It was a little weird, but at the same time, it was family.
It made me miss mine just a little more than usual, and made me glad that Bloom still had hers.
We didn’t even order food before her mother demanded to hear her side of the story. She held my hand as she told a tamer version of what she’d told me, and no longer seemed worried about their potential judgement.
By the timeour late lunch was over, Bloom was happy but emotionally exhausted.
We grabbed another round of drinks on our walk to the office building. People all around us snapped photos as we went, but we ignored them.
All of the difficult shit that had happened seemed to have snapped Bloom out of her worry about what they all thought. Or maybe our mate bond did that. Either way, I was glad she wasn’t self-conscious at the moment.
We met Sutton outside the elevator on the company’s floor, and she gave us—mostly Bloom—a quick summary about the people she was currently keeping an eye on who had seemed like they might be starting to zone out.
Ashley.
Brooks.
Phyllis.
Ozzy.
I didn’t care if she ignored me.
I was just there to make sure no one tried to hurt my mate.
“Ashley and Brooks are always spacey, but I’ll take a look when we get in there,” Bloom told Sutton. “Phyllis definitely hated Arthur and Celeste enough to kill them, but she’s been on top of her paperwork game since the raise. My whole team has. I can’t imagine she’d be doing this well if she was devolving.”
“It’s something to consider,” Sutton agreed.She looked tired, but I didn’t ask how she was doing. That wasn’t my place. If she wanted to share something, she’d share it. “It’s been so long since I did anything like this that I’m barely useful,” she said. “You guys should’ve called an actual detective. I’m sure there’s a werewolf onesomewhere.”
“If there was, I’m sure Maverick would know them. We’ll find the killer, though.” Bloom managed a small smile. “Thanks for helping. Why don’t you go get some rest?”
“That’s probably a good idea.” Sutton glanced at me. “I checked out both offices already, and there’s been no other sign of wolfsbane. I don’t think our killer will try that again right now. He knows we’re triple-checking everything.”
“Thanks.”
She nodded and slipped out, heading for the elevator.
“Let’s just walk around and see if anyone looks suspicious,”Bloom said into my mind, taking a small sip of her drink.
Multiple people came up to her, letting her know they were glad she was okay. They were smart enough not to touch her, or get close enough to do so.
Luckily for him, the fucker who touched her by the coffee bar that day kept his distance.
We spenttwo hours walking around, talking to Bloom’s coworkers. Phyllis was as much of a bitch as usual, and Bloom wasn’t suspicious of her. She said both of the other people on Sutton’s list were acting totally normal. The only two people she was worried about were Ozzy (the tech guy) and Carter (the fucker I’d almost killed).
Ozzy had dark circles under his eyes and looked wiped out, but according to him, my people had been riding his ass about figuring out a way to lock the system up tightly enough that the cameras wouldn’t get hacked again.
Carter looked normal. Her worry for him had nothing to do with the murders. Apparently, his sister was in the hospital. He showed us pictures, and she looked pretty bad.
Bloom wanted to send him a gift card for food, so when I handed it over, she used my phone to send him the money.
After our walk, I reluctantly agreed to stop in her office so she could read a few emails. I sniffed every item and surface in the room twice before I finally decided it was safe.
Taking a seat in her desk chair, I gestured to my lap. “I got you a chair.”
She rolled her eyes with a smile.
I thought she’d refuse, but she sat down on one of my thighs a moment later, leaning her back against my chest as she checked her inbox.
