Page 31 of Bishop's Queen

“You must be the new muscle around here.” Hipster Kid shot his hand out. “Manny, assistant to the stars, at your service.”

“Oh, brother,” Ella mumbled, nuzzling the squirrel.

“To the stars?” Bishop didn’t know who to focus on. Maybe Ella had an Eco-Ella camera set up to catch this craziness, and he didn’t know it. Wouldn’t her fans go nuts for this? Or would that be more reality TV?

“Well,” Manny said, “I’m also Ella’s number-one fan, and she’s my biggest star. But my clientele is growing. Would you like my card? Do you have any pets?”

“A dog. But Brick’s good.”

Ella beamed. “You have a dog?”

“His name is Brick?” Manny questioned but shook Bishop’s hand. “Who names their dog Brick?”

Surrounded by Little Kitty, Tiny Tike, and Furry Baby, Bishop could ask the same thing about names but decided not to. “There’s been other muscle?”

Manny laughed with an amused smirk. “Jay would like to think so.”

“The scrawny surfer guy?” Bishop asked, referring to the guy who was featured in some Eco-Ella posts. “Hewas the muscle around here?”

“The boyfriend,” Manny offered.

“Ex-boyfriend andassociate,” Ella piped up, focusing her attention on the squirrel. “My pets are my only significant others in my life, thank you very much. And Jay works at Eco-Ella. Let’s not forget that. He actually has a job.”

“So this is your…squirrel,and you have more dogs too?” Bishop took in the size of the condo. It was a one-level, apartment-style home—nice, spacious, and environmentally friendly. But large enough for a zoo?

“Nope,” Ella said.

“They’re her neighbors’.” Manny offered the squirrel a treat. “She talked them into adopting the dogs so they wouldn’t be far apart.”

“These cuties are obviously related,” Ella pointed out.

“Obviously.” The place was immaculate for the number of animals that were in there. His place… maybe Brick slobbered more than her pets. How was her apartment so clean?

She held out the rodent as it gnawed on the treat Manny had given it. “Would you like to meet Tiny Tike?”

“I’ve met squirrels before. Thanks.”Thatwas not in her folder. Crazy was well beyond the cat level of nuts, seeing as she had a varmint on a leash.

“He doesn’t understand.” Ella sat up and, finished with the treat, Tiny perched on her knee. “Just like you didn’t get the bees. Which is why I quit explaining.”

“He doesn’t get the bees?” Manny repeated, looking dumbfounded.

“You’re right. I don’t. I wouldn’t.” Bishop clapped to punctuate his agreement, but that sent the dogs whirling around him. “Easy. Okay. Stop. Down.”

Manny stepped forward. “Down.”

The fluffy white dogs stopped and obeyed the hipster’s one quiet word. The kitten meowed as though it was having a good laugh at him.

Manny picked Tiny up. “We need to get going. Oh, and nice job firing everyone up over Vamanato last night. I could hear the interwebs sharpening their pitchforks.”

What?Bishop pulled his phone out, quickly Googling to see what kind of online, riot-inducing post Ella had done to take on a corporate behemoth like Vamanato.

VAMANATO POISONS YOUR CHILDREN. AGAIN.

Nice headline… He clicked on the post as Manny and his animal crew made their way to the door. Ella followed, chatting about how successful last night’s post had been.

Bishop’s screen switched to the post their conversation was about, and there was Ella, sitting on a bed, frozen in a video thumbnail, ready to talk. There were tens of thousands of likes and hundreds of comments and shares.

His gaze went back to the image of her sitting, almost innocently, in the middle of a king-size bed on her white comforter, surrounded by bright-turquoise pillows.

---