“No!” I gave Elijah my answer. His plan was tempting, but there was no way I was about to trust another man I had just met, especially when he was the cousin of someone who had hurt me.
“No?” Elijah appeared too shocked by my refusal.
“Sorry, but I can’t trust you. I have just met you. How can I be sure you won't betray me or do something else?”
“I understand your concern. You can involve whomever you want in this plan to make you feel better and safer. You must have made one friend in this house,” Elijah advised. “If it’s still a no, I will leave you alone. I can handle rejections better than Nathan, so don’t be scared of refusing to go through this plan if you don’t want to.”
My thoughts flew straight to Frank. He was trustworthy and had been working long enough to know Nathan’s relatives. If he gave me the green light, I would consider it safe to proceed.
“There is one person...” I began. Without giving Elijah his name, I dialed Frank’s number. I was glad he had put his digits into my phone the day before.
My friend picked it up on the first ring. “Where are you? There is a whole search party looking for you. Are you in the estate? What exactly happened between Nathan and you? No one claims to know anything. I am dying to know, Amelia.”
“Frank. I don’t have time to explain. All I can say is that I am in hiding...”
“Gosh! Get a grip back on reality,” Frank cut me off. “Who are you playing hide and seek with? Come outside and deal with it. Hiding from the devil isn’t going to solve anything. It will only make it worse.”
“I am not playing a childish game. Trust me, I know what I am doing,” I said, quietly putting him on speakerphone. Elijah was standing next to me, and I wanted him to listen to what Frank had to say about him. “I have a quick question for you. What can you tell me about Elijah Cullen?”
Frank took a long pause before answering. He must be distracted, or it could have something to do with the person I had asked him about. “That’s a random question. He hasn’t visited for months, so I am guessing you saw a picture or heard someone mentioning him. Well, I would describe him as an art maniac, too smiley, fairly close to his Sinclair relatives, with a weak fashion sense, and too social to call himself introverted. He, however, treats everyone, including the servants, with great respect, and I would call him a fairly nice guy.”
“Great. Thanks for sharing your opinion. Elijah is right here with me, listening to our conversation,” I told Frank.
“What?” Frank’s shock and displeasure were screaming through the phone. I wasn’t proud of doing that to him, but I was in the middle of an emergency and had to do what felt right.
“Hi, Frank,” Elijah greeted Frank. “How are you? I never imagined you had such a high opinion about me. Thanks for telling her how I am.”
Frank’s fake nervous laughter took over. “That’s certainly how I feel about you, sir. These are the exact words your cousin Nathan used for you. How can I form an opinion about you when we have barely talked? Come on, you know how I am.”
“Save the explanations, Frank. Nathan is more than enough to make you miserable, so I will not get angry at you for having an opinion about me. Without wasting time, let’s get to why Miss Walter called you for.” Elijah gave me the look of approval to proceed with my questions. Momentarily, I completely forgot about why I had called him in the first place. Elijah’s gentle way of handling Frank’s judgemental opinion of him was quite impressive. He needed to teach Nathan a thing or two about treating others.
“Uh. Yes. I was about to ask another question,” I spoke, coming out of my head. “Elijah has a plan to teach Nathan a lesson that would also help support my story of being hunted by the mafia.” I continued to tell Frank everything Elijah had said. My friend asked some of the same questions I did and was satisfied with the plan much sooner than me.
“I say go for it. Elijah Cullen is our ally and the smartest man on this property and the world,” Frank opined. Hopefully, he didn’t agree to the plan just to restore his reputation. “I trust this man with every fiber of my being, and I am a true fan of his art. If it were me in your place, I would have presented him my heart. He deserves everything...”
“Frank,” Elijah intervened. “To save you some time, let me tell you that flattery doesn’t work on this art maniac. It may have something to do with my mindless smiling or bad fashion sense.”
Frank burst into laughter. “Your humor is remarkable, sir. I forgot to add how good of a comedian you are. See, Amelia. Isn’t he amazing?” His fake laugh died immediately. “Can you take me off speakerphone? I wish to have a word alone with you.”
“Sure,” I said, knowing very well what he was about to say. When I took Frank off speakerphone, he shouted profanities at me.
“Amelia, I am warning you. If you ever do this to me again, I will murder you and make sure nobody finds your body, not even the Grim Reaper. You don’t want that because your soul shall remain forever trapped in this mortal world, which is very painful for spirits,” Frank finished with a unique death threat. “Also, send me pictures of everything that goes on during this plan. I suggest you secretly ask Elijah’s men to throw at least one punch at Nathan’s face. It makes me so happy just thinking about it. Good luck, girl. I wish you success in this brilliantly evil plan. May the devil fall on his head and become an angel again.”