Page 148 of Ruin

“Fight-fixing,” he tells me in a low voice.

“No,” I gasp.

“Yep.” He nods.

“When? For how long? Which fighters? And how do you know?”

“That’s a lot of questions, Dove.” He chuckles. “And I know because Marcel isn’t the only one who pokes around in other people’s business. For years, I’ve been hearing things about him doing not-so-legal things. Fight-fixing, illegal betting syndicates—those kinds of things. But I just brushed it aside because he wasn’t asking me to get involved, so it wasn’t any of my business. But then he messed around with my life, stole four years of my daughter’s life from me, so I made it my business. I did some real digging. You see, the thing with Marcel is, he has a tendency to piss off a lot of people, so it’s not hard to get them talking. I had a few bits of evidence but nothing solid, so I spoke to Elle—”

“Aunt Elle knows about this?” I say, surprised.

He carefully eyes me. “I asked her not to say anything until I knew there was something definite that could be done. I didn’t want to drag you into it. Elle’s a cop, she knows people, so she pointed me in the right direction of who I needed to speak with, and I handed off what I knew to them.”

“And?”

“A couple of hours before the fight, I got a call from the detective who’d been looking into it. He told me that they would be bringing formal charges against Marcel—not just for fixing fights and illegal betting, but money laundering as well.”

“Holy crap,” I breathe.

“Yep. And, if he gets found guilty, he could be looking at anything up to twenty years in the state’s finest.”

“Well, hell,” I say. “Remind me never to mess with you.”

Zeus laughs before hooking his fingers into my belt loops and pulling me closer. Then, his expression turns serious. “You never have to worry about me hurting you again, Dove. I swear, I will never make that mistake with you again.”

“I know,” I tell him, and I really do.

He softly brushes his lips over mine, making me sigh with happiness.

“So, you were about to tell me something before we were interrupted,” he says, pulling away from my lips.

“Oh, yeah.” I take a brief pause, gathering the courage I rallied up earlier before Marcel came in.

“Well…” I nervously lick my lips. “I was thinking that Gigi and I could move into the house with you.”

“Really?” His eyes light up.

“Really.”

“When?”

“Well…I need to talk to Aunt Elle, give her time to get used to the idea. I don’t want to just up and leave her after everything she’s done for me and Gigi. But it’ll definitely have to be within nine months, as she doesn’t have an extra bedroom.”

“Nine months?” He frowns. “I was thinking more like nine days.”

Seriously?

I stare at him, and he’s definitely not getting it.

“Did you get hit harder than I first thought?”

“You’re hilarious. But why nine months? And what does Elle not having another bedroom have to do with—oh.”

Ding, ding, ding, and he gets it.

He’s staring at me, and my heart is in my stomach.

I know Zeus said he wanted more kids with me, but that was when he was trying to win me back. We haven’t talked about it since. And we’ve not been back together very long.