Justin

He's still got nothing when the afternoon finally arrives, and has reached the conclusion that there is no 'nice' way to break this to Mercedes, she going to be furious no matter what he says. He's considered every angle & his only ace is Mercedes' own privacy: if she threatens Eleanor, he could threaten to expose her. It would be a bluff: he couldn't back any of it up & Xaviera would cut him off if he ever did talk, but he might be able to scare her enough to back down. He stops by the fountain in the hotel lobby, to toss in a coin for luck: it's become a ritual with him, when his work brings him to this hotel, to spend a moment gazing into the golden ripples, wrapping himself in his most recent memory of his beloved, the taste of coffee on her lips as he kissed her goodbye, the determined look in her eye as she headed for her car.

Justin walks into the hotel room where Mercedes waits for him, and is greeted by the most beautiful sound in the world, the last thing he wants to hear when he enters a room, the sweet moan of his Eleanor when he's making love to her. He sees quickly that Mercedes is alone in the room, the sound is coming from the TV, which is showing a video of exactly what he hears, himself & Eleanor making love on the kitchen counters in Mercedes' house on Lake Tahoe. No amount of planning could have prepared him for this hideous surprise, his most private moments, the only thing in the world he held sacred, caught on tape for the perveted voyeurism of this bitch.

"How dare you tell me you 'just don't do that'? Clearly, you do it when you have to, and now you're going to do it for me." Mercedes yells at him, poking him furiously, attacking him as soon as she sees him, "I know what you're up to, when you get her to marry you, you'll have the easy life. Well, I can help you make that happen, or I can snatch it away by telling your little heiress what it is you do for a living." Justin tries a breathing exercise Gavin once taught him, to help calm his anger, but his breath is a flame & his blood is lava flowing fury through his veins, fueled by the sound of Eleanor's beautiful love cry. "Stupid fucking bitch," he snarls, angry & commanding, dominating the situation. She's got it all wrong, she thinks he's with Eleanor for her money (which he thought she lost after that fight with her mother, but it seems to keep cropping up, like it never really went away at all), and that gives Justin the upper hand. "Don't speak her name to me, your filthy mouth isn't good enough to say it. She knows what I am," he says, barking and angry. Mercedes cowers before him, but he isn't finished yet, "You cannot expose me, bitch, you don't know anything about me that she doesn't know already. Except for one thing, Mercedes, I've never told her who any of my clients are," he says with cold command, and turns away.

He's turned the tables & thrown her off, and she just stands stunned at the ruin of all her plans, based on an incorrect assumption. "I've tried throughout the years to maintain the professional nature of our...transactions, Mercedes," Justin says with the cold disdain she likely shows to her servants, "In light of recent developments, I've decided I can no longer continue to retain you as a client. Though I would prefer to not have this secret from her, I will keep silent about our...history..if you prefer." Mercedes trembles with anger, "I could fire her," she whines, trying to sound threatening. But she heeds his order not to speak Eleanor's name, Justin has maintained dominance. "Turn off the TV, now," Justin commands. He's got himself under control now, but the neverending loop of Eleanor moaning in the background keeps the flame burning beneath his simmering rage. Did this bitch actually engineer that whole trip just to get tapes of him & Eleanor?...She's sicker than he imagined. And he cannot trust himself alone much longer with her, especially if she continues to bait his anger.

At last, the TV is silenced, Mercedes clicks it off at his command. "I want you, Justin," Mercedes says, and he shudders: the thought of her skin on his, her mouth touching him, completely revolts him. "If you don't do what I want, I will fire Eleanor," she says, gathering up her own strength again to defy him, finding a new angle of attack. Eleanor losing her job was the exact outcome he wanted to avoid.

The job means a lot to Eleanor, he knows, but he's not sure how far she'd go to protect it. Mercedes starts to gloat, overconfident, thinking she's won. Justin still can't see a successful escape, a way to get out of here with Eleanor's job safe, but he won't concede victory to her yet. She taunts him, touching herself, "C'mon, Justin," she coos, and Justin's fury surges out of his control. His hand reach swiftly for her throat, her mouth opens in shock as she finally realizes just how dangerous he is. "Bitch," he snarls, ready to squeeze the life out of her for daring to intrude on his privacy & threaten his Eleanor. It's the thought of Eleanor that pulls his hands away from Mercedes' throat. Justin would not be of much use to Eleanor on death row.

She starts to cry: perhaps it's a ploy, to arouse his pity, or buy herself time. Either way, Justin can't stay in this room any longer, too much has happened today, he's too upset, too angry, lost & desperate to find any rational way out of this situation. There is only the door, which he heads for, and heads straight for the phones in the lobby, to call Eleanor and beg her to leave work right away. "Please, Elle, something's happened and I need you," he pleas, voice ragged with desperation. "I'll leave right now," she promises, not needing to be convinced.

NEXT