparently hers. She went to get it, giving me the perfect
opportunity to get away from her. But I found I was rooted to the spot. I
suppose I was in shock. I’d always known Priscilla was intelligent, which made
me hate her even more, because being intelligent just made being mean easier
for her, but I was still surprised to hear how accomplished she was. What kind
of world is it that mean people can succeed like she had?
    Coffee in hand, she
returned.
    “So, what are you
doing now?” she asked.
    I had nothing to say.
I wasn’t married; I didn’t have kids; I didn’t even live in any of the houses I
owned. I didn’t have a college degree, never having gone back to finish after
quitting for a doomed relationship. I didn’t have a career, having quit the
only career I’d ever had twice—once five years ago in order to move back to
Fort Collins and put my brother back on the straight and narrow, and again four
weeks ago when I’d started the bond enforcement thing. Technically, I still
worked for White Real Estate and Property Management one day a week (too many
clients threatened to walk away if I quit entirely), but I might have accepted
one of Mark White’s promotions had I known a few weeks later I’d run into my
archnemesis.
    “Zoe is in law
enforcement,” Ellmann said, putting his arm around my shoulders.
    Ellmann had clearly
picked up on what I wasn’t saying. The “law enforcement” thing was a bit of a
stretch.
    “Really?” Priscilla
said, obviously skeptical.
    “Yes, and she’s