Page 90 of Curvy Quirky Omega

Liam and Cas watched us in silence as we worked. It wasn’t easy to ignore Cas’s anxious apprehension or Liam’s depressing misery, but I needed to or this was going to drag on forever.

Adrenaline made the blood in my veins buzz and I refocused on the phone that was finally powering up. Liam plucked it from my hand before I could do anything and he managed to unlock it on the first try.

“Here.” Liam handed Gideon’s phone back to me and I stared down at it in disbelief.

Gideon really used the same code on the safe, the encrypted drive, and his secret phone? That could only mean one thing.

“I bet he wanted you to be able to open this if something ever happened to him,” Frankie murmured, her eyes darting to Liam for only a second before going back to the phone. “No one else could have opened it, not even Dane.”

Hopefully, Liam found some solace in that.

“Look.” I showed Frankie what I found in the settings. “The provider for Gideon’s second phone is Mobookie.”

“Perfect.” Frankie pulled out her own phone and started tapping furiously. “That company is owned by the Monroe pack. They’re not legacies, but they’re very wealthy and they provide all of Acheron with affordable cell phones.”

“I don’t know much about them since Genesis uses a different company,” Liam admitted. “But the name sounded familiar.”

“You can prepay, or get plans most providers don’t offer,” Frankie explained. “They’re famous for their five-five plan.”

“Five gigs of data for five dollars is a really good deal,” I muttered as I set the phone down so I could pull up their website. “But they charge out the ass for text messages so most people use messaging apps when they use them as a provider. Phone calls are a last resort for the same reason so all calls are made in the messaging app.”

“Mobookie doesn’t sell smart phones either,” Frankie said. “Only the cheapest ones.”

Which meant Gideon bought this phone and then purchased the plan separately.

“They also have great overseas plans since they provide service in quite a few different countries. Frankie, do you think you can get his account info pulled?”

“Of course.” Frankie grinned and tapped something before putting her phone to her ear. “Let me work my magic.”

Liam cleared his throat as I started going through Gideon’s phone. “Let me see if we have any snacks while you two work.”

Liam was feeling…miserable. It wasn’t that potent, but it was enough to make me worry. At least until I saw Cas go after him.

Whatever the issue was, I trusted Cas to deal with it until I could. Liam had to work through his emotions either way, but I wanted him to have answers as quickly as possible. That wouldn’t necessarily make the situation better, but at least he wouldn’t be constantly blindsided by new information.

“I honestly don’t know how he’s so calm,” Frankie admitted as she pulled Cas’s chair over to my desk. “His brother is dead and he’s actively helping with the investigation. I’m impressed.”

Liam may be emotional and impulsive, but he was good at compartmentalizing when he needed to. The only time I’ve ever seen him lose it was when I was involved, so I knew this wouldn’t be enough to make him flip out, but…

I didn’t like that he was hurting either.

Scrolling through all the messages on Gideon’s phone, I chewed on the inside of my cheek, annoyed that none of the numbers were saved in his contacts but I could figure out who might be who from context clues.

“See if you can pull these accounts too.” I took a screenshot of the three numbers in the phone and dropped them in our shared drive. “One of them is Dane’s, but I don’t know the other two.”

“You’re the only person I know who still memorizes phone numbers,” Frankie teased, doing her best to distract me.

I appreciated her efforts but I wasn’t worried. There weren’t enough volatile emotions from either of them to make that a situation a priority over this.

Going up through the newest messages to the oldest for one of the contacts, I paused when I read something…disturbing.

Burying down the emotions these messages evoked I focused on the new clue, going up a few more to be sure.

“He was having an affair,” I whispered. I didn’t want Liam or Cas to hear me, not yet.

“Seriously?” Frankie rolled into me and leaned over so she could read the messages. “Holy shit…”

“Yeah, and they were blackmailing him.” I tapped the contact and went to look at the media, relieved to see exactly what I was looking for. “Read this.”

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