Page 97 of Fate's Unseen Shadow

“But now Teddy’s dead.” Ella looked at the paperwork laid out across the coffee table. “All my stock goes as a donation to Children’s Hospital if I die.”

“Exactly. Such a waste,” Julia murmured, her eyes turning toward the building, now lit up and pretty in the darkening night sky.

“What we’re doing is wasting time. I doubt your little boy toy will miss you. Too bad you didn’t look this good when I was screwing you. Being a suspected murderer suits you.” Matteo laughed at Julia’s jealous huff. “What? You can’t say she doesn’t look better than before.” He kissed her. “But no one looks as good as you.”

Julia ate up that compliment and kissed him harder.

Even knowing they’d been together for so long and Ella was the strange addition, her stomach revolted at the sight. She closed her eyes and laid her head back on the sofa, breathing through her mouth so she didn’t smell Davies’s blood, spreading across the floor.

Her only hope was Walker. She wasn’t Wonder Woman. She couldn’t get out of zip ties around her wrists. Not sitting on a sofa in front of two people with a gun, ready to kill her.

At some point, they’d want her to sign the paperwork, and they’d have to release her hands, but then what? Overpower them and escape? Her only option was to keep stalling and hope—she crossed her fingers—that Walker was a greedy enough jerk to take the money and tell Damon where she was and what Matteo had planned.

She lifted her head, torn. She wanted to live, but she didn’t want Damon to die. What if this entire thing went wrong?

Shaking her head, she refocused on Matteo. She would not play what-if games like that.

28

“Tell them to park on the south side. Her condo overlooks the CS Building, and we can’t risk being seen. If she’s dead because you made me wait?—”

“Stop,” Xavier demanded. “We’re better together and almost there. Donotgo inside.”

Damon ground his teeth and continued to pace outside Ella’s apartment building, Xavier keeping him on the phone to stall him into not going in on his own. He knew the reason but hated waiting.

Finally, thirty minutes later, the rest of the crew pulled up. Slater and Ryker in Slater’s car and Xavier in Ella’s sedan.

Jeff pulled into a spot behind them. He rounded the front of his patrol car and pointed at Slater as he headed down the sidewalk. “You’re a stupid piece of shit for driving that way. No lights. Over a hundred.”

“Write me a ticket,” Slater shot back, pulling out his gun. “Ready?” he asked Damon.

Xavier pulled out his as well. “I’m going in with him. You stay out here in case they run.”

Slater frowned but didn’t contradict him.

Ryker flew out of Slater’s car, holding up his phone. “It’s Walker. He called Cager, and Lacy gave him my number.”

Damon snatched the phone and flipped it to speaker. “Walker?”

“Shut up and listen. Yeah, I took her. Wrecked your car and brought her to Atlanta.”

“You’re dead.” Damon took a breath to tell him exactly how he’d kill him?—

“Wait!” Walker said. “I called to help. But before I tell you anything, I want full immunity from the cops and you four. I can tell you where she is, who’s there, and their plans. But I’m not giving that over without a few promises.”

“Fine for us,” Damon agreed, staring hard at Jeff. “Are you in, detective?”

Jeff wrestled with the idea for three solid seconds before nodding. “Fine. Where can we locate her?”

“I don’t have her. They do. But they gave me two hundred thousand, and she said she’d make it a million if I found you and gave you the information. Can she do that? Can I get my million?”

“Yes,” Damon said, impatient. “Where is she?”

“I want it right now.”

“And I want her!” he snapped.

Xavier took the phone from Damon’s hand. “You’re about to break it.”

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