*Keera*
Breathe, just breathe.
I let my eyelids drift shut as I tried to mentally count to ten. Nope. Nothing was working. “With who?” I finally repeated, extremely proud when my voice came out sounding way calmer than I felt. Grayson dug his hands into his pockets, looking like he was waiting for a child to get over their tantrum. “What do you mean I’m staying upstairs with you?” I asked again, my voice sounding even calmer.
There was no way I was giving him the reaction he was expecting.
Thankfully, Elena had the sense to excuse us, saying that she had to get home and get a few things done. I managed to murmur my thanks to her amidst my growing annoyance. As Grayson walked her to the door I wondered if this was going to be a constant emotion for as long as I was here. This anger and irritation. The door closed with a soft click and soon enough Grayson was in my line of sight. He stalked across the room calmly, all six and half muscled inches of him.
I crossed my arms over my chest and held my chin high, waiting to see what he was up to as he walked towards me. If he even dared to make a repeat of whatever that had been outside the house, I was going to knee him in the balls. I tensed when he was right beside me but he only continued walking, not bothering to even spare me a single glance.
The silent brush off was like a red billboard to an ox. It single handedly set me off even more which I assumed had been his exact intention by acting like I hadn’t been talking to him. “I’ll show you to your room.” He informed me, in the tone one would use if he were talking to a stubborn child.
I turned on my heel until I was facing him. “After you’ve told me why I have to stay upstairs with you while the rest of my team stays down here, you mean.” I clapped back at him. Resisting the nerves tying themselves in a knot, I composed myself and tried to look nonchalantly as I waited for his comeback. If this was how it was going to be between us, it was absolutely fine by me. I wasn’t backing out of our non verb war anytime soon.
“Why don’t you call your boss and ask him?” He asked, taking the last steps until he was at the mouth of the stairs. I muttered a curse word under my breath before quickly hurrying up the stairs. I should have known it was Trevor behind it. What had I been thinking? That Grayson suddenly wanted me close to him? That he was going to give me any sort of special treatment all by his own will?
I walked behind him until we had come to face a black door. “This would be your room for as long as you’re here.” He said, meeting my eyes. He gestured to another black door on the opposite side of the hallway and I barely restrained myself from sighing in relief when he said, “My room’s on the other side. Feel free to let me know whenever you’re in need of anything.”
Not deeming it fit to wait for my reply, he immediately turned and began walking. I waited until he was inside his room before muttering another curse word. With each second that passed, I was starting to forget why I had even agreed to this in the first place. Surely I could have convinced Trevor that he could choose someone else for the task.
I twisted the doorknob, stepped into the room and almost gasped. The room was extremely spacious with a bed big enough to fit at least four people and there was a large window with a wonderful view of the sky and the forest ahead but it wasn’t any of those things that I was surprised about. Unlike the rest of the house which was painted mainly in white, this room had an alluring gray theme to it, just like the bedroom did in my apartment. I wondered how they could have possibly –
Ginny.
There was no other explanation. We’d known each other long enough for her to know that I loved a gray themed bedroom. And the fact that she’d been in my actual bedroom a few times while we’d been growing upust has also helped. The walls, the curtains, the bed pillows everything was gray. I spotted my suitcases and duffel bag where they’d been placed by the bed. I made sure my guns were still where I’d hidden them in it and then resumed my survey of the room. The bathroom was not any less. . .
Perfect.
It was something I was going to thank Ginny for. Really, I was grateful that she’d gone out of her way to try to make me comfortable. Though if she thought setting up my bedroom and things in a way she knew I was going to appreciate was going to make me forget that she’d let the entirety of our friendship be built on a lie she had another thing coming. I was going to get over it when I wanted to. And right now I didn’t want to.
I unpacked my things, taking my toiletries into the bathroom and arranging my stuff in a way similar to the way they were back in my apartment. I went through the schedule I’d made for the team for as long as we were going to be here and after having a nice soothing shower, I changed into more comfortable clothes. Lexi and I had to view the lab tomorrow to make sure everything we’d asked for had been provided and then we were going to visit the scene where they’d discovered the first body. I groaned inwardly.
There was a lot to be done.
***
“This is some really good stuff,” Joe said, talking around a mouthful of Mac and Cheese. The rest of the team mumbled their approval as everyone scarfed their food down. We’d all been hungry when we’d arrived but had all been too tired to do anything about it and so we’d settled for a nap instead. It was already very dark now. Lexi and Kathryn had decided to make dinner after we’d all woken up.
