Page 70 of Mine to Keep

He reluctantly promised.

We waited until Shep arrived. No one showed up for the bike, and I wanted so badly to run across the street and rip the note off, but I refrained.

Four stayed at the shop with Shep while Nick and I drove to his house to see what news he’d gathered.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Nick

“You’re not veryactive on social media, huh?” Noel asked Matt as he poured the three of us some sweet tea.

“Not really. I mean when I have something to post I will, but I won’t just for the sake of it.”

Noel nodded. “I can respect that. Here’s what I found on the SM front. You post things that are actually knowledgeable info. In one you held two large Almond Joys in your hands with a silly smile on your face, a Halloween party, judging by the fact that you were dressed up?”

“Oh yeah, Joan had one last year.”

“Right.” Noel sat at the table with us. “You captioned it, ‘The best candy in the world.’”

Matt sighed. “And that’s how they found out it was my favorite?”

“What my brother is trying to say is that knowing personal shit is an inner-circle thing. When it was posted on SM then, everyone knew and it eliminates it definitely being your closest friends.”

“So, it can be a stranger?” Matt was gripping his glass.

“I don’t think it is.” I reached over and gently slid my finger across his white knuckles. “I do think they know who you are in real life, but perhaps aren’t as close as we originally assumed.”

“Also.” Noel cleared his throat. “You do have a commenter.”

“He does?” My eyes widened—that was good news.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how threatening they are. They reacted to every post across your social media, and commented on many. The Almond Joy one said, ‘Love those too.’ On the dance pics at The Alibi, they wrote that it was one of their faves.”

“They’re familiar with the area, also meaning they are from around here.”

Matt huffed. “Of course they are, we’ve seen them. Fuck, Nick, they attacked me in the garage.”

I squeezed Matt’s arm and looked at Noel. “Who owns the handle that commented?”

He sat back with a heavy breath. “That’s the part that’s weird.”

“That’s the part? All of this is strange.” Matt was red faced and flustered.

Noel darted his eyes toward Matt, then me, silently telling me Matt was losing it. “I tracked the handle down to one Greg Morgan.”

“Fuck.” I slapped my hand on the table. “Okay, that’s it, we’re going to talk to Greg.”

“You can’t do that,” Matt admonished. “We should call Officer Mendez to make it legal.”

Noel snorted. “And how, pray tell, do we explain to the police we got all this information leading us to Greg Morgan?”

Matt opened and closed his mouth. “I…I don’t know.”

“I just think we need him to answer a few questions. I won’t hurt him.” I left out the,unless he makes me, part.

“I should go.”

“Absolutely not,” I said at the same time Noel responded, “Bad idea.”

---