Page 79 of Always Watching

“It wasn’t the account leaving the messages, North.”

I pull my phone out while he’s still talking, flipping on the tracker program I made Ranen sign up for. He’d laughed at the time, but said he would as long as he could track me too.

He was moving out of the city—away from Olly’s apartment.

Away from me.

“Give me a name, Wylder.” I don’t have to ask, though. I already know.

“Oliver Moore.”

“Fuck.”

Everything goes cold. My first urge is to call Ranen and warn him, but I know better—if the fucker hears him, if he already has his phone, if Ialerthim to the fact that I know, there’s every chance he’ll ditch the cellphone and I won’t be able to find him.

It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done to put my phone back in my pocket, but I manage.

I stand, and Wylder follows behind me as I grab a bag and go to Ranen’s streaming room. When I kick open his closet and start pulling out a few choice weapons, he keeps talking.

“He has multiple subscriber accounts on Ranen’s profile. Messages started out flattering, then they devolved. My guy tracked his cellphone the night Ranen was attacked.”

“It was here.”

“Yeah,” Wylder reaches over my shoulder and grabs a knife. “It was here.”

I turn and look at my brother, and I know my expression is probably something he’s never seen before. It’s not that I can’t kill Olly. IknowI can kill Olly.

I’ll behappyto kill Olly. It’s the fact that he’s driving away with Ranen, and Ranen has already been with him for hours.

It’s the fact that I dropped Ranen off there myself, and I don’t know what’s happened to him while I’ve been sitting around waiting for him like a goddamn asshole.

Fuck, I was too focused on thinking we’d gotten the right guy… too happy beinghappyto listen to my instincts when it came to that little fucker,Olly.

“We’ll find him, okay?” Wylder’s voice is soothing—the same tone he used when we were younger and I got hurt.

“I…fuck.” I can’t do this. I stand, and start out the door, not looking behind me when I speak. “We have to find him.”

“We will.”

I look at him over my shoulder, and I can see he’s serious—that as much shit as he’s been giving me about Ranen, he already considers him part of the family too.

“When we find them, Ollypays. I’m the one to kill him.”

Wylder nods, pulling his car keys out and unlocking his doors. “Just tell me where to go.”

Where to go is apparently some fucked-up little cabin in the middle of nowhere. Wylder gets on the phone while we’re driving, and I hear the second his tone changes.

“Look, I don’t fuckingcare, okay? Just see who it belongs to.”

I’ve never heard him talk to acontactlike that before. He sounds like he’d rather be doinganythingother than speaking to them.

“Yeah, Mateo,” he growls. “It’s important.” The smirk that crosses his face is devilish. “No, not for me. I don’t even fuckingknowhim, you goddamn asshole. What’s wrong, Princess? Are you jealous?”

There’s another pause, and someone speaks sharply enough I can hear the rise in their tone.

Then Wylder smirks and hangs up.

“It’s Olly’s cabin.”

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