Page 71 of Choose the Bears

Another box was held out, heavier than the last. I accepted it as a substitute to the conversation I needed to have.

“We’ll talk more later,” Kyle said. “At dinner?”

I just nodded, then watched the two of them walk out the door.

Sure enough, a team of people walked in the door and took in the mess with a smile.

“The kids look like they had a lot of fun,” an older lady said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “It always seems to be in proportion to the mess they’ve made.” I offered to stick around, but she shook her head. “We’ve got this.”

So instead, I walked down the hall to the library, slinking between the quiet stacks to find an armchair and a table in a corner. I opened the box and there they were, my favourite series. Hard male bodies and roaring bear shifters were on each cover as I shuffled through the contents, realising this.

This place seemed to do a lot for the women and children they housed here, but buying expensive books and freighting them from overseas? I was willing to bet they’d never done that for anyone else. I’d check when I made sure to catch up with Kyle later this afternoon, but right now, I sank into the chair and opened the first book to page one.

Chapter 37

Asher

“Word came in from one of the fox colonies. A man matching Phil’s description has been sighted in several small towns on the way north,” I told my sleuth mates.

“He’s heading to the Northern Territory?” Kyle asked. It was the least populated of all the Australian states, with a reputation for being a bit wild. Most of the movieCrocodile Dundeewas shot there. “Fuck, that’ll make him hard to track.”

“Or we just let him go.” We all stared at Lucas. “I mean, if he’s nowhere near Imogen?—”

“That’s not enough.” I snapped, not meaning to but the bear wouldn’t allow for dissension here. “Phil, dead, that’s the only way forward.” I stared him down until he looked away. “So, how goes the examination of his hard drive?”

“Badly.” Kyle snorted at Lucas’ response, and the look they shared was intriguing, but I couldn’t allow it to distract me. “Or good, depending on which way you look at it. The guy was into some sick fucking shit.” That was self-evident and I didn’t need an internet search history to confirm that. “But from what I can tell, none of the videos are homemade.”

“He just trawled some of the shittiest places on the dark web to find them.” My jaw muscle twitched as my fangs ground against each other. “What do we know about the time stamps? When did he download them and with what frequency?”

Lucas shook his head slowly.

“More, much more since Mary came to us, and their content… It got worse after she left.”

“So he’s escalating.” I walked over to the map on my wall, blue pins used to track the places Phil had been sighted. “Any other details I need to know?”

“He really seems to like slim brunettes.”

That admission was dragged out of Lucas, probably because we all stared in response.

“He’s not the only one.” Kyle tried for humour and failed, but his knowing look at Lucas made clear there was more to that statement.

“What happened?”

“I—”

“Luc—”

The two of them glared at each other before Lucas replied.

“Imogen came to find me in the server room. I clicked out of the shitty video I was inspecting, and she thought…” He looked at the two of us sheepishly. “I was looking at porn.”

“You were,” Kyle replied.

“To get off, not make me wish brain bleach was a real thing. She saw the thumbnails?—”

“She what?”

I was moving forward, claws snicking out without a thought, the bear pressing hard. We did not want our traumatised mate watching shit like that.

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