TEN
Ellie didn't say anything as they left the courthouse, and Duo was glad because he didn't want to talk to her anyway. Listening to her pleas to the judge to save her from prison because of Mia infuriated Duo after what she had said when she left them at the tower in Sector 13. To keep her from being sent to prison, he had paid nearly the entirety of the money he had saved to afford even half-days in a pre-school for their daughter, and now he barely had enough left on his card to afford the light rail back to Sector 4. Duo didn't even want to sit by her in the rail car, but men were watching her with predatory interest, so he couldn't leave her on her own. Wisely, she didn't try to talk to him all the way back to Le Beau Papillon.
When they reached the restaurant and entered through the back door, Madame Chantal and Rogelio were on their way out to visit the market in Sector 5. They gave Duo a subdued greeting before leaving, and neither spoke to Ellie. Ellie didn't seem to care. In fact, she had rudely ignored Madame Chantal, and that had Duo wondering how bitterly they had parted ways when Ellie quit her job in the nightclub.
He led her to the apartment above the restaurant, and after entering, he closed the door and turned to face her.
She was looking around the apartment. "I didn't know this place was here. I will enjoy living here."
"I'm not going to impose on Madame Chantal longer than necessary," Duo told her through gritted teeth. "We will find a place of our own."
Ellie huffed. "Are you making plans for me now?"
"You are my wife. Do I really have a choice?" Duo must have been naive to believe that Ellie hadn't found some way to make their marriage official.
"I had to do it," she said with a sniff. "Do you think the government would just sign over your benefits without proof of our marriage?"
"How did you do it, Ellie? How did you have the records changed to prove that we are married?"
She tossed back her hair. "It was easy." Taking off the shirt he had lent her to cover her indecent gown, she thrust out her bosom. "I gave the clerk in the records office a sight he'll never forget." She cupped her breasts and lifted them. "You saw how it worked on the judge."
"What worked on the judge was your lawyer's sensible argument." Duo had to admit that Hilde had done a good job of countering her own fiancé's attempt to put Ellie in jail. He had been shocked to see Ellie enter the courtroom with her, and he could not imagine what passed between them that made them look as though they would rather be anywhere than with each other. He wasn't going to ask Ellie what they discussed. He would rather never know.
Ellie smirked at him. "Did you enjoy watching that woman flirting with the man that sent you to prison?"
He hadn't seen any flirting, and he knew that responding to her goading was what she wanted. "We are not talking about her." Duo didn't know how Ellie had discovered his relationship with Hilde after it had ended before she forced her way into his life or why she would use it against him.
Ellie laughed. "You should have seen the look on her face when she found out we were married all the while you were screwing her."
Duo clenched his fists at his sides, wanting to strike her. In Hilde's eyes now, what they had was a tawdry affair. There was no way he could ever convince her of his innocence now.
She glanced at his hands which he relaxed. He wasn't going to hurt any woman, not even Ellie. When he didn't say anything, she looked around the living room. "Where is Mia?"
"She is at the park playing with a friend."
"How sweet! I'm happy she has someone other than that pathetic toy you fished out of the trash for her."
He couldn't argue that the toy wasn't pathetic, but it had been the best he could do at the time. And Mia loved Teddy.
Smiling seductively, Ellie put her hands on Duo's chest and slid them upward until she had laced her fingers behind his neck. She pressed the length of her body against him. "We've never had time alone like this. I want to show you how much I appreciate what you did for me."
Disgusted by the sight of her and repulsed by her suggestion, Duo pushed her back. "Get cleaned up and then we're going to talk." He pointed in the direction of his room. "There is a bathroom with a shower attached to my room. I'll be out here waiting for you to finish."
He watched her walk away, his eyes drawn to the exaggerated sway of her hips which she intended and then he looked away when she glanced at him over her shoulder, her lips curved in a knowing smile. She ran her tongue around her lips as her gaze roved over him. "Why don't you join me? We can share the hot water like we used to, but this time we won't have to hurry."
He wasn't tempted by her. "Get it done. I don't want Mia to see you like this."
"I'll bet your Teuton whore is crawling over her man as we speak," taunted Ellie. "You didn't see how they were looking at each other. If you change your mind, I'll be happy to give you whatever she's giving him."
She disappeared down the hallway and Duo wished he could get the images she had just given him out of his head. But how could he when he had spent most of the morning watching Hilde's performance in court. He hadn't known when Ellie would be arraigned, so he had watched her argue for a couple of teenage boys who had been caught selling drugs. He had just settled into a seat in the back of the courtroom when she walked in with her clients, just kids who would never be able to afford a lawyer, certainly not the professional, smartly dressed woman that was representing them. Hilde wore her longer dark hair in a no-nonsense bun, and Duo stared at her back most of the time she had been in court, but she looked even thinner than he had thought when he saw her arriving for the gala.
