She gasped with horror when she saw Eleni brandishing the stem of a broken wine glass, the same one she had used to splatter her dress with.
Eleni’s eyes were riveted on her. Sabrina had the sickening certainty she had hunted her down.
The lipstick woman wisely fled through the door.
Sabrina’s eyes trailed Eleni’s advancing form in the mirror. She was frozen, like a prey not daring to move, afraid of causing a predator to pounce.
Run! Her mind screamed, but it was as if she was paralyzed by terror and disbelief. This woman couldn’t possibly be planning to do what Sabrina thought she was going to do. It was all posturing.
Did she hurt you?
Luca’s question rang in her brain. She had thought nothing of it back then. Now she scanned the countertop feverishly, looking for anything which she might be able to use to defend herself.
Shit! No dispenser bottles lying around. The palace might be hundreds of years old, but the fixtures were automated. Her handbag was lying on the countertop between two sink bowls. She groped for it slowly, her back shielding her stealthy maneuver.
This particular powder room was a bit way off from the ballroom, thus the dearth of users. Of course the only time Sabrina wished it was full was the only time it had to be empty.
She could do the surprise attack. Whirl around so fast and bop Eleni on the head with her handbag so she could make a run for it.
She breathed deeply, willing her fibrillating heart to slow down. At the count of three. One, two, thr-
“Oh, yes! Give it to me! Oh, yes!”A woman’s throaty cries ruined her momentum.
Shit! Chase’s ringtone. He had programmed it into her phone as a joke and Sabrina kept forgetting to change it.
“What the hell is that sound?” Eleni growled, distracted. She tipped her head, trying to echolocate the source of all the panting and moaning .
The phone continued on its loop. “I’m coming!”
Eleni’s eyes grew wide in shock as the woman in her ringtone screamed. Sabrina took advantage of Eleni’s continued distraction. She whipped around, drew back her arm, aimed for Eleni’s head, and threw her handbag with all her might.
It hit Eleni with a thunk. The woman on the phone was cut off abruptly mid-orgasm. Sabrina dived to retrieve her bag. There was a ripping sound, another insult sustained by the poor couture gown.
“Oof!”
Eleni tackled her, now straddling her back. Sabrina managed to twist her torso, trying to dislodge the mad woman. But she only got her half-off.
Eleni clambered back, this time her weight landing squarely on her abdomen. Eleni lifted her right hand with the pointed stem, ready to strike. Sabrina swung her left arm in an angle and awkwardly delivered a chopping blow. Eleni dropped the glass.
With a howl of rage, the madwoman dropped both her elbows, swung low and forward, and pulled on Sabrina’s hair.
Sabrina screamed, pummeling Eleni on the chest. “Let me go, you bitch!”
Sabrina smelled the alcohol on her breath and almost gagged. Eleni’s pupils were dilated with mad rage. Eleni tugged on her hair harder, lifting her head inches off the floor, bringing their faces close together. Their eyes locked, and then Eleni froze. Her face blanched and suddenly she released her hold on Sabrina like she had turned poisonous. Her head thudded painfully on the cold marble floor.
“Just who the hell are you?” Eleni said in Greek, looking dazed. Eleni was regarding her wildly, as if she had never seen her before.
Sabrina wasn’t sticking around to answer her question. She roughly shoved the bewildered Eleni off her and grabbed her handbag.
Chapter 19
“About time you showed up.”
“I had to wait for Mother to wake up from her beauty sleep.” Markos Konstantinos gulped the whiskey in his tumbler neatly and banged it on the mock-up bar counter top, one of the four scattered around the ballroom. “She wanted to meet up with some guests from Spain.” He pushed on the cuff of his shirt and glanced at his wristwatch. He had an unusually distracted air about him.
“You in a hurry?” Where the hell was Sabrina? Luca wanted the whole damned thing to be over with. His height made him easy to home in on Mrs. Konstantinos on the other end of the ballroom. She was ensconced in a tête-à-tête with some matrons.
Relax, Argenti. He wouldn’t leave without his mother.
“I’m leaving Mother with the twins. Something came up.”
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
He had known Markos since they were children, and he could always spot his tell. He’d look you straight in the eye and then when he thought he had you convinced he was telling the truth and you looked away, he’d cast you a furtive sideways glance. Just to check you hadn’t caught him out.