Page 75 of Fate's Unseen Shadow

“We figure out where this bastard is and get him before he gets to you. Where was the third picture taken?” Slater asked.

“Columbia, South Carolina.”

“Columbia?” Slater ran his hand over his short hair. “Do you think he gave up, or is he out looking for her?”

Ryker sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I have no fucking clue.” He looked exhausted, and a good dose of guilt soured the memory of the time Damon had spent wrapped around Ella for the past few days. But until now, there wasn’t anything he could do to help Ryker.

“I expanded my program, but that’s a hell of a lot of ground to cover. I’m basically shooting in the dark.”

“Is there anything that makes us think he knows she’s here?” Xavier asked.

Ryker shook his head. “I don’t see anything. Maybe he had another job in Columbia, and he’s not looking for her. We have no idea. That’s the shitty part. But I have all six computerssearching for him right now. I’m about to reach out to a contact to help.”

“Is that safe?”

Ella’s question was overshadowed by Xavier’s snicker. “Is it your computer girlfriend?”

Ryker held up his middle finger, not turning to face him.

Slater found the topic amusing as well. “We still don’t know if you’re hung up over some old dude or hot chick, do we? People lie on the internet all the time.”

“It’s a woman. That’s whatshesaidshewas, and I have no reason to think otherwise. And yes, I’m asking her for help. I won’t tell her why unless I need to. I won’t even begin to pretend to be better than her. God, she’s good.” He shook his head, a laugh escaping. “Fucking genius.”

Slater lifted his eyebrows. “Well, um, hot genius computer women aside”—he leaned on the desk, staring at the man on the screen—“we found the stalker. We think we found the murderer. That’s part one. Part two is the why. If it’s limited to Davies, if he acted alone, there may not be a motive to worry about.”

“What do you mean?” Ella crossed her arms. “Why don’t we care?”

“It doesn’t change the outcome that he acted alone. For us, right now, we’re trying to keep you safe. We take out Davies, or get Detective Moore to take him out, and the threat is neutralized. You can go back to your life.”

“But we don’t know if it’s limited to Davies.” Xavier crossed his arms. “Is someone paying him to do this? Why?”

“My guess is that there’s a shit-ton of money at stake.” Ryker rested back in his seat and stretched his arms before interlacing his hands behind his neck. “My vote is Julia paid Davies to take you out. No offense, Ella, but she trashed you.”

“But Teddy was murdered.” Ella huffed. “She loved Teddy. I can’t see her paying for someone to kill him.”

Damon gripped Ella’s hips, keeping her back against his body. “What about Matteo?” he asked softly, his voice void of the emotion he felt.

“He has nothing to gain from it.” She looked to Slater. “His business has nothing to do with mine. He has no ownership stakes and can’t get any. He had no relationship with Teddy. So there wasn’t any bad blood that I knew of between them.” Ella twisted toward Damon. Frustration filled her expression. “I have no idea who it could be. I haven’t had any bad business deals, but that’s from my side of the table. Let me think again and see if I can’t figure out who would benefit from both Teddy and me being murdered.”

Damon pulled out his phone when it rang. “It’s the broker. I can call him back.”

“No, answer it,” Ella said, chewing on her thumbnail and staring into space.

Flipping it on speaker phone, Damon looked to Xavier. “Hello, Kurt.”

“Hey, Damon. I wanted to let you know that we got the sale.”

“Great.”

“I need you and Xavier to come by the office this afternoon and sign the paperwork.”

“We can do that,” Xavier said.

“See you soon,” Damon added, kissing Ella’s head. “I’ll be gone for a few minutes this afternoon.”

“Okay,” she replied, seeming absent from her answer as she kept her eyes locked on the picture of Davies. She played with the pearls around her neck. Damon had noticed the unconscious habit earlier today while she’d studied the accounting records. He’d let her have her thoughts while Slater continued to discuss the next step with Ryker. They needed to find this guy before he found Ella.

Slater looked over at Ella, his eyes scanning down to her feet. “Do you have any self-defense skills? Ever gone to a gym? Hit a punching bag?”

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