Surprise Bidder

“Hide in the corner,” I tell Leah.

She runs behind the shelf. I stand by the door and listen to the sounds outside. I hear rushed footsteps- and then bodies collapsing.

What the hell?

When the door to the room opens, I point my gun at the man who comes in only to find that it’s not one of the guards.

I lower my gun as my eyebrows furrow. “Angelo?”

He glances at Leah and gives me a nod. “Come with me, boss.”

~

“I was pretty sure the Council had you locked up,” I tell Angelo as I enter the kitchen of his apartment after putting a soundly sleeping Leah down in the bedroom.

“Me? Locked up?” He laughs. “They couldn’t even keep you locked up.”

He has a point.

“I wasn’t in the building when the people from Ambrosia came,” Angelo tells me. “I was away and one of the men alerted me, told me not to return. I knew then that something was going on.”

“They think I killed Lawson and tried to kill Elias,” I tell him. “Can you believe it?”

“I heard about it. I heard they took you and Leah away. I didn’t know where they took you, but I knew where they might have taken Leah. I was waiting for a chance to rescue her when she sneaked out.”

My eyes grow wide. “She sneaked out?”

“With Fiona Sinclair.”

I scratch my head. Unbelievable.

“Where did she go?”

“To Owen Reed’s apartment,” Leah answers as she steps into the kitchen.

My jaw drops as I turn to her.

“I thought for sure he was the one framing you, especially since he claimed to have received a threatening note from you,” Leah explains to me.

“Which I didn’t send.”

“And I went to find proof.”

“That he was framing me?”

Leah nods.

I slap my forehead. “Fuck.”

I guess it was too much to ask for her to just stay still for a few hours, which is what I was trying to tell her with my gaze when they were taking me away. Or maybe she just didn’t get the message.

“You do understand that people who frame others are usually the ones who are really guilty of the crime, right?” I ask her.

Leah nods and bows her head.

“Which means you thought Owen Reed was a murderer and you still went into his apartment.” I place my hands on her shoulders. “Leah.”

“I know, I know. It was stupid.” She lifts her head and meets my gaze. “But I wanted to help you. I was worried about you.”

And all this time, I was worried about her.

I let out a deep breath.

Angelo chuckles. I narrow my eyes at him.

“You’ve got to give it to her, boss,” he says with a shrug. “It was stupid but brave. Plus, she had the right thing in mind.”

“She could have gotten killed,” I point out.

“But I didn’t,” Leah tells me.

She takes my hand and presses it against her cheek.

“I’m fine, Gavin.”

I frown. Does she really know the danger she was in?

I breathe out a sigh and sit on a chair. “So, did you find any proof?”

Owen Reed was the first suspect who entered my mind, too, after all.

Leah shakes her head. She takes a seat as well.

“And I thought he did it,” Leah says softly. “But now, I’m not so sure.”

I give her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t think Owen Reed is the one trying to frame you,” Angelo speaks up.

I turn to him. “Because?”

“I went through some security footage just a while ago. Owen Reed hasn’t been to Elias’s apartment recently.”

I shrug. “Maybe he sent someone else to do his dirty work for him. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“But guess who was at Elias’s apartment the day he died,” Angelo says.

I straighten my shoulders. “Who?”

“Fiona Sinclair.”

I go still at the name. Leah gasps.

I look at Angelo. “Whose footage is this, exactly?”

“Mine,” he answers. “When we started investigating Daniel Lawson’s murder, I decided to do surveillance on primary suspects, Elias Grey included.”

As usual, Angelo goes above and beyond the extra mile. Thank goodness I have him on my payroll.

“The camera caught you going to Elias’s apartment and leaving. But before that, Fiona had already come and gone.”

“So you’re saying she could have killed him?”

Angelo shrugs. “I’m just saying what the camera saw. Oh, and by the way, speaking of cameras, the guy I bought mine from said a woman bought a bunch of them, too. A woman with gloves.”

Fiona. What on earth has she been using them for?

“I remember you said you didn’t know who told the Council about Nadine,” Angelo goes on. “Maybe it was her. Maybe she was spying on you.”

Leah nods. “She did say that she saw the look on Nadine’s face before she threw herself down the stairs.”

I frown. “She said that?”

There’s no way she could have seen that unless Angelo’s right. But why was she spying on me? Has she been out to get me all this time?