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“He’s tried so hard to keep his focus solely on Dad, as we all have, but the hits just keep on coming.” Ainsley reached for Santiago’s hand, twining their fingers together. “That’s how we met actually. Last month, someone tried to frame Ace, planting the gun used to shoot my father under the floorboards of his home.”
“Framed, you say?” Nikolas asked. Although he’d been steadily focused on the conversation, this new news had him moving to the edge of his seat on the couch. “You know who did it?”
“We don’t know yet. We’ve been working on it and so has Spencer. The call is suspicious in and of itself. But the ballistics did prove that was the gun used to shoot Payne.” Santiago shook his head. “Nothing about it has been an open-and-shut, though. We still have no idea why Destiny Jones, whom Ace said he never met, gave the tip to the police. Or how anyone even got into Ace’s apartment to plant the gun.”
Whatever she’d expected coming here, the depths of depravity and cruelty the real killer was determined to mete out surprised her. And with that surprise came another reality: Ace’s siblings were all convinced of his innocence.
Nova rubbed at her arms, the warmth of the room fading in the reality of what her father faced.
What they all faced, really.
“Is that why Ace went on the run?”
Santiago nodded. “We think that’s the reason. The ballistics look pretty bad.”
“Even if we all believe, without any doubt, that he’s innocent,” Ainsley added, her hand tightly linked with her fiancé’s.
Nikolas took off his sport coat and settled it over her shoulders before resuming his seat beside her on the couch. Nova didn’t miss the pointed look Marlowe shot toward Nikolas, or the softening in her dark brown eyes.
Point to Slater, Nova thought with no small measure of satisfaction.
As Nova snuggled deeper into Nikolas’s jacket, she recognized one more thing. That look confirmed something else. Marlowe Colton really would be an awesome aunt.
And an even more awesome person to have in her corner.
* * *
Nikolas took the jacket Nova handed back to him and set it on the couch as they stood to walk in to dinner. He’d wanted to know more of Ainsley and Santiago’s story about the planted gun, but one of the cooks had announced that dinner was ready, putting a temporary end to the conversation.
Once again, his mind played through the details Ainsley and Santiago had shared. A planted gun? That suggested an additional layer of malice and trouble he never would’ve expected out of this situation. And while it was a simple leap to say that Ace was a prime suspect because of the ballistics match, the man wasn’t dumb. And the anonymous tip from this Destiny Jones didn’t sit well with Nikolas, either.
He’d done a lot of digging into Ace Colton’s life and he couldn’t figure out who besides his siblings was close to him. He wasn’t married and hadn’t been in a serious relationship for some time. Even if he was squiring dates around town, was he really bringing them back home and showing off a gun used to shoot his father?
It just didn’t play for him. Not when you thought through the actual logistics of how someone would come to know of a gun hidden in the man’s home.
Which led him straight back to the idea that Ace was framed, the gun planted for easy discovery.
Did Selina know about it and elected not to tell him? She certainly hadn’t mentioned a gun—planted or otherwise—when she had come to speak to him about Ace. And his police contacts were playing it close to the vest. They’d confirmed a gun was discovered in Ace Colton’s home, but no one had even whispered the idea that it might have been planted.
He had been wary about this case from the beginning, and as each point was added on a running checklist of “guilty” or “not guilty” for Ace Colton, Nikolas had to admit to himself that he was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
Especially if it put Nova in the crosshairs.
What would a killer, hiding in the wings, do if he or she suddenly knew that Ace had a child? And not just a child, but a child who was about to deliver Ace’s first grandchild.
That would be some awfully powerful motivation to pull Ace out of hiding.
Bowie saw him lingering at the doorway and came over to talk. “You okay, man?”
“Yeah, sure, I guess.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
“What do you make of this whole planted gun thing?”
Bowie appeared to understand his underlying question without being asked and motioned Nikolas to a small butler’s pantry to talk. “I haven’t liked it from the start. Ace and I have never been particularly close, especially being rivals from different companies. But I’ve always respected the man, and I’ve always felt he respected me in return.”
Nikolas understood that. Bowie’s role as the head of Robertson Renewable Energy had always put him at odds with the Colton family. Even the fact that he and Marlowe had gotten together had added to the gossip gristmill around town.
