Fate’s Unseen Shadow (Cager #1)

Chapter 18

18

E lla sat on the steps leading up to her apartment in the dark, waiting for Damon. The boy was dead. They didn’t have to tell her that directly for her to know the worst had happened. She dropped her head to her knees, wishing she had an ounce of Damon’s strength. No wonder Damon was so protective. He dealt with this all the time. Until she’d entered Teddy’s apartment, murder and dead bodies were only on the nightly news.

Headlights slashed across the darkness, landing on her as Slater’s car pulled into a parking spot.

But Damon was out of the car before it stopped moving. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” he shouted, causing her to jump.

She stood, swiping off her bottom from sitting on the concrete. “I was waiting?—”

“To be murdered?”

“Well, that wasn’t in my plans for the night.” She crossed her arms against his anger.

Slater hopped out of the driver’s side as Damon stomped toward her. “We just got done pulling a body out of the dumpster,” Damon said, his voice even higher. “You know someone is out to kill you, and you think it’s perfectly fine to be sitting outside at midnight ?”

Slater cut off Damon when he started to step onto the curb. He smacked his hand on his chest, keeping Damon from advancing. His words were low and clipped, nothing Ella could hear but they held enough impact that Damon lifted his chin and looked away.

Xavier climbed from the back seat of the car and waited there, watching the scene.

Ella remained on the steps, giving Slater time to calm down Damon. He didn’t scare her. The opposite. Instead of fearing for herself, she felt nothing but sympathy for the man who’d been through so much trauma.

Slater said something else that made Damon move around his friend and come to the bottom of the stairs. “Ella, please come down here.” He sighed and ran his hand over his head. “I’m sorry I yelled.”

She walked down the stairs. “No one knows I’m here.”

“Maybe not, but that kid didn’t go looking for trouble. He stumbled out of that bar, drunk, in the wrong direction, and ended up dead. All I could think while pulling his body out of that dumpster was that it could’ve been you.”

She stopped on the step that made her even with him, giving him time to work through it. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

He looked away, the muscle in his jaw jumping. “You need to get some sleep. It’s late.”

“ We need to get some sleep.”

He shook his head. “I need to be alone for a little bit.”

Holding onto his shoulders, Ella leaned into him, touching her lips to his cheek. “We’re still learning about each other, and I don’t know how you process things like this, but I don’t want you to be alone. I’m not as weak as you think I am.” She looked past him to Slater, still lingering on the sidewalk. “You can go home. I have him.”

Slater arched his eyebrows. “I see. Call one of us if you need to. Otherwise, I’ll see you early tomorrow, Damon.”

“That’s fine,” Damon replied although his focus remained on her.

Would he reject her?

Was she being too pushy?

No. She wanted to be here with him. Telling him that didn’t make her pushy. It was how grown adults should communicate.

“Please, let me stay here. I want to be with you.”

“So you don’t have to be alone?”

Ella laid her arms over his shoulders. “No. So you don’t have to be alone.”

He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers.

He didn’t speak for a long moment. Finally, he wrapped his hands around her waist, lifting her easily from the steps to set her down beside him. “Is your door locked?”

“No.”

Damon moved past her and locked the door with his key. When he returned, he snagged her hand, pulling her along. “C’mon.”

Relief swept over Ella. “I figured Ryker would beat you three home on his bike, so I asked him to text me when he returned. I haven’t been waiting outside for long. Promise. But I understand that wasn’t the safest choice,” she quickly added to move past the inevitable outburst.

“It was not. Come inside.” He opened the door, then performed his nightly walk-through before meeting her at the entrance where she’d locked the deadbolts. “You can go to bed. I need to take a shower. I’ll be there soon.”

“I told Slater to leave because I’d take care of you instead of him. That means in the shower, too.”

His small smile was a victory in her book. “Slater would not climb into the shower with me.”

“Then I guess I’m a better companion than he is.”

He cupped her cheek and kissed her until she thought he’d take her up on the offer. “Go lie down. You said you didn’t know how I process things. Well, this is part of it. I have to be alone for a little bit.”

“Alright.” She waited as he left her standing in his living room and went to the bathroom. When the door closed, she climbed into his bed to wait. But the steady hum of the running water lulled her to sleep. When he sat down, the bed shifted, and she jerked awake with a gasp.

“It’s me.” He reached over for her. “And you are way too far away.”

“I didn’t want to crowd you after weaseling my way into your bed.”

“Weaseling?” he asked, a smile in his voice. “I’ve never had a woman admit to weaseling their way into my bed.”

