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“Oaklynn?” he answered almost immediately with this achingly gut-wrenching rasp of hope in his voice.
I closed my eyes and ground my teeth through my agony. Then I exhaled and jerked my lashes open. “You have some really persuasive friends, do you know that?”
There was a pause before he cursed under his breath. “Did they bother you? Fuck, I’m sorry. Which one was it? I’ll kick his ass.”
“Actually, it was the whole six-pack.”
“Wait…Allof them?” he said in surprise. “Even—”
“Oh, Thane led the charge,” I answered, knowing that’s who he’d believe would be the least likely to approach me. “And it was all in the name of issuing theirownapologies for keeping the truth from me, too.”
“I’ll tell them to leave you alone. I swear. I’m sorry, I didn’t—”
“They were fine,” I assured. “They actually made me feel like less of a freak for having these new powers.”
Damien took a moment to quietly answer, “You’re not a freak. You never were and never will be. Oaklynn…”
He was going to try to get all personal and then coax me into forgiving him, I just knew it. And maybe I’d needed to hear his voice more than anything else, but I wasn’t sure about completely forgiving him yet, so I broke in abruptly, changing the subject.
“So I have a question.”
“Okay…” he answered uneasily.
“You said you had the file on Thalia’s case, right? Does it haveeverythingabout her murder investigation in there?”
“I, uh...I’m pretty sure it does. Why?”
“Just curious,” I answered, “But did there happen to be any suspects namedJosh, by chance?”
“Josh?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Yeah.”
“No. Not at all.”
“You sure?”
“I’m positive. I have the file memorized from front to back. Who’s Josh?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted honestly. “It’s just…Well, when IthoughtThalia was still alive, I overheard what sounded like a phone conversation she was having with someone through the door to her room.”
After I told Damien what I’d heard, he admitted, “That definitely sounds suspicious, but I don’t remember her mentioning any Josh. I’ll search around and see if I can figure out who he might’ve been.”
“I will too,” I added readily.
But Damien sounded hesitant when he replied, “You really don’t have to—”
“I want to,” I cut in bluntly. “For Thalia. I know this sounds stupid, but…” Tears filled my eyes. “She became my friend. And she deserves justice. Besides, there’s a fucking murderer out there. What if he’s killed other people since her? We need to catch him.”
“Fuck, I’m not going to convince you to let me look into thisalone, am I?”
“Nope,” I said, glad he knew better.
“Just… Whatever you do, be careful,” he warned. “There’s a psychopath at the end of this trail. He didn’t just kill my sister; he fucking mutilated her. And to be honest, I don’t want you anywhere near that.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured. “Trust me. Researching shit is my major, remember?” But saying that aloud made me wince. “Which makes me feel like a complete failure at the moment, but whatever.”
“What do you mean?”
