I turned back around. “What do you mean?”
Again, he closed the distance between us, his voice low and gravelly when he replied, “I want you back, Shannon.” With those five simple words, my world tilted on its axis. My skin began to tingle, a fizzy nervousness sizzling through my stomach. “But I won’t resort to fogging your head with sex. That was, as you said, a moment of weakness. What I will do is prove to you that I’ll never hurt you like I did before. I’ll show you with actions that I’ll be there for you and Zara consistently. And if, after I’m done proving myself, you still don’t want me, well, I might not like it, but I’ll graciously accept your decision.”
“Jace,” my pulse pounded. “You’re being crazy.”
He snatched my chin between his thumb and forefinger, shaking his head as he levelled me with a smouldering gaze. “On the contrary, I’ve never been more sane. I love you, Shannon. I never stopped. And I don’t want any other woman, so I will do everything in my power to show you that we’re meant to be.”
He let go of my chin, leaning forward and pressing a chaste kiss to my forehead before he moved by me and left me standing there, scrambling to make sense of what had just happened. I tried to steady myself, my equilibrium completely off balanceas I shook out my hands. This was madness. Jace was still in love with me? He intended to win me back? My heart pounded, racing away while I clumsily tripped over my own feet as I made for the door.
I was still in a daze when I left his room and headed back downstairs. Jay was in the hallway searching for something in his coat pocket, and I was so frazzled by Jace’s declaration that I almost forgot I still needed to quiz my ex-father-in-law.
“Turns out your friend, Ollie, doesn’t have one of those faces. I remembered where I know him from.”
Jay shot me a secretive smile. “I knew you would.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place?”
“In case you figured out my plan and gave the others a heads up.”
“Your plan?”
He ushered me to a quiet corner before explaining in a low voice, “I’ve gotten a little further in my catfish investigation. It turns out the money they sent to Alison came from a cryptocurrency wallet, which was converted to cash through Ollie’s exchange. I asked him to help me trace the owner.”
“You’ve been doing digital tracking? I thought you were going to let me help you with that?”
Jay pressed his lips together. “The kind of tracking I’ve been doing isn’t exactly … above board.”
“I see.”
“I didn’t want to involve you in anything illegal, Shannon.”
“Yeah, I understand. So, the catfish is using Oliver King-Clark’s cryptocurrency exchange?”
“It seems so.”
“And how does this relate to inviting everyone over for a barbecue in the cold?”
Jay’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “The cold makes people cranky, as does hunger, which in turn makes them easier to read.Ollie wasn’t able to identify the owner of the crypto wallet, but he could help me send them currency they weren’t expecting. They received an alert of the transfer via email, so—”
“So you sent everyone tickets to your show so they’d check their emails at the same time, and if one of them is the catfish, they’d also find the transfer alert, and you could read their expressions for what? Surprise?”
Jay nodded, looking proud of how fast I put it all together. “It’s one of the easiest micro expressions to catch.”
I stared at him. “You were looking at Roan, Elias, Kami, and Angus specifically, right?”
He nodded again.
“And did you spot anything?”
Before he could respond, someone said in a shocked voice, “You suspectedus?”
Jay and I turned and found Roan standing there, deep hurt etched into his features. He’d been eavesdropping on our conversation, and I’d never seen anyone look so offended.
13.
Jace
I was still questioning if I should’ve played my cards more closely to my chest. Had I messed up by declaring my intentions so openly? Would she put up a wall again? My problem had always been acting before thinking, and I hadn’t stuck around long enough to gauge Shannon’s full reaction.
