Page 109 of Gather the Storm

I smiled and texted back.At a party at the Blades compound. Will text to set up girl time tomorrow!

It was still a surprise to see the new phone and I slipped it into the pocket of my shorts and returned to a question I’d been considering.

Where was Blake’s phone, the one he’d had on him the night he’d been killed? It had been taken as evidence by the police but I’d never heard another word about it. Had the police returned it to my dad after the Beasts confessed? Was it still in some box in an evidence room somewhere?

And most of all, would there be something on the phone, a conversation between Blake and the Beasts — or someone else — that would explain what had happened the night of the party?

I’d thought about trying to open one of the Beasts' phones instead — it wouldn’t be that hard to sneak into one of their rooms and snoop — but the odds of being able to unlock them were slim.

But Blake? I could take a stab at the password on Blake’s phone. At least I stood a chance of getting it right.

My stomach twisted at the idea of digging deeper. After Wolf had shut down my questions about Blake, I’d let it drop — at least on the surface — but I couldn’t let my feelings for Wolf and Otis (I couldn’t even begin to include Jace in the equation with everything as messed up as it was between us) stop me from finding the truth.

I took a deep breath and set it aside. Tomorrow I would think about how to get ahold of Blake’s phone, make a list of possiblepasswords. Tonight I just wanted to have fun at the party with Wolf and Otis (and okay, I was glad Jace was there even if I didn’t want to admit it).

I looked up to see where Wolf had gone, then heard shouting coming from the main building, the one that held the cafeteria and basketball court and all the recreational stuff.

At first I thought it was just another argument — more than one of them had broken out between members of the Blades over the course of the day — but then a few of the guys started running for the building and my stomach twisted, my gut screaming that something was wrong.

I stood and followed the guys into the building, then heard the sound of cursing and shouting and cheering coming from the cafeteria.

I jogged down the hall and into the big room used for serving daily meals. I couldn’t see who was fighting through the ring of men goading them on.

But I knew anyway.

I pushed my way through the men and the handful of women that had congregated to watch the fight — and I knew it was a fight even before I got to it. After being around Blake and his friends, I knew a fight when I heard it.

What I hadn’t expected to see was Wolf and Jace, rolling around on the ground and trading punches, their faces masks of rage as they fought like they were at the Orpheum instead of best friends at a party. They were grunting at each other, saying stuff I couldn’t make out through the cheering crowd while Otis leaned against the wall, watching like he was waiting for someone to hand him a tub of popcorn and a soda.

It took a minute for my shock to wear off. When it did, I stepped into the clearing the Blades had made for the fight and shouted, “What the actual fuck?!”

Jace and Wolf froze, but a second later, Jace took advantage of Wolf’s distraction and sucker punched him in the jaw.

Wolf lunged for him.

“Knock it off!” I was pissed now, and I closed the distance between us and stepped between them. “You’re acting like maniacs.”

Jace grinned and I saw that blood had filled his mouth, staining his teeth red. “They don’t call us the Blackwell Beasts for nothing, princess.”

That got the crowd’s attention, because apparently mentioning a notorious murder in the middle of a fight really harshed the vibe. A sound rippled through the group, a kind of shocked gasp, like they couldn’t believe he’d mentioned it, let alone that he was owning it.

Everyone kind of backed away, shaking their heads and mumbling as they left the cafeteria. The place was cleared out in less than two minutes, leaving me standing between Jace and Wolf, both panting like they’d just run a marathon.

Blood dripped from Jace’s nose and mouth and Wolf’s left eye was turning purple and starting to swell.

“I hope you two are proud of yourselves,” I said.

Jace stared at me, the manic glee leaving his eyes in favor of hatred that shone so hot I felt like I’d been burned.

He walked slowly toward me, then stopped before bending down to speak.

“I saw Wolf fuck you today. Areyouproud ofyourself?”

Chapter 59

Daisy

We spent Sunday working on the house and avoiding each other. The guys wouldn’t say why they were fighting — although from Jace’s comments after the fight I had a pretty good idea it had something to do with me and Wolf — and at that point, I almost didn’t care. I was annoyed that Jace and Wolf were idiots, humiliated that Jace had been watching when I’d fucked Wolf, and embarrassed that Otis had caught me making out with Jace right before I’d lost my virginity to one of his best friends.

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