“So, I’m just one of many?” She pushed up a little so she could see some of his face.

“You’re one out of very few.” He tugged her back to him, kissing her before tucking her against his side. “Go to sleep and prepare to sit in your apartment all day.”

“While you and the others talk to my stepmother?”

“Yes.”

With sleep harder to find this time, Ella asked, “Why do you think Julia called you? Ryker said she told the police she thought I killed Teddy. There’s no way she believes I killed Teddy. You’ve met me. I have zero killer instincts.” She chewed on her lip. “I feel like she’s beating me at a game I don’t realize I’m playing. She doesn’t have access to my money if I die. The only way she’d have access to money is through Cassin Systems. She doesn’t have a login for the system, though. That’s made me less worried about her taking over my company.”

“Could she use Teddy’s log in?”

She kissed his shoulder. “Maybe,” she mumbled against his warm skin, her mind searching for a reason behind the meeting.

“Julia sounded very upset on the phone with Xavier and desperate to find you. If there’s no way she can get to your money, maybe that’s her angle. Find you because she needs you for your money.”

“There’s no way she can get to my money. But if she did have Teddy’s login information, I’m not so sure she can’t get to Cassin Systems.” Dread filled her stomach as the thought took hold.

“We’ll stay alert with her and see if we can figure it out.” He reached for her thigh, dragging it across his lap and holding on to it. “Ella, what happened to your mother?”

“She and my father divorced when I was six. I stayed with him.” She snuggled closer. “She and her new husband and my half brothers were killed in a helicopter crash when I was thirteen.”

He held his breath. “Wow. I’m sorry. Why weren’t you with them?”

“I ask myself that a lot. But based on what you said, I shouldn’t play what-if games that won’t change the outcome.”

“That’s right.” He let his breath leave with a slow exhale, his body relaxing. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m finding the fate-thing harder to deny with you.”

That statement felt huge coming from him. “Why me?” she whispered.

“I’ve asked myself that a lot today.”

If only he’d elaborate because a few things were going on in her head when it came to him, too. Like what to do when she got back to her old life. Walking away wasn’t impossible. She could sell her stock. Pack her condo. Move in with Damon. But she what about her responsibility to the company? To the hundreds of employees who worked their asses off to make it a success? To her father?

Leaving her legacy behind to enjoy a future with Damon couldn’t happen overnight.

That left her unsettled. Right then, there wasn’t a happy medium she could accept. Remote work wouldn’t be a long-term solution, especially with Teddy gone. Cassin Systems had no leadership. The past five weeks had already damaged the company.

Damon’s alarm rang at 4:30 a.m., and sleep still hadn’t come to her.

But she pretended to be asleep as he exited the bedroom, doing his morning routine. At five, he leaned on the bed. “Ella? Baby, I’m about to leave for Atlanta.”

She sat up, her eyes burning from the long night of staring into the darkness.

“Xavier is out front. I’m leaving the car here if you need it. Please”—he kissed her—“stay inside. I know you hate it, but please. For my sanity.”

“Will you come see me when you’re done?”

“Yes.”

She climbed out of bed. “I’ll head up there now so you can lock up your apartment.”

He walked her out of the apartment and upstairs to her door. “I’ll be in touch.”

“Be safe.”

“You, too.” Damon looked over his shoulder as Xavier slowed near the curb. “He can wait a second.” He leaned down and kissed her.

It was more than a kiss goodbye. He pushed her back against her door, pinning her hips there with his and resting his forearms on either side of her head.

She surrendered to the kiss, her body immediately wanting his. But he ended it before she could think of how to tell him that without sounding like all she wanted from him was sex. She’d already alluded to it last night and the night before. How did she explain that she wanted all of him—the moods, demands, laughs. Everything about him, good and bad, she wanted it. And the physical.

“That’s better than any damn caffeine out there to wake me up in the morning.” He rested his forehead against hers, both out of breath. “I’ll see you later. Lock the door. I’ll let myself inside when I return, so don’t worry about waiting up if it’s late. Go to bed.” He passed her the key to his car. “Don’t leave unless it’s an emergency.” He quirked his lips to the side. “Please.”

“Not sure it makes it less of a demand when you say please. But I’ll stay inside. Good luck with Julia. She can be a handful.”

“What does that mean?” He straightened.

“It’s the polite way to say she’s a bitch.”

He laughed. “I’ll be on my toes.” He kissed her cheek. “Bye.”

“Bye.” And he may have laughed off her description of Julia, but he was about to get a front row seat of her darling stepmother.