Page 165 of The Reluctant Hero

The new information makes my head spin. “Are you saying that nothing happened? It was a false alarm?”

“Nothing happened, but it wasn’t a false alarm,” she starts getting excited and bounces on her toes. “Someone wrote a code that showed the money draining out and a specific destination. The alarm goes off. Investigation starts. Guilt is assigned. Money reappears. Target is acquired and arrested. A cycle with nothing happening except for Amanda getting framed.”

“The paperwork,” Ace’s voice gets rougher over the words. He leans weakly on the desk.

“Ace couldn’t have fucked up that bad, Gabe.” Cade points out but doesn’t sound like he believes himself.

“Maybe he was toobusyto really pay attention,” Tera says with a huff of indignation. “Did the paperwork have this watermark in the corner?”

She digs through a giant purse and brings out my bank statements. It’s a whole stack of them that raises my eyebrows. When she points out the mark at the bottom, we all look closer.“This makes it an official copy from the account instead of something anyone can make up. They had a scam go through two years ago and implemented this to minimize risk.”

“Ace?” I ask quietly as my stomach starts to sink further down.

He pulls his phone out and looks up the pictures he took.

His hands start to shake. He hands the phone to Tera and braces his palms on the desk, his eyes shut tight as he shakes his head.

“That’s a no,” Tera winces and scrolls through. She frowns for a second and shakes her head. “This was on the counter? When was this?”

“Saturday,” Mikael says and rubs a hand over his mouth. If he feels anything like me he’s nauseous at the implications.

“When?” She asks with surprised eyes.

“When Amanda was at the gym. She was meeting South that day,” Mikael says grimly.

“Then Ace didn’t do it?” Tera turns to Shade with confusion and tosses him the phone. He catches it easily and scrolls farther back and forth through the pictures. Ace doesn’t say a word about it.

Cade comes around the couch to join us with a frown. “He tore up the bus tickets, so what?”

“Someone trashed her place. The counters are clean in these,” Shade informs us without fanfare. I’m shell-shocked by it.

“No,” Ace protests in confusion and starts shaking his head.

“South has pictures if you want them,” Shade continues in that bland tone and closes the phone. “All the photos of Blake are gone. I found the sliced-up crotches of every pair of panties she owned interesting. A sexual threat as well as the assurance that she isn’t safe there.”

“What?” Ace says in building rage. “You think I would fuckin’ do that to my girl?”

“You have a bad temper, Ace,” Shade reminds him coldly. “You made it very clear that you wanted her. She betrayed you. You knew she was going to get arrested for it, and there wasn’t much time to get some revenge of your own. Why not scare the shit out of her first?”

“You know me better than that, Daniels,” Ace grits out, his fist clenched tightly.

“I do,” Shade agrees. “Amandadoesn’t. All the games you’ve been playing broke that trust.”

“I wouldn’t fuckin’ hurt her! I’ll kill any motherfucker that does!” Ace roars and starts marching around the desk to reach him. Tera skips out of his way with wide eyes filled with fear, her hands dropping protectively to her stomach.

“Stop!” I stand and slam my hands on the desk, panting with fear and rage.

Everyone freezes in place. Ace is in front of me, blocking my view of Tera. Cade is at my desk. Mikael has his hand wrapped around the back of my chair, hard enough to crush it.

“Amanda said you confessed to it, Ace. South said that she’s pretty sure it was you that pushed her down the stairs, too.” Tera sounds sad that she has to tell him.

Ace can’t answer her. He looks like he just got kneed in the balls.

I feel the same. A flash of her terrified face comes to my mind. The devastation that hit her when Ace said he found the proof.

Shebeggedus to listen.

“You told her you broke in,” Cade’s face is pale as he speaks. “She assumed you did this because you admitted it. That means they hit it after Saturday. You wouldn’t leave a mess, nomatter how pissed you were. And there’s no way you could ever hurt her.”

---