“What about the nurses, any issues there?” Evan presses, not making a big deal out of what Wes just disclosed.
“Not really.” He winces a little. “Some were nicer than others, but everyone has bad days.”
“They better not have been too nice.” Alice bumps Wes’ shoulder. He grins at her in return, and the anxious gleam that was in his eyes moments ago is pretty much erased.
“If it would help, I could start going back. Keep my eyes and ears peeled,” Wes offers.
“I’m expecting to have this solved sooner rather than later, so I hope that won’t be necessary, but I’ll keep it in mind, thanks.” Evan moves to stand. “I know you’ve had a long day, so we won’t keep you any longer. Alice can fill you in on the other stuff we talked about.”
Understanding the dismissal, Wes stands and helps Alice to her feet. “All right, just let me know.”
“We appreciate all of your help, both of you,” Evan says, following them to the door. When I move to push off Griffin’s thigh to get up and say goodbye, he holds me down.
“Bye, Alice. Thanks for hanging out with me,” I call instead.
She turns around and gives me a sly smile. “Any time, Quinny. Thanks for an entertaining afternoon.” She wiggles her brows.
“Entertaining?” Griffin mutters once the door closes behind them.
“I make excellent tea.”
Griffin smiles, showing his elongated teeth and all. “I bet you do.”
Evan returns and drops onto the sofa, jarring me a bit. This couch must have a steel frame to sustain his weight without buckling. He lets out a heavy sigh. “I need to go through the phones.”
“I can help if you want, just tell me what to do,” I offer.
“You sure you want to go through a bunch of teenagers’ text messages? These are mostly boys we’re talking about. You might get an unwanted dick pic.” Evan smirks.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Griffin grouses.
“This is the unlock code?” I take a small yellow sticky note with five numbers scrawled on it off one of the phones.
“Yeah, let me grab some paper.” Evan hops up and heads to the kitchen.
“Are you going to help?” I look over my shoulder.
Griffin tugs me back against his chest. “I am helping,” he lies. His voice is pitched low, and it does stupid things to my stomach. “Have you forgiven me yet?” He purposely caresses his lips over the shell of my ear.
I let out a harrumph. “No, but I’d almost forgotten about it.” I turn so I can glare up at him. However, I realize I’m not actually angry enough to move away from his embrace.
“If it helps, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” he offers just as seductively, his lips still traveling over my skin.
“And?” I prompt.
“And I’m an uncouth asshole.”
I hum in agreement. “And?”
“Say sorry, idiot.” Evan sits his butt on the sofa next to me but doesn’t lean back. Instead, he eyes Griffin impatiently while clutching a pen.
I look at Griffin and watch as his brows pinch. “I did.”
“He did,” I agree. “I just wanted to hear it again. Something tells me if I give him an inch, he’ll take a mile.”
“I don’t know about an inch, but I can give you about nine. Little smaller than a mile, but I make it count.” Griffin smirks.
“Who knew you were so cheesy?” I shake my head in mock disappointment.
“It’s a new development, I assure you,” Evan deadpans.
“He’s just jealous I have more to offer,” Griffin retorts, undeterred.
“Would you like to test that theory?” Evan moves as if he’s about to stand up and whip his dick out right here.
“No, no. Apology accepted.” My face is hot, and I’m sure it’s bright red too. “What’s the paper for?” I question, trying to get them back to the job at hand.
“She’s worried you’re going to get your little feelings hurt,” Evan quips, then quickly adds, “The paper is to write down numbers. We can compare them once we’re done.”
“That’s not necessary. You’re both very well endowed.” How did we even get here? This is not a conversation I thought I would be having today. A bark of laughter erupts from Griffin, and it startles me.
“I was talking about the numbers for texts and calls. We can compare the numbers.” Evan has one brow arched high and a wide smile on his face.
I drop my forehead into my hands and groan. I walked right into that one.
Chapter 16
Griffin
Quinn is working dutifully over the phones. She’s jotted down at least four numbers and scrolled through a mountain’s worth of text. Damn these kids and the stupid pictures they send each other all day. Words are rarely even exchanged other than the text on the pictures.
I haven’t found anything of use as of yet. “Which phone belongs to the boy who spoke up?”
“Caleb?” Quinn asks.
“Yes, he told us he contacted the dealer. This is all drivel.” I hold up a picture of an angry woman and a cat that somehow manages to look smug.
Evan sorts through the pile and pulls up one of the devices. “I think it was this one. I remember his password started with a nine.” He hands it over to me but doesn’t resume looking at the phone in his hand.
I adhere the Post-it note to the back of the phone after entering the passcode and scan the screen quickly for the text app. Thumbing through the thread, I don’t see anything recent that looks like a time or meeting location. The more messages I scroll through, the more aggravated I get. “There’s nothing on here about meeting up. No times, no places. It’s just a bunch of useless garbage.”
“Maybe they used an app instead,” Quinn suggests. “I’m not having much luck either. You’re probably better off just going through the phones with the kids and having them show you. Caleb is at least willing.”
