Page 40 of The Attraction File

I watched and was able to pinpoint the minute realization hit my mother. Her eyes widened as she looked Edgar up and down. “Well, how do you do, Edgar?” She hesitated but ended up giggling and putting out her hand. He shook it as she blushed.

My mother would lose badly at poker. Badly.

She turned toward me raising her brow and dipping her head. Her grin said everything, Look who is here, Evaleen, your crush. I know it’s your crush so don’t go denying it. It’s him and he’s hot. No wonder he is the star of all your romance books.

Yup, that’s exactly what her expression said.

“I’m about to hop in the shower because I have to leave soon, so it was nice to see you, Edgar.” My mom patted him on the arm which devolved into her groping his upper arm before she finally let out a sigh and let him go. She winked at me before heading down the hallway toward her bathroom.

“You look a lot like your mom.” Edgar jerked his head toward the hall she retreated down.

I folded my arms and glared at him. “I never told you that was my mother. We could be completely unrelated for all you know. Maybe I prefer to only room with people who look almost exactly like me. You don’t know that.”

Edgar stepped closer his gaze set on me. “Evaleen, there is a reason I know that woman is your mother. It has to do with why I brought you to my office to begin with. Before things got uh—”

“Weird?”

He released a soft chuckle as he shook his head. “Yeah, kind of. I think things went sideways when porn was discussed.”

I nibbled on the tip of my thumb as the embarrassment of that moment flooded back.

“Anyway, I still want to show you what my investigator found.”

Taking a deep breath hoping I wouldn’t break into tears again, I nodded. Edgar took a seat on the couch as I showed him into the living room. I remained standing on the other side of the coffee table.

He patted the cushion next to him. “This isn’t an actual porno, Evaleen. I’m not going to rip your clothes off the moment you come to sit next to me.”

If he only knew that was a scene I wrote in one of my books called When a Laird Comes Calling. The scene began to play in my head. Now I really didn’t want to sit next to Edgar.

“Okay, have it your way.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “There is a man I have known for a long time that helps me find people. I went to school with his son. I reached out to him when Ashton went missing, hoping to find out what happened to him.”

I felt silly standing there. I moved around the table and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

“He sent me a picture today. Of Ashton. But there was someone in that photo who you might be interested in seeing.”

Why would I be interested in someone who knows Ashton? It’s not like I knew Ashton that well anyway. In the two years he worked for the company, I interacted with him only a handful of times.

Edgar reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He tapped it a few times before handing it over to me.

My ears burned and without thinking, I reached up to touch one. It didn’t feel hot to the touch but inside I was on fire. Even my eyes felt molten and they fluttered, but the only thing that came out were salty tears.

At least I was crying at the right time.

For the man in the picture on Edgar’s phone with much darker hair than I remembered, was a monster. He was hideous and disgusting, and the last person I ever wanted to see again.

The image was of them leaving a coffee shop, based on the logo etched into the glass door behind them. Ashton was sideways but even I could tell it was him. There was another man with them, with disheveled brown hair, but I didn’t know who he was.

The monster stared directly into the camera as if he knew his picture was being taken. As if he knew I would be the one looking at it.

I had seen that expression too many times to know what it meant and still, I kept gawking. My stomach churned like it used to but my eyes stayed locked with his. Even when my sight blurred to the point where the picture was just smears of color I wouldn’t turn away.

A hand, at least a blur of a hand, came over the phone. Edgar pulled it from me. “I’m sorry, Evaleen. But I felt you needed to see.”

I turned my head toward him but kept my eyes on his phone. “I don’t understand. Why would you . . . I don’t understand.” I shook my head and squeezed my face tight.

Not now. I needed to speak. To ask questions. To understand this. I was wrong. This wasn’t the proper time to cry. This was the time to find out how to make it all go away.

But my throat tightened so I couldn’t speak.

My eyesight unclear so I couldn’t run.

“You know him as Shane Reynolds, but his real name is Damien Rosen.”

“What? But how?” My voice was raw but I could at least get out something.

“I know what he did to your mom, Evaleen. I know a lot about Damien.” He turned to face me and took my hand in his. “I also know what he did to you.”

My jaw tightened, and this time I let the tears fall down my face. I took a breath and stood before walking to the door.

Opening it, I glanced over at Edgar. “You don’t know anything about me, Edgar. I think you need to leave now.”

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