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“E.A., you’re weird, and I like that about you.”
His face flushes with color. It’s kind of cute.
“It’s okay that you’re not like everyone else,” I assure him. “I don’t exactly fit in with the crowd, either. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but basically everyone knows my name, even if they don’t know what I look like, and it’s not for a particularly pleasant reason. We all have issues. Yours are unique to you, like mine are unique to me. Do you feel better, or would you like me to arrange a PDA in the middle of the street?”
He shakes his head. “No PDA, please. If anyone could make me want that, it would be you, but I do feel a little better. Thanks.”
“Good to know. You’re about to meet Cassidy, her easier-going Alpha, and Dylan, her Omega mate.”
“Because Seth Carver and Ryan Breslin are on their way to Colvindale Academy to pick up the school’s remaining Omegas.”
Why am I not surprised he knows that? He knew about the group they formed with the other Alphas. Why wouldn’t he know their plans?
“I assume you had Toshi hack emails to get that info?” I ask.
“I like to know what’s going on, even when it’s good. Actually, especially when it’s good. Usually, I only get to know the bad stuff.”
That must really suck. It’s the kind of life I’m setting myself up for, too, but I hadn’t thought about that part of it. What kind of enjoyment can I really get out knowing all the bad things that are going on all around me? Is that all the job is?
We start to walk again.
“What made you get into detective work?” I ask, needing answers.
“Oh … I was always kind of inquisitive, I guess,” he tells me. “I have a hard time letting go of something until I’ve satisfied my curiosity. I sort of fell into it from being coming obsessed with a case online. I was in one of those social media chat groups at the time. Armchair detectives. There was a video circulating of a girl being killed in an alley, and it was being brushed off as fake. But a day later there was an actual missing person’s report on the news of a girl who looked exactly like the one being killed.”
“Holy shit,” I mutter. “I remember that report in the news. God, it was so long ago now.”
“It was almost twenty-two years ago. I was twenty-three, and I solved the case by finding the alley where she was murdered, within a day. It was my first time finding a dead body, and it was just as unpleasant as it sounds. The cops found the length of belt the killer used to strangle her in the dumpster, with the murderer’s fingerprints on it. He had repeat offences, so his prints were on file. Another day, and that evidence would have been gone.”
“That’s insane,” I tell him as approach Secret’s apartment building. “Where did the video come from? I don’t remember anyone ever explaining it at the time.”
Not that I’d remember if I was told. It was definitely during a time when I was up to no good.
“That’s where it gets kind of strange,” he admits. “There was a film student who set up a hidden camera in that alley, hoping to capture transient people sleeping or raiding the dumpster for a school project. He got bored after an hour of viewing empty footage and turned the equipment back into the school without bothering to check the rest of the tape. The next guy who hires it, finds the murder footage and posts it online, thinking it’s fake.”
“Who could see that and think it was fake?” I ask, shuddering.
I remember seeing a still of the footage. That was enough to convince me it was real.
“Film students, apparently,” he murmurs, as he holds the door open for me.
I step inside and wait for him before I start up the stairs.
“What keeps you doing what you do?”
He shrugs lightly. “I’m good at it. It’s kind of thrilling to find answers that other people can’t seem to find. It’s pretty rewarding when someone who did something awful is caught because of something you did to prevent them from getting away with it.”
“So, you like what you do.”
“I love it. I don’t think I could do it if I didn’t.”
I feel a little better hearing that, even if E.A. sounds a little flat while he’s talking about it.
I think it’s just the way he talks. His voice stays in a pretty even tone most of the time.
“I think it might be something I could feel that way about, too,” I admit as we get to the landing of Secret’s floor. In truth, it’s been a dream I’ve had almost forever. I’ve just never said it out loud.
“You’ll be even better at it than I am if you stick with it,” he tells me.