As she argued for her clients, he saw glimpses of the woman he remembered, the woman who would fight for what she believed in, and in the case of the boys, the right to a second chance. She had to have been as disgusted by her second client as Duo had. The burly man had been arrested for beating his wife when his neighbors called the police. His wife was at court to support him even though she looked as though she had been worked over by a professional boxer. Hilde hadn't given even a hint of her personal feelings in her defense of the brute. Duo had hoped that she wouldn't have to defend Ellie, but she probably didn't have a choice.
Hilde must have felt humiliated to discover the lie that was his marriage to Ellie, and Duo didn't need to ask Ellie to know that she had acted the wronged woman to make her feel even worse. Duo would like to have a chance to explain, but what could he say? While she had been grieving her father's death, he was banging another woman that he had allowed to claim was his wife. The moment he took advantage of what Ellie had been offering in prison, he sealed his fate. He couldn't cry that he was an innocent victim. The only innocent victims in the entire sordid mess were Hilde and Mia.
Ellie took a long shower and, having lost patience, he was about to go into the bathroom to drag her out if necessary when she sauntered into the living room combing through her wet hair. She was wearing one of his shirts and a pair of his jeans, the former too big and the latter fitting her curves snuggly although she had to roll them up.
"I need to get my clothing back from Robert," she announced when she caught him looking at her hips.
"Stay away from him," Duo warned. "A confrontation with him won't do your case any favors."
She sat on the couch and put her bare feet on the coffee table. "You don't even know what this is about. Robert was miffed because I refused to play his perverted games. I'm not into leather and whips and inviting friends."
"I don't want to hear why you two had a lover's spat." Duo glared down at her. "I want you to tell me who put you up to taking advantage of me."
Ellie gave him an exaggerated pout. "Poor Duo. Your life is ruined. You have to keep me as your wife because if you try to divorce me, someone might discover that we were never legally married. You will end up in prison and Mia will be put in an orphanage."
Duo clenched his fists at his side. "What did I do to you to make you hate me?"
She shrugged. "I don't hate you, Duo. As for who put me up to it, after my family was killed in a raid, I found myself on the streets again. I looked up our former friends and found Mac. You remember him?"
The name recalled a weasel that could and would scam the last penny from a destitute widow. "And destroying my life was his idea?" Duo hadn't had much to do with Mac when he had lived on the streets, so he didn't understand why he sent Ellie his way.
"We had a different plan," she told him. "I would use my considerable charm," she drew Duo's attention to her breasts again by thrusting them out, "snag a wealthy patron in Sector 2 and get pregnant."
"A man from Sector 2 would never marry you," Duo scoffed.
"Exactly! But he would have to take care of me and the baby or risk being arrested and ruining his reputation in Teuton society. They don't breed with anybody but their own. Mac and I could have lived comfortably on what I could get from the Teuton bastard."
Duo thought about his interview with Otto Schbeiker. Nobody was more entrenched in that society. He even wore gold cuff links that matched the crest mounted on the wall of his study. Yet he hadn't given Duo the impression that he was against Duo's relationship with his daughter.
"The guy couldn't pop one in me," she said with a tragic sigh. "Mac suggested I get another guy to do it and claim it was his. Finding one that wouldn't want a cut was a problem until Mac saw the news story about you getting sent to prison. You were the perfect patsy."
Duo shook his head. "All that time you were pretending to help me, you were just helping yourself."
She shrugged. "We all have to find a way to make a living."
He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. "You don't have to do it by lying and cheating people. What about Mia?"
"What about her? She was the means to an end, and when my mark discovered she wasn't his, the only reason I had to keep her around was to continue collecting what little money I could from your benefits."
"You don't care anything about her," Duo accused furiously, his heart breaking for his daughter. "She loves you and misses you!"
"I need to get my things back from Robert," Ellie said, ignoring his outburst. She rose and left the room, and Duo followed her back to the bedroom they would share where she grabbed the spiked heel shoes she had worn with her dress and slipped them on. They looked ridiculous with his jeans. "I'm going to see him. I'll apologize and offer to do what he wants. He likes me. We just had a little setback."
Duo caught her arm when she tried to move past him. "You're making a mistake, Ellie. If you end up in jail again, I don't have anything left to bail you out and I'll lose what I already put up for you."
Her lip curled. "You owe me more than the pittance you paid already."
"I owe you?" Duo couldn't believe she had the audacity to blame him when all he had been was a gullible fool.