“If this is what these children do all day, we need to ban them anyway.” I toss Caleb’s phone back into the pile none too gently.
“When the hell do they find the time?” Evan agrees.
“You guys sound old.” Quinn scrunches up her nose. It makes me want to kiss her, but what doesn’t?
“I was hoping it would be simple enough to get the number, and then run a reverse trace or at least call it and see who answers.” Evan looks about as pissed off as I feel.
“You probably still can. It would just be much faster to go to the source. I’m not finding anything.” Quinn rubs her thumb over the screen of the phone in her hand to keep it from returning to sleep mode.
Evan lets out a weary sigh. “These kids are really getting on my nerves. Before we head back down, what did you think about Letty?”
I lean back and drape my arm along the back of the couch. “I don’t know if she would risk losing your affection to do something like this.” Quinn whips her head around to look at me, then turns her focus to Evan.
“Your affection?” she snarls, which causes Evan to grin like an idiot. I bet she’s not even aware how territorial she sounds.
“She’s never had my affection other than as a coworker and maybe a friend.” Quinn’s shoulders relax a little at Evan’s reassurance. He makes it look easy to appease her.
“I thought she wanted you when I saw her at your door that night baring her goodies.” Quinn is again focused on me, and her eyes are slightly narrowed, as if she’s expecting me to respond in a way she won’t like.
“She was getting desperate for the bear’s attention and thought using me might be a good way to get it. Dumb. I wouldn’t have even answered the door if your scent wasn’t present.” I toy with the ends of Quinn’s hair, fueling my obsession with touching her.
“So you don’t think she’s involved?” Quinn settles into the cradle of my arm, proving she’s content with my response too.
“It would really seem out of character for her, but
if you asked me last week, I would have told you nobody here is that stupid.” Evan stares out into empty space. “Nothing about this makes sense to me.”
“What do you mean?” Quinn queries.
“It’s risky, too risky without much of a payoff. Very few of these kids have much money. With the exception of Michelle and a couple others, most of them have been cut off from their families. No financial support, no employment. So where are they getting the money for drugs? Or are they supplying them for free, and if they are, why? There’s got to be something we’re missing here.”
“I never thought about that,” Quinn mutters softly.
“It could be to ruin the school’s reputation, my reputation. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has tried.”
Evan tilts his head to the side. I’ve known him long enough to recognize he’s going over the probability in his head. “Got anyone in mind?”
“The list of people who don’t like me is rather long,” I admit without shame.
Evan snorts. “That’s an understatement.”
“Who doesn’t like you? People here at the school?” Quinn sets her palm on my thigh as she stares up at me with her big blue guileless eyes.
“I’m sure.” I nod, unbothered by the thought. I’ve never been one to lose sleep over my lack of personal relationships.
“Everyone seems to respect you.” She sounds as if she’s trying to make me feel better.
“Everyone fears me. There’s a difference.”
She shakes her head slowly. “But this place is only possible because of you. You are Havenfall Harbor.”
I touch her cheek. “Quinn, sweetness, you’re giving me way too much credit. I’m not some altruistic saint. I run Havenfall because it’s a necessity, and because it was a dream of someone I once knew.”
“Who?” She searches my face as if she already knows more than I’ve given away. Her thirst for knowledge is always present.
I could avoid the question. Quinn would let me off the hook. She rarely pushes after a refusal, but there’s a part of me that wants her to know, wants to see her reaction when she finds out. “Her name was Iris, and I caused her death.” Quinn’s brows dip, and she frowns.
“Griff, you feel responsible for her death, that’s not the same as causing her death.” Evan sounds weary, as if he’s already tried explaining this to me before. He has, but I can’t fully absolve myself of her death.
“I… Can you tell me about it?” Quinn bites her bottom lip. She’s hesitant to even ask.
“There isn’t a happy ending, are you sure you want to know?” I’m selfishly hoping my warning will pardon me from having to tell her. Quinn nods, and her fingers tighten over my thigh.
“She was my lover before I was blooded.”
Quinn’s eyes widen only briefly, and I hear the spike of her pulse. “Who was she? What happened to her?” Her eyes are darting around the room, looking for evidence of Iris that she may have overlooked, but it doesn’t exist.
I hate thinking about the past. It was long ago, and I feel as if I’ve lived so long that the past usually wants to swallow me up when I give it too much power. Feeling Quinn’s hand on my leg is grounding me to the present, and it gets my mouth moving.
“Her family worked for mine. We were young, defiant. She was everything I thought I could never have, and that made her a temptation I could not resist.”
“You loved her,” Quinn observes.
“I thought I did.” I’m only now able to admit the truth to myself. Evan turns to look at me. His gaze holds acceptance, as if this was something he’s known all along and he’s happy I’ve finally come to acknowledge the truth. “I loved the thought of her. She was free of the chains that bound me to the duty of my family, innocent in a way I never was.” My tone is flat, unaffected.
Quinn’s hand inches up my leg as she strokes my thigh. Her eyes are full of more emotion than my words, she looks half lost. I want to soothe the unease from her features, but I know it will only grow as the rest of my story unfolds.
