Page 115 of Gather the Storm

I was starting to lose hope.

Otis still hadn’t heard back from his friend at Blackwell PD about the fingerprints — he said forensics took a while, especially since he was trying to do it on the down-low — but Wolf and Jace were planning to meet with Aloha the day after tomorrow to see what he’d found from the security cameras near Old Mountain Road.

I was hoping Aloha had found something that would give us a clue about the broken vase and who had sent it, but that wouldn’t bring me any closer to figuring out what had happened the night Blake was murdered.

I bit my lip and considered another possibility: one of the guys’ old phones.

They’d gotten new ones shortly after coming to live with me at the house, but I doubted they’d thrown their old ones in the trash. Didn’t everyone just kind of stuff their old phones somewhere, planning to deal with them later when they got a new one?

I’d been thinking about trying to check one of their old phones for the past week, ever since it became clear getting into Blake’s phone wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but figuring out their passwords would be a lot harder than Blake’s, which had obviously not been as easy as I’d expected.

Where would I even start with the Beasts?

I shoved Blake’s old phone into the top drawer of the writing desk in my room and headed into the hall.

Downstairs I could hear the sound of Jace and Otis playing a video game while Wolf strummed that same melancholy tune on his guitar, so I knew I was clear upstairs.

We’d gotten a lot done on the house in the past two weeks: all the faded and peeling wallpaper had been removed, the plaster prepared for new paint and paper, and the demo on the third floor was complete — kitchen and bathroom. Otis had helped me order the cabinets, sink, and countertops, plus a tub and toilet for the third-floor bathroom. He’d even helped me decide on appliances for the small kitchen we’d use once we started on the main kitchen, and I’d come to really appreciate his understanding of mechanical stuff, how all the features worked and which ones were worth spending on.

Things had settled down at Cantwell. Piers had been checking in with me regularly, making sure I hadn’t changed my mind about filing a report, and I was getting closer to Natalie and Kyle: friendly if not quite friends.

I was nervous about Gray coming back to the office — apparently he’d finished the anti-harassment training — but I was happy I’d had a couple of weeks to regroup after what hadhappened between us. I couldn’t speak for him, but I felt like I’d be able to move forward with a civil working relationship in spite of what had happened.

Everything was feeling more settled and I was getting used to the routine — working at Cantwell and on the house, playing video games and watching action movies, ordering takeout on the nights I was too tired to cook for the guys, dealing with Jace’s shit.

Plus, things were better between Ruth and me since our talk. It turned out she was way more experienced than me with the physical stuff — she was even on the pill — but I think she’d needed to talk about the emotional stuff.

Now I just needed to find out what had really happened to Blake.

I hesitated outside Wolf’s room, because even though I had a right to know what had really happened with Blake — if the guy I was fucking had killed him — it still felt wrong to invade Wolf’s privacy.

But that was the thing — Ihadbeen fucking Wolf.

Like, a lot.

In fact, I couldn’t get enough of fucking him, and even though I’d had a couple of other make-out sessions with Otis, I felt close to Wolf.

Too close.

I couldn’t let it continue without knowing if he’d really killed Blake.

As for Jace, I’d steered clear, because after what he’d said to me in the cafeteria at the Blades’ compound?

Well, fuck him.

I let myself into Wolf’s room quickly, before I could change my mind.

It was dark except for the lamp glowing softly from the nightstand next to the bed, and I took a minute to look around.I’d been in the room a lot lately, but I was usually naked, getting fucked in Wolf’s bed or getting fucked in Wolf’s shower or basically getting fucked anywhere Wolf would give it to me because since losing my virginity, I’d become a real whore.

I hadn’t spent even a second of that time wondering where Wolf kept his old phone, but I remembered where Blake’s had been and started with Wolf’s nightstand.

It wasn’t there, so I checked the desk next, but that was a bust too.

I surveyed the room and tried to think like Wolf. Where would he put an old phone when he was done with it? Then I realized the right question was: where would he put an old phone I wanted tohide?

I went to his dresser and opened the top drawer, then looked under his socks.

And there it was, the phone Wolf had been using when Blake was murdered, the one that Wolf had picked up using again after he’d been released from prison.

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