"Don't get too comfortable with Mia," she warned him as she yanked her arm from his grasp. "When I am settled with Robert I will be back for her."
Duo followed her to the door. "Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to you?"
She spun to look at him, her eyes blazing with fury. "I was happy with my family! I had put the past behind me, and then men like you took it away in an instant!"
He wanted to argue that he wasn't responsible for the deaths of her family during the war, but he had surely destroyed the lives of countless others. When he didn't respond, she wrenched open the door and left him to stare at it after slamming it in his face.
The day had started out so well for him. He had returned Dorothy's gun without incriminating himself, he had seen Mia happily playing with other children and Heero Yuy had offered him a job. Thinking of the job, Duo fished in his pocket for the card his friend had given him, and he ended up pulling out both his and Quatre Winner's. He decided to call Quatre first to ask if he and Dorothy wouldn't mind taking care of Mia until the evening. Quatre didn't ask the reason but told him that Jamila would be delighted to spend more time with her new friend. They had lunch at the hotel and the girls were swimming in the private swimming pool in their suite. Mia didn't own a swimsuit, so Duo guessed she was borrowing one from Jamila or, more likely, Dorothy had purchased one for her. Duo wasn't going to object to accepting the gift. He didn't have enough money to buy her a swimsuit or to reimburse them. He had just enough to pay the fare on the light rail to Sector 6 where he hoped he would find Heero at the colony Preventer offices.
When he stepped into the building, he passed through scanners that immediately set off a warning from the coding in his tattoos. A Preventer officer passed another scanner over him to detect any weapons, and when he was finished, he sent him to the receptionist to state his reason for being there.
Duo didn't even make it to the desk before he heard Heero's voice behind him. "That was fast. I thought you might need at least a full day to think it over."
Duo turned around. "Do you always have to creep up on people from behind?"
Heero's brows raised. "I can't very well creep up on them from the front."
Despite his irritation, Duo chuckled. "No, I suppose you can't."
"Come this way. I have a temporary office."
Given Heero's rank, he wasn't surprised that the temporary office wasn't a partitioned space in the back. He had a central space enclosed with soundproof glass. There were several large screens that flashed what appeared to be security footage from around the colony as well as two computers on the large desk.
"Do you want some coffee or tea?" asked Heero who nodded to a chair across from his desk.
"After the day I've had, I would rather have something stronger."
Heero sat behind his desk and pulled open a drawer from which he took a bottle of amber liquid. "I figured George would have something like this." He set two glasses on the desk and poured liquor in both before returning the bottle to the drawer and handing Duo a drink.
The whiskey was cheap, but it was better than having tea. "What happened to George after you commandeered his office?"
"George was happy to take a vacation for a couple of weeks while I am here."
"You think you can clean up this colony in a couple of weeks?" Duo snorted and took another drink. "Good luck."
"I don't need luck. I need you." Heero sat back in his leather swivel chair. "What happened to change your mind?"
Duo was embarrassed to admit to all his failings in the last five years, especially how he had allowed Ellie to so thoroughly manipulate him, but he told Heero anyway. Getting it off his chest was a relief even though there was nothing Heero could do to help him untangle the mess he had gotten into with Ellie. When he finished, Heero took out the whiskey and topped off his glass.
"I wish I had something stronger to offer."
Duo agreed.
"What happened to you doesn't surprise me," Heero told him. "Despite claims to the contrary, corruption is widespread on this colony." He indicated the screens where nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening on the streets or in the alleys. "What I am looking to stop won't ever show up here."
"I still don't know how you expect me to help." Duo was severely hampered by the scanners that would report his every move.
Heero reached into his jacket and tossed a small pouch on the desk, and taking it, Duo opened it to find a ring.
He upended the pouch to drop the golden band into his hand. "If this is some type of proposal, Heero, I'm already taken."
The other man snorted. "It emits a signal that will mask the coding embedded in the skin at your wrists."
He turned the ring in his fingers. "There are men that would pay a lot of money for something like this."
"I don't recommend that you put it on. Colony security will be alerted if you fell off the radar now. The pouch is lined so that it won't affect scanners, so keep it in there until you need to use it."
Duo slipped the ring back in the pouch and stuffed it in the pocket of his jeans. "What do you want me to do first?"
Heero stared at him silently for a moment and then said, "I'll understand if you want to hunt down your old friend, Mac, but we need to find out who was behind the assassination attempt on Andreas Becker last night."
Duo would like a chance to beat the shit out of Mac, but that could wait. He would put Preventer business above his personal life. "Did you find out the identity of the assassin?" asked Duo curiously.
