Bound for the Outer Banks Read Online Free PDF Page A

smiled at Angelica Bundy, Brandy Berkowitz, and Emily Gacy, the girls that made up the 1CB contingent. They gave her halfhearted smiles in return surely wondering why they had been invited but attending nonetheless because after all, a free Saturday night at the River Café with your two besties was a coup.
     
    The dinner began with an amuse-bouche of butternut squash cream and pumpkin seeds next to a venison jerky resting on top of mixed nuts. The appetizer was a wild rock lobster with hearts of palm. The chef at the River Café was considered one of the top ten chefs in all of New York City and that was apparent to Ella by each course placed in front of her. The entrée was a choice of Scottish Salmon with a port wine and shallot reduction or a Prime New York Strip Steak with a blue cheese fondue. A vegetarian alternative was offered but there were no takers. Ella was sure if Mrs. Ritchey had been an Emo type there would have been plenty of takers at her party.
     
    After an array of desserts including an apple almond tart, a goat cheese cheesecake, and a sorbet plate, it was time to open gifts. One of the last gifts Ella opened was BeBe’s vintage Finnegan’s leather suitcase. Ella knew what the case meant to BeBe and tears began to well up in her eyes. Anjelica Bundy looked at the old piece of luggage with disgust and loudly whispered to Ella that her gift would “make up for that old thing.” Ella looked up and glared at Anjelica as if she were shooting laser beams from her eyes, hopefully magnified and intensified by the reservoir of tears. Ella ran her hand over the embossed oval Finnegan’s Limited brand and smiled. She was so very thankful she’d been able to share her sweet sixteen with her parents before they were prematurely taken from her.

Chapter 4

    Ella had heard the static and click from the agent’s radio. The voice on the other end said in a staccato, enunciated rhythm, “Ro-a-noke Isl-and, North Car-o-lin-a, city of Man-te-o.”
     
    “Got it,” answered the driver as he pressed the voice button on the dash.
     
    Ella’s heart sank. Manteo? Roanoke Island? North Carolina? BeBe’s hometown? How could this be? During her myriad of interviews with the FBI’s and CIA’s joint task force she had never discussed BeBe’s home town. She had assured them that she had never been to her mother’s home state of North Carolina and that she had never met any of her mother’s relatives. The focus immediately changed to Brooklyn and her father’s few remaining relatives.
     
    At this moment Ella racked her brain to ensure she had correctly stated to the authorities that she had never divulged any information about her mother’s family to Dante Vitali. She didn’t even know most of their names! BeBe was tight lipped about her childhood with the exception of where Harmony Beauchamp was concerned. “No,” she quietly said to herself, “I never told Dante any details about my mother except that she was Southern.”
     
    Dante had always assumed that BeBe must be from Biloxi since that was where he’d met Ella. Ella was staying in “her mother’s bungalow” that she’d inherited. She still referred to it as BeBe’s bungalow especially since that’s what the little sign with the brightly painted mermaid said which hung above the front door’s transom.
     
    Ella had only revealed to Dante that her mother was from the South and that she had no living relatives. This just seemed easier than telling him the entire torrid story of why her mother left North Carolina never to return. And besides that, whenever Ella spoke of her mother she became a blubbering hot mess. She had suffered in silence since the accident and she continued to do so.
     
    Ella was certain she had never told Dante anything about Manteo. As far as he knew Biloxi, Mississippi was her only tie to the South besides her college in Savannah and Saint Stanislaus, the Catholic all girls’ boarding school she had attended in Bay St.