Josie stared thoughtfully at the stairs before fixing her gaze on me. “Think we should take some to him?” She asked me. I narrowed my eyebrows wondering why on earth we needed to do that. It was true that we had stocked most of the fridges downstairs with our food but there were about three or four left filled to the brim with their food.
I checked.
And even if there was anything I wasn’t sure of, I knew for a fact that Grayson would not accept food from us. There was so much pride and arrogance inside of him for that. “He’s probably not going to accept it anyways,” I said on a shrug, taking a fork of my meal into my mouth. Kathryn nodded in agreement, looking across the table at Josie.
“I agree with Keera,” She stated lightly. “There’s no point going up when we all know he wouldn’t accept it.” She said, taking a sip of juice afterwards. The rest either nodded their heads or shrugged their shoulders but they showed that none of them had any problems with it. The fact that we were staying under Grayson’s roof didn’t mean that we had to become some sort of weird family. We were barely a family ourselves and yet we were a team.
“So what’s the plan again for tomorrow?” Joe asked.
I swallowed the food in my mouth. “First we’ll have a meeting with the council.” I said, answering. “We’ll give them a brief rundown of the things we’ve planned to do in order to catch the psycho serial killer.” I gestured with my hands to indicate that we were going to make it as short as possible so the meeting wouldn’t go on for longer than it should.
“Then Lexi and I are going to go over and check out the lab first. Make sure everything we’d asked for had been provided before we head out to the places where the first five bodies had been discovered. We’ll try to see if we can find anything that the killer might have left behind or anything at all that can help us.” I said in explanation. “Josie and Kathryn are going to interview the parents, family and friends of the earliest victims.”
“What if they’re not willing to cooperate?” Kathryn asked, a small frown reshaping her features. “Not everyone of these wolves are happy to have us here in the first place, remember?” She reminded me. “Say we need to talk to people that are really difficult. What then?” She asked.
I thought about it for a moment, before deciding. “Play whatever card you have to play to get them to open up,” I instructed them. “If they’re still being stubborn, just let me know and I’ll inform their Alpha before heading out to speak with them myself.” I already knew I wouldn’t be half as nice as Kathryn and Josie if I had to leave the lab to go question anyone. It was bad enough that I didn’t like them. Making me leave my job would be setting off the ticking time bomb.
Joe met my gaze as I turned to him. “Joe’s going to try to get in touch with the pack warriors and hunters and also some of the pack members. See if there’s any way you can make them more conscious of their safety. The killer has to be taking them from somewhere after all.” I added as an afterthought. “In the meantime, try to find whatever you can that might be of help. It’s easier to get information from them than from our precious host.”
A shake of head from them all was all I needed to be done with the dinner slash meeting. Grayson came downstairs while we were clearing out the dishes. I kept an eye on him as he walked to one of the fridges we hadn’t occupied and took a bag of chips out. Chips? That was what he was going to have for dinner?
My gaze darted to the leftover Mac and Cheese sitting on the counter and a part of me wondered if I should offer it to him. There was no reason to not try after all. If only to go to bed with a clear mind. I discreetly moved closer to him as I dried my plate with a dishcloth, making sure the rest of the team weren’t looking. “Hey, we have some leftover Mac and Cheese.” I said softly.
My heart tripped when his eyes lifted to connect with mine. For some reason his gaze was hard. I wasn’t sure why it took me by surprise but it probably had something to do with the fact that I couldn’t remember doing anything to piss him off. “If you care to have some.” I said as an afterthought, trying to be casual.
He tore open the bag of chips in his hand, took a handful in his hand and kept his eyes on me as he chewed and finally swallowed. “Thanks princess,” His voice was a low mocking rumble. “Feel free to do whatever it is you really want to. No need to feel guilty for anything on my account.” He remarked, giving me one last look before stalking upstairs. I stared after him in confusion.
What the hell had he meant by that?
I’d only been trying to be nice and civil with him for once in our lives. What had that been about feeling guilty? A part of me wanted to storm upstairs and demand that he explained himself but I brushed the urge off. The other part of me, the one who desperately wanted to cling to her self respect where this man was concerned, had me planting my feet right where I was. He wanted to continue the war between us? Fine. I didn’t have a problem with it.
Not when I had no plans of being the loser.