Page 143 of Beau and the Beast

“You do tend to be right,” Wolfram said.

“I’ve never felt anything like that,” Beau said, flushed. “I’ve never been sofull.”

“I’m glad you liked it,” Wolfram said.

“Did you?” Beau asked, as if suddenly insecure. He hitched himself up on an elbow to look at Wolfram square in the face.

Wolfram tried to keep a neutral poker face. The stare-off only lasted a few seconds though before Wolfram couldn’t hold it any longer. He smiled and the smile spiraled off into a laugh, deep and satisfied.

“I loved every second of it,” Wolfram said. “It was the best I’ve ever felt in my life.”

Beau hummed and collapsed down onