Page 51 of How to Trust a Hellhound
“Did he mention names?” I asked.
“Josh’s, but not ours.” Liam cut off my growl by saying, “Everyone knew they were dating, though. Most people who know Rick treated it like a joke, and then it got taken down. The problem is that he went deep after that, posting in chat rooms and finding all sorts of message boards and sites to post on. Most of them are full of conspiracy theorists who have no real sway.”
“But…” I said, because there was always a “but.”
“But, he might have gotten the attention of the Order of Astrophagia,” Liam admitted.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, throwing my head back and looking up at the ceiling. “How in hells would that happen?”
“They’ve been looking into this area, and Rick posted someweird shit. If I were looking for info, I’d start off with trying to find anything out of the ordinary on socials and in groups. Rick has no common sense and has been throwing the name of the town around.” Liam looked at his screens again, scrolling through chats and messages.
“Can you shut it down?” I asked.
“I deleted his posts, but they’d already gotten a contact number out to him. I didn’t think to have him that closely monitored, which is my fault, and I’m sorry.”
“No apologies, Liam. We wouldn’t even know about it if it weren’t for you,” I assured him.
“He wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for us,” Liam countered.
He had a point, but… “I have a feeling Rick wasn’t going to give up easily. We couldn’t have predicted it would go this way, but I don’t think it would have been simple for Josh no matter what.”
Liam hummed in agreement. “When I looked into Rick’s finances, I found out Josh was his meal ticket, so that doesn’t help things. I don’t think he’ll give up on their relationship easily—he hasn’t even told anyone on his socials that they broke up. A lot of his posts and chats had to do with getting his boyfriend away from the ‘cult’ that kidnapped him.”
“How ironic,” I muttered. Of course two problems would combine into one bigger one, and in claiming Josh was kidnapped by a cult, Rick would end up in league with a cult. It was all rather absurd.
“Yeah, and usually I wouldn’t even worry. Who trusts some random stranger on the internet with their information?” Liam rolled his eyes. “But Rick is not the brightest flame in the fire, and I think he’s working with a faulty hard drive at this point.”
“Any more word on Aiden’s grandfather or the money?” I asked, since those were tied into the cult.
“Nope. The grandfather is definitely involved with the cult, but they’re doing all his dirty work now. He’s kind of dropped off the radar, and I’m not sure if I should be worried or not that the cult has taken over.”
I hummed in agreement. Cults were unpredictable at the best of times. You never knew what kind of insane schemes they would come up with.
“As for the money,” Liam continued, “it’s pretty tied up. I can’t even hack my way into stealing it, so I doubt any of their resources will be successful either. They need Aiden’s brother or a dead body, and neither one is available.”
“So we’re still on guard for the cult—that hasn’t changed. Rick is added to our list of people to keep a very close eye on. Any idea where he is now?” I asked.
Liam shrugged. “He left Paradise Falls and went back to his friend’s house. I’m guessing from his lack of activity that he stopped using his phone, which means he’s probably using a burner phone or a friend’s phone. I’ll do what I can, but his phone was how I was tracking him. I have tabs on his job if he stops showing up, and most of us have his scent in case he tries coming around here.”
I nodded and stood, giving Liam a pat on the shoulder. “Good work. You’ll do what you can, and we’ll deal with trouble if it comes. Cults are nasty, but hopefully their main concern is money. If we or Aiden can’t be of assistance in getting the funds, then we can hope they won’t venture into our territory.”
Liam grunted, and I didn’t blame him. They wouldn’t be after Aiden, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t still stir up trouble in the area while looking for his very dead older brother.
We said our goodbyes, and I went and checked in with the other boys. Everyone was home, and I chatted with each of them. Dexter would need to hunt soon, and I assured him that we would look out for Toby. Jude had brought home a hellbound soul to torture, so I helped him a bit with that, and I coordinated with Atlas on clearing a roadway to the cabin.
All in all, the morning went by quickly, and I droppedoff a sandwich for Josh in the early afternoon. He was on the phone with someone discussing LLCs, EINs, and S Corps—it sounded like a foreign language—but he smiled broadly when I came in. I dropped off his food and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, letting myself back out.
Thea texted me as I was walking back from the cabin. She was quick and to the point—I’m coming. I’ll text when I get into town.
If she was on her way, I needed to tell the boys about her. The human packmates were all working, but I texted all the boys that we needed to meet. I would’ve liked to have included all the pack in the meeting, but I had no idea when Thea would be getting into town. I could sense a general direction from her, but I couldn’t tell the distance. I wasn’t sure how well Thea would deal with other hellhounds, so the boys needed a warning to treat her less like a hellhound and more like a human.
Not that they really knew how to treat humans, either, but it was a start.
I did think of my talk with Atlas and Corbin again—mates shared their problems and helped each other. Josh was working, and I didn’t want to disturb him, but I also wanted to treat him like a partner. I pulled out my phone and stared at it for a moment before sending him a text letting him know Thea was on the way and I needed to tell the boys.
My heart warmed when he responded right away—Give me two minutes to finish up my call and I’ll head over if you want.
I breathed a sigh of relief, glad he was coming. I let him know we’d be meeting at Jude and Corbin’s house. I supposed it was my house, too, but I was rather hoping that the cabin would be my place with Josh sooner rather than later.
