Page 76 of Gather the Storm

I didn’t love cozying up to cops — after my stint in Blackwell Falls Correctional I’d be happy if I never saw another guy in uniform allegedly protecting and serving again — but he’d beenthe only one I could think of to run prints on the box and the vase.

I’d owe him a favor eventually (if there was anything that bugged me more than working with cops, it was owing a favor to one but what were you going to do?) but it would be worth it if we could figure out who’d sent the package to Daisy.

I glanced out the window again, then caught sight of Benji flying down the other side of Main Street with Wolf at the wheel. The green SUV slowed, then made a screeching U-turn in the middle of the street to pull in behind me.

Not exactly under the radar, but then again, Wolf wasn’t an under-the-radar guy.

I watched in my rearview mirror as he and Jace stepped out of the car, then I did the same to meet them on the sidewalk.

“How’d it go with Aloha?” I asked.

Jace looked at me like I was high. “How’d it go with Aloha?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I assume you guys just got done.”

“What Jace means is what the fuck are you doing outside Daisy’s job?” Wolf asked.

“You said to keep an eye on her,” I said.

Wolf rubbed his lip and shook his head. “That doesn’t mean stalk her.”

I was starting to get the impression this was one of those times when I was missing something. “I’m not stalking her, for fuck’s sake. I’m keeping an eye on her. You think she should be running around on her own after the package from that psycho?”

Jace took a few steps away from us, then came back with a resigned shrug. “He has a point.”

Wolf: 0. Otis: 1.

“Yeah, except Daisy is going to lose her shit if she sees you out here,” Wolf said.

“She’s not going to see me.”

Wolf looked at the Corvette. “You’re not exactly inconspicuous.”

“Her office doesn’t face the street,” I said.

“And you would know this how?” Wolf asked, then held up both hands. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

I’d broken into Cantwell’s offices after Daisy’s first day — the locks were so elementary a kindergartner could have picked them — to get the lay of the land. I’d known which office was hers by theI Knit So I Don’t Stab Peoplecoffee mug next to the computer.

At first I’d thought it might belong to her boss, but there was another office with pictures of an older woman with little kids — grandkids I assumed. Plus, when I’d tapped the space bar on the computer next to the knitting coffee mug Daisy’s name was autofilled as the username, the password hidden.

But if Wolf didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to know.

“I’m not saying this was a good idea,” Jace said, “because it’s not, but we do need to keep an eye on her.”

“I thought you didn’t give a fuck what happened to her?” Wolf asked.

“I don’t.” Jace’s eyes were hard but his voice was almost too nonchalant. Like he was trying too hard. No one else would have noticed it but no one else knew him like Wolf and I did. “But we agreed to keep her safe until we figure out why girls are still going missing. If we’re going to do that, we need to keep track of her when she’s not at the house.”

Wolf swore. “I don’t want to agree, but with that guy she’s working with— ”

“What guy?” Jace and I asked at the same time.

“Some trust-fund baby we ran into when we were running errands,” Wolf said. “He’s the son of the guy who’s buying the land from Daisy’s dad — Grayson Cantwell or some shit.”

“Grayson Cantwell?” I asked, because what kind of dumbshit, patterned-sock-wearing, pinky-up shit name wasGrayson Cantwell?

“Yeah,” Wolf said. “She called him Gray. I didn’t like the way he looked at her.”

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