Page 82 of Fate's Unseen Shadow

“I got the same vibe,” Ryker confirmed, closing out the accounting system and pulling up the call logs. “Just looking at the last three months, he made multiple calls to her. Daily.”

“Daily?” Ella moved closer to the screen, Damon moving with her, a hand always touching her.

“Looks like your…I don’t know what to call him without setting off the big guy or insulting you.”

Ella sighed. “My mistake?”

“Sure. It looks like Mr. Not Eight Inches and your stepmom were close. If I were a betting man?—”

“They were sleeping together,” Damon finished. “It makes sense.”

“No.” She shook her head. “That makes zero sense. And it is so gross if I was sharing a man with Julia.” She closed her eyes. “Ew. I think I’m going to be sick again.”

“No, you won’t. You’re stronger than that.”

“What if it started before my dad died, so like, if Matteo slept with Julia and she’d slept with my dad, then…”

Both men made a face along with her.

“I’m never going to get past this.” She buried her face in Damon’s chest.

He rubbed her back. “Yes, you will. If you can get past being nationally accused of murder, sharing Matteo with your stepmom will be easy.”

“I’d rather be accused of murder,” she mumbled into his chest.

His chest vibrated with a small laugh. “Now we need to figure out what to do with this information.”

“I’m going to search more into Matteo’s background. I haven’t dug deep into that yet.” Ryker swiveled around to face his computer. “Give me another day.”

“Thank you.” Damon stepped to the side and held out his hand.

Ryker shook it. “No problem. I’d expect you to do the same for me.”

“Hopefully, I’ll get the chance someday. Right now, I plan on taking Ella home.Again.”

She tried to stifle her yawn. “Please tell me I won’t have to expend energy to convince you to let me spend the night.”

“You’re going to expend energy, but it won’t be to convince me of that.” He held on to her waist and led her to the door. “See you tomorrow night at Cager, Ryker.”

“What are we going to do with the information now?” She stopped outside his car.

“We’ll see if we can link Matteo or Julia to Davies. I need to talk to Slater about surveillance and when to bring in the police. I told you from the beginning that building the case is the side of this we don’t normally do. We’ll meet with the guys and figure out our next step. But tonight, we go home”—he smirked—“sleep, and tomorrow morning I hand you the records to Cager and say have fun.”

She did a small victory dance. “It feels like Christmas Eve.”

“Glad I can make you happy.”

She tipped her face up to his. “You do make me happy.” And with the breakthrough tonight, they could see how far this relationship could go.

23

“Did she stay over again last night?” Xavier took his shot at the pool table at Cager, sinking the ball into the corner pocket. “And the day before that and the one before that. All of last week? Wait, I can answer that. Yes. I think you get the trophy for the quickest relationship from introduction to move in. It’s been what? Three weeks since Ella came here, and you’re already falling in love.”

“It’s been three and a half weeks since we meet, and about two weeks ago, I admitted to myself that I’m in love with her.” Damon leaned on the pool cue and sipped his beer. “Full out, ready-to-propose in love.” That was the only part of the situation that didn’t scare him.

“But did you admit that to her yet?”

“No. Not yet. I’d rather us find Davies and put this shit to bed before I do. I know it’s too quick to ask her to marry me. Although, I don’t think there’s any amount of time that would make me fall more in love. I asked her to move in this morning. Seems ridiculous at this point that she keeps going upstairs to get ready.”

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