“My father brought a vampire to our home when it became evident I would soon go through the transition. Her name was Eva, and she was from another powerful family, not unlike my own. She was already blooded, and they hoped she would ‘cure me of my obsession with the human’ and help ease me into my new life.” Those were the exact words my father said to me when he told me of Eva’s arrival. I’d been in bed with Iris at the time, and his words hurt her. They just pissed me off. I should have known then I didn’t truly love her. I was more concerned with my father’s plans for me than I was Iris’ feelings.
“Eva was tempting, but it was her blood that ensnared me. The first time she gave it to me, I believed it to be an accident.” I shake my head, knowing that’s not true. “I wanted to believe it was an accident,” I amend.
“Wait, were you transitioning?” Quinn’s perception is spot on. I was not ready, but after a taste, Eva and her blood was all I could think about.
“No, she used it as a means to control me.”
Quinn
The conversation we started at Evan’s about why he chose to drink only bagged blood springs to the forefront of my mind. I’m outraged someone would do that to him. I clench my teeth to keep myself from saying anything. I want to call this Eva woman a bitch and ask where she is, but I manage to keep my mouth shut.
“She and my father had devised a plan, one where she would feed me her blood sparingly before my transition and through it, hoping I would become more complacent about my place in their world.”
“Because he knew once you became blooded, you would either leave or take his place as the head of the clan. He wanted all the power and needed you to keep it.”
Griffin shrugs at Evan’s words, seeming to agree. “He could have always just killed me before I even transitioned.”
Evan snorts. “He was too greedy for that.”
“I can’t pretend to understand his motives, but I live.” Griffin doesn’t sound grateful exactly, more accepting. “Eva became sloppy. She was giving me more and more blood to make sure I was agreeable until it got to the point where I thought I couldn’t function without it. I was addicted, or as close to it as one could be.”
“But you’re okay?” I ask, even though the evidence of him being fine is right in front of me. Still, I find I need the reassurance.
“I am, but back then, I wasn’t sure I would be. My transition wasn’t a smooth one. I was frenzied when it finally hit. I nearly drained Eva. As soon as my father got her away from me, they gave her Iris.”
I suck in a startled breath. “They killed her?”
“And not by accident. They tried to feed her to him first,” Evan snarls. I cover my mouth with my hand to keep in yet another gasp.
“How the fuck do you know that?” Griffin’s eyes are narrowed on Evan with suspicion.
“How the hell do you think I know? You told me.”
“I’ve never told anyone that!” Griffin’s entire body is rigid with tension.
“You did, you were half dead, but you did. I knew you didn’t remember.” Evan shakes his head slowly.
“I…” Griffin starts, but then he pauses to lick his lips. “Siberia?”
Evan nods, not looking in our direction. “You didn’t really tell me. It was mostly an utterance I overheard while I was trying to keep you alive.” No one speaks for a long time after that. We’re all too busy in our own heads.
I want to know how Griffin escaped, and what happened to his father and Eva, but I don’t want to push him. The stuff he just divulged is more than enough. I have a lifetime to get to know more about him.
The thought takes me off guard. Not only the fact that I’ll have all that time with him, and possibly more, but the fact that I want that. I want to spend every minute getting to know him and Evan better. I already can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t come to Havenfall and met both of them.
I’m astonished when I think about everythin
g that had to fall into place for us to come together here and now in this moment. What would have happened if I’d never met Professor Mackey—or Mr. Mackey, as I knew him—way back then? Could everything have been different if not for that one moment in time?
I make a mental note to write him a thank you card, not just for helping me land the job at Havenfall Harbor, but for showing me the world through different colored lenses than my family offered.
“I still need to sort the phone situation,” Evan eventually says, pushing up from the couch.
“Are we coming?” I glance between the two men.
Griffin stands up surprisingly fast, as if he’s eager to escape the conversation we just had and the weight it left lingering in the room.
“Should I wait here or…?”
“I’d feel better if you were with us,” Griffin replies, extending his hand to me. I immediately take it and let him pull me to my feet. There’s a small shift at the corners of his eyes when I do. His face relaxes just the tiniest bit, but it’s enough to know he was worried about my response. It’s clear Griffin takes the blame for much more than is his due. It may even explain why he’s so closed off with people. Trust doesn’t seem to be something Griffin Stone hands out freely. I know Evan has it, I think I may even have a little myself, but I want to earn more.
I keep Griffin’s hand in mine and reach for Evan’s once we make it to his side. We would probably look strange to anyone who could see us walking to the door holding hands, but it settles something inside me. I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be, with exactly whom I should be.
Chapter 17
Quinn
Griffin checks to make sure the door is locked once we exit. I know it’s something he does for my benefit, and it makes me feel special, cared for. No matter how often Griffin sticks his foot in his mouth, which hasn’t been as often lately, he still has a way of making me feel cherished. Part of it is in the way he looks at me, as if there’s no one else in the room and he doesn’t care if there is.
Havenfall Harbor Book Two: Paranormal Ménage Romance MFM Page 18
