Page 76 of Defending Love
Dani pointed to the hallway with her office and my assigned bedroom. “I brought it all home. I’ve been going through the journals…”
Fuck, I wished that my earlier declarations would have caused her to be more cautious with what she was sharing. As she stood, I wanted to stop her. It was too late; she offered to show Damien what we’d discovered.
I followed the two of them a step behind, seething as they entered her office.
“…here are the journals we found in the safe,” she said, pointing to the stack on her desk. “And in here” —she lifted the blue and white striped bag— “are the other things.”
Damien reached for the bag and lifted it to Dani’s desk.
“We’ve been wearing gloves when we touched anything,” Dani said, looking at me.
I pulled two pairs from my pocket. “Here you go.”
“Why?” Damien asked.
I was the one to answer. “Someone from Guardian is coming later today to dust everything for prints. We want to know who had access to his safe.”
“We did,” Damien said, nodding his head to Dani. “Mom and Dad did.”
“And Elliott,” Dani said.
Damien’s eyebrows came together. “He didn’t know the combination. I opened the safe for him.”
Dani spoke. “I thought you didn’t remember opening it.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t until you reminded me.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked.
“Stephen wanted to be sure Dad didn’t have an old version of his will. There was a clause about selling Sinclair that was removed when Dad’s will was redone last year.”
“Was there an old version?” I asked.
Damien shook his head. “We cleared the whole thing out. The only thing we found that was relevant at the time were his life insurance policies.” He turned to Dani. “As I recall, you were at the house with us.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I was. I don’t remember the two of you going through the safe.”
“No,” he said. “You were at the hospital with Mom. I remember because you called me to tell me she was out of surgery.”
“You cleared out the safe?” I asked. “So your fingerprints will be found on all of that.” I pointed to the bag.
“Yeah, I suppose. Mine and Stephen’s. Once we found what we needed, we put everything back. I locked it up and forgot about it until recently.”
Covering his hands with the gloves, Damien reached into the bag. The box clanked with the sound of coins. He grinned. “Dad loved his coin collection.”
One by one, he removed things from the bag and placed them on Dani’s desk.
“Do you see anything new?” she asked. “Or is anything missing that you recall.”
“Like I said that whole trip is a blur.” He stared at the contents. “I think there was a photo album.”
“I left that with Mom,” Dani volunteered.
“This trip down memory lane is nice,” Damien said, “but Dani and I need to discuss the executive board meeting tomorrow.”
Her blue gaze met mine. “Eli can stay.”
“No offense,” Damien said, “but it’s a private matter.”