Heero typed something into his computer and spun the screen for Duo to see. "An ex-OZ sharpshooter responsible for several high-profile assassinations during the war."
"That kind of man would demand a high price for his services," commented Duo.
"We can rule out Becker's political opponent. The man barely has enough resources to continue his campaign."
"I should check him out anyway," said Duo. "Just because he can't pay for an assassin it doesn't mean he doesn't have a backer who can."
"He's holding a rally in Sector 9 tomorrow. If you can get away from work, you can attend the rally without drawing any suspicion. Get a feel for the man, see what kind of people he draws to his campaign."
"I can tell you that already," Duo said with a snort. "Crackpots. He claims the attack on Sector 13 during the war was an inside job."
Heero raised his brows. "Does he have any evidence?"
"He claimed to have witnesses, but they never materialized."
"Interesting. You and I both know that were there is smoke, there's fire."
Duo shook his head. "He's not credible. And the truth was that OZ used the attack to draw the colony into war. A lot of men and women joined the military because of it." He thought of Hilde's passionate response to the attack and how she had turned her back on the safety net provided by her community so that she could fight to protect everyone living on the colony. That woman was almost completely gone.
Heero seemed to be reading his mind. "You haven't told me what happened between you and Hilde Schbeiker."
"What's to tell? We had a good thing, and then I ended up in prison." Duo didn't know anything more than that and he probably never would. He accepted that Hilde had come to realize that the gulf between them was too great. She was from Sector 1 while he had grown up on the streets of Sector 13.
"I spoke to her at a garden party Relena attended."
"What did she tell you?" Duo was curious if Hilde had confided in Heero about why she hadn't so much as said goodbye to him. He would have expected after what he thought they meant to each other, that she would have at least given him a chance to tell his side. But then he remembered how concerned she had been that last night when he told her about the job that would have made him a tidy profit. She probably thought he had been lying all along. After today she would be sure of it.
"I asked if she knew where you were, and she told me that she did not. We spoke briefly about your trial and she nearly went to pieces before my eyes when she mentioned her father." Heero typed on the keyboard of the other computer and showed him that screen. "What do you make of this?"
Duo skimmed through a toxicology report, most of which he did not understand. The drug was a powerful psychotic that appeared to make the user susceptible to alteration of memories. "Is this some sort of illegal drug being distributed on L2?" If so, he hadn't heard of it. Then again, Duo had lived in a very self-contained world after leaving prison.
"During our conversation, Hilde Schbeiker became agitated and took out a container of pills, but she was shaking so badly that she dropped it and when the pills spilled on the ground, I managed to take a couple for testing as I collected them for her."
"She is taking this drug?" Duo couldn't believe she would do such a thing. "Why?"
"That is something you might try to find out."
Duo shook his head. "No! I'm not speaking to her."
"I would think that you would want to know why she ditched you when you needed her."
"I know why," said Duo bitterly. "She's the heiress of a Sector 1 Teuton family, and I am nobody. My being sent to prison gave her a convenient excuse to put me in the past."
Heero put his hands on the desk and leaned forward. "We need her help, Duo. She is the only person capable of moving in those circles and I don't believe for a second that the Teuton community isn't neck deep into the corruption of this colony."
Duo shook his head. "You don't really care about helping me personally. You just need her to spy on her people."
Leaning back against the chair, Heero said, "Maybe I think both can be accomplished. You wouldn't be so defensive if you didn't still have feelings for her, so if you want to help her, start with getting her off this drug."
"There might be a valid medical reason for her to be taking it," argued Duo.
"Then you will need to find that out by visiting her doctor's office. She sees an exclusive psychiatrist in Sector 1, Walter Kroeger."
"Her doctor isn't going to talk to me about her."
Heero snorted. "I didn't tell you to make an appointment."
"That doesn't seem right." The thought of breaking into a doctor's office and going through his files on Hilde made Duo feel uncomfortable.
"Are you having second thoughts?" asked Heero. "Because if you are, return the ring and go back to that nice, stable life you have built living on someone else's charity as you chop salads. By the time your 'wife' decides to leave you and takes that sweet little girl with her, I'll be gone and so will your opportunity to right a hell of a lot of wrongs on this colony."
Duo scrubbed his face with his hands and then he said, "I can't afford to refuse." For all he knew, Ellie was planning even now with Robert Cameron to take Mia from him, and he couldn't bear to think of Mia with that woman. "I'll do what I can after I'm done with work."
"I'll let Dorothy know that your daughter will be spending a lot of time with her."
"Is she still working for you?"
Heero raised a brow. "Nobody stops working for me."
