Taking Shots (Assassins, #1)(160)

When she passed by the guy that had hit on her, he gave her a dirty look, not that Elli cared much. Elli made her way into the newly spring day, the warmth of the sun warmed her face bringing on a small smile, even though she knew it would be cold as all get out the next day.

Gotta love Tennessee weather, people always say, “If you don’t like the weather just wait, it’ll change by tomorrow.”

Elli made her way up the block, then onto the next before reaching the arena. After riding the elevator up to the business part, she stepped off going towards her office that was right beside Bryan’s. Her assistant Janet stood with a big welcoming grin on her face. Elli liked Janet, she was a good hardworking girl, and always tried to make Elli happy.

Even though, lately, there was no making Elli happy, she was depressed. She probably needed medication for it.

“Hey, Ms. Fisher! You had two new calls, one from your mother and the other from your daddy. Mr. Fisher also came to see you but I informed him you were out and he said to tell you that he would talk to you at the game tomorrow night. You have two new faxes, and six new emails.” Janet said in a hurry. Elli had learned to listen closely when Janet talked, not only was her accent thick, but the girl spoke so damn fast, it made Elli’s head spin.

“Thanks so much, Janet, here’s your lemonade since you don’t like coffee, which still makes me wonder if I should keep you as an assistant,” Elli said with a small smile. Janet grinned and handed her the faxes before taking her drink.

“Coffee is gross; I’ll stick to lemonade and mountain dew, thank you.”

With that she turned on her heels, making her way to her desk. Elli smiled, closing the door behind her as she walked to her desk, laying her things down as she made her way to it. Everything from her office at Time Standing Still had been moved here since Harper had taken her office and Alice took Harper’s. With Harper running the studio now, Elli didn’t feel it was right to have all her things there. She still took pictures for her regular customers, but the new ones went through Harper.

Elli missed her regular work at the studio, but was excited for the new possibilities the Assassins headquarters held. She was a co-owner of the Nashville Assassins at the age of twenty eight years old, what else could she ask for?

Oh, there was a list, but Elli couldn’t think of that right now.

She laid the faxes on her desk, before pulling up her emails. They were all from customers at the studio, so she answered them quickly saying she would get back to them when she was at the studio, which would be the next day. She had deliberately ignored the faxes, because she had a feeling one of them held the same bad news the ones before had said. She picked it up, and her heart fell at the words.

Ms. Fisher,

I’m sorry, but the house you and Mr. Adler wanted has already been sold. I don’t know why you send me a fax every week asking if the house has came back on the market, because I’m pretty sure the people that bought it, bought it to live in it. I’m sorry, but I will no longer be answering your faxes.

Have a nice day,

Jill Mancina

Bitch.

Elli never did like that woman. She thought as she shredded the fax before reading the other one, that one was only the confirmation of someone buying her seats for the game the following night. When she turned back to her desk, she looked at her laptop screen, dazing out into space. So much had changed in the months since breaking up with Shea.

Elli hated change.

When a tear fell on her hand, she looked down at it, hating it for falling. How could she be so weak? Her mother was right; it had been two damn months! It was time to get over him!

Elli wiped her face, picking her phone off the desk, pushing the unlock button so her wallpaper would come on, and Shea’s beautiful face would be looking up at her. His eyes were so dull, even though they should have been the brightest thing in the picture.

She would try to get over him tomorrow; today she would stare at his picture.

Again.





Getting over Shea day didn’t really start out the way she hoped it would. She was still living out some of the plastic bags that lined the floor of her living room, and when she was looking for one of her belts, she found a pair of Shea’s boxers. As she held them in her hands, all she could do was imagine him wearing them, running through the apartment trying to pack before leaving for a road trip. It didn’t matter how hard she tried to throw them down and walk away, instead she held them close to her chest as the tears ran down her cheeks.

She had spent the morning bawling her eyes out.

When she finally got herself under control and dressed, she made her way through the house. Going through the motions of her mornings; feeding Adler, cleaning up the mess from the night before, and eating a banana. Adler was just as depressed as she was, he would look at her like “Hey, where’s Shea? I miss him.” Elli found herself answering him sometimes too, saying “He kissed our sworn enemy, he’s dead to us.”

Even though God and everyone knew that wasn’t true. Shea would never been dead to her, no matter how hard she tried; she couldn’t get him out of her head. There wasn’t a day that past where she didn’t think about him, miss him.

After cleaning up and making sure Adler was good for the day, she made her way downstairs to her truck to leave for the studio. Hoping the day would get better.





Elli was working on scheduling some of her regular clients when Harper walked in. She held a coffee for Elli and one for herself as she sat down in the chairs in front of her desk. Elli smiled, hanging up the phone and taking the coffee from her. “It’s good seeing you behind your desk again, Elli. I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing you there.”