Page 109 of Beau and the Beast

The words struck him like a zap of electricity.

Hehadbeen concerned about Noah before he'd allowed himself to be completely distracted.

Beau shook his head as if to clear it. He'd forgotten how worried he'd been when he asked Violet to check on Noah. The last few days with Wolfram had eclipsed it all and he felt awful. He’d never been so self-centered in his life.

"Yeah," Beau said after too long of a pause. "It's strange not being in the same place with him."

"Violet let me know, so I did a little digging—just to check on him, mind you."

"I appreciate that," Beau said.

Geoffrey spun one of his computer monitors around so that Beau could see and clicked through a set of photos.

"Everything was pretty quiet in terms of banking for Noah, so I got access to some of the video cameras around your apartment building to make sure that he was, you know, alive and kicking."

As he clicked through, Geoffrey showed photos of Noah feeding dollars into a vending machine, walking with his cane down the street, leaving the pizza joint that he liked the most.

Beau leaned in.

"Go back," he said, tapping the screen, and Geoffrey obeyed.

Noah looked good. He wasn't smiling but he was standing up straight, looked healthy.

"Thank God," Beau breathed out. "Thank you, Geoffrey."

Geoffrey just nodded. "There's a few more things."

"Oh God. What did he do?" Beau's stomach dropped.

"Nothing," Geoffrey said quickly. "I mean, nothing like blackmailing a half-man half-monster for fifty grand. At least not this week."

Beau snorted but nodded for Geoffrey to continue.

"He just, uh, got behind on bills. Which, I believe, you mentioned to Violet as a real possibility."

"Goddamn it, Noah," Beau swore under his breath. Geoffrey held up a hand.

"Don't worry about that. I talked to Wolfram and cleared us to go ahead and pay your bills while you were gone."

Beau's mouth fell open. It was generous and Beau appreciated the gesture—but didn’t they realize how dangerous it would be for Wolfram to be meddling in his finances?

"Noah's going to trace it back here,” Beau said quickly. “You know that right? He's not going to just accept that it—"

"He's not even going to notice," Geoffrey protested. "And if he does, I made it look likeyouwere the one controlling the transaction. Even if he thinks to try and trace it, he's gonna come up blank."

Beau had a hard time trusting that they were capable of outsmarting his brother, but it was something he’d need to think more on. He settled on gratitude rather than continuing to interrogate Geoffrey about how he’d managed to mask the transaction sources.

"Thank you."

Geoffrey just nodded and continued.

"There are a few more pics—I don't know if you're curious. He actually got groceries twice, which was good. I was getting a little concerned with the steady diet of soda and pizza."

Beau snorted. "Yeah, show me."

Geoffrey clicked through, showing Noah walking down the street toward the bodega where Beau shopped sometimes.

Good for him, Beau thought, his chest swelling with pride. Noah had never gone grocery shopping with Beau but it was good to see him get out.

---