Page 91 of Gather the Storm

“Last night.” He looked at me like it was totally normal to take someone’s phone and migrate their data when they were too drunk to notice. “While you were sleeping.”

I sighed. I’d thought I would be in control when they moved in, that everything would be done my way, on my timeline, but more and more I felt caught up in the tornado that was the Blackwell Beasts, helpless to do anything but let go, ride it out, see where it took me.

“I’d say something about invading my privacy, but honestly, I don’t have it in me this morning,” I said.

“Good. Just enjoy the phone, doll.”

I took it out of the box. It was rose gold, my favorite, top of the line with tons of memory. And Otis was right: all my contacts were there, my old texts, my apps.

It was an exact replica of my existing phone.

“We put you on our plan,” Wolf said. He hurried to continue when he saw that I was about to protest. “It’s just for now. It was easier to set them all up at once. Plus I can’t imagine your dad is too happy about us being here. This is one less thing you have to rely on him for.”

“Thanks,” I said.

They knew my dad, knew what a hard-ass he was, knew he hadn’t liked Blake hanging around with them. My dad had considered them a bad influence, beneath Blake.

It hurt me to think about it now because either the Beasts had killed Blake and my dad had been right or they hadn’t and were some of the best guys I knew.

Excluding Jace of course, because I wasn’t masochistic enough to think a guy who treated me like shit was a good guy. I wanted him in spite of the fact that he was an asshole, not because of it.

That was what I told myself anyway.

“So what’s on tap for the house today?” Otis asked. “We have to make the work count since tomorrow’s an off day.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” I said. “Why is it an off day?”

I planned to work extra hard on the days I wasn’t at Cantwell, assuming I still had a job.

“It’s Summer Shit,” Otis said.

I wondered if I was having a stroke, because he said it like it should make perfect sense to me, except I had zero idea what he was talking about. “Summer Shit?”

“Kickoff at the compound,” Otis said.

I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure I’m still missing something.”

“Summer Shit is what the Blades call their party to kick off summer,” Wolf explained. “I thought you knew about it, but I guess Blake was the only one who ever came.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t exactly invited when you and Blake hung out.” There had been times when I’d been around, but Blake had never made a secret of the fact that he wanted to ditch me.

“Right,” Wolf said. “For the record, that was Blake. We were always happy to have you around. Must have been some little sister thing. I wouldn’t know.”

“My sisters are cool,” Otis said. “I think that was a Blake thing.”

Wolf glared at him.

I laughed. “It’s fine. Blake didn’t make it a secret that he found me annoying. Anyway, if you guys need tomorrow off to go to this… Summer Shit thing, it’s cool with me. I can work on the wallpaper.”

I didn’t need to specify which wallpaper, because the house was covered in it, some of it salvageable but a lot of it peeling and discolored.

Wolf scowled. “What are you talking about? You’re going with us.”

“Yeah, Summer Shit is a blast,” Otis said. “You can’t miss it.”

I thought about the look in Jace’s eyes when he’d stormed out of the kitchen. “I’m pretty sure Jace would disagree with you on that point.”

“Lucky for you, we’re a democracy,” Wolf said.

---