32. Dominic
CHAPTER 32
Dominic
SHE SEEMS KIND OF CRAZY
PRESENT
“ H e’s not your guy.”
Detective Kincaid gives me flat smile, knowing the news is disappointing.
When Ellie told me she’d been having problems with a guy she met online, it took everything in me not to hunt him down myself and break every damn law out there. In that moment, my oath was out the window.
Stuart Hollis.
They’d met on a dating app, went on one date—which Ellie described as the most uncomfortable thirty minutes of her life. She said she let him down gently, sensing he was a little off. But the guy refused to take no for an answer, and wouldn’t leave her alone. When I asked her why she never filed a report, she told me she almost had, but he’d gone quiet in the last few weeks, so she figured he’d finally moved on.
To say I’m furious is an understatement. There isn’t a word in the English language strong enough to express how fucking angry I am. Angry at myself for ever letting her go in the first place, angry that some piece of shit thinks he’s entitled to her after she clearly turned him down, but most of all, I’m angry with time. Angry that so much time has passed—enough for Ellie to put herself out there and try to find love when no one could ever or will ever love her the way I never stopped.
Every time I picture her being woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her car being vandalized, all I can think about is how she was alone. How she had to handle that by herself.
I knew something was going on with her. I never could’ve imagined it was this.
I scrub a hand over my face, approaching Kincaid. “How do you know it’s not him?”
He slides a report over to me.
With a quick glance, I fold it shut, throwing it back on the desk.
Stuart was in custody the night Ellie’s car was vandalized.
Brought in on suspicion of a DUI.
This has to be a fucking joke. If it’s not him, then who the hell is it?
Kincaid bumps my shoulder with his knuckle. “Relax. We’ll find him. That’s what we do. In the meantime, we’ve got a big case on our hands.”
I nod, but there’s a knot in my chest that keeps getting tighter.
Returning back to my desk, I start combing through the latest statements on the Delmar case.
According to some of her friends, Victoria had recently broken things off with a boyfriend none of them had met. They suspected he was married, and that’s why she kept him hidden.
I continue reading through, getting lost in the case filewhen Morales strolls over, a to-go cup in hand and anextra pep in her step.
She plops herself on the corner of my desk.
I don’t look up, hoping she takes a hint and leaves.
“So, I had an interesting run-in with your ex and she threatened me. Elyse, right?”
Now she has my attention. Ellie hasn’t mentioned anything about running into Morales.
I look up to find Morales’s lips lifted in a satisfied smirk.
“What did she say?”
She lets out a dry laugh. “She basically told me to stay away from you and implied that you two are together. It was pathetic, really.”
Interesting.
I rub a hand down my face to conceal my smile.
Ellie got territorial.
“She seems kind of crazy,” Morales continues.
I’m getting the sense she isn’t telling me the full story. “Why do you say that?”
Her shoulders lift and she takes a slow drink before answering. “Because clearly you’re not interested in her. It’s sad.”
Now I definitely know Morales isn’t telling me the full story.
I don’t give a shit though, because all I’m hearing is Ellie staked her claim on me and it’s the best news I’ve heard all day.
“It’s not sad.” I rise to stand, ready to be done with this conversation. “We’re together.”
Morales gasps and I wonder if she realizes how loud it was. “You are? But why?”
Instead of indulging Morales, I look at the clock and count down the minutes until I’m off shift and back with my girl.
She still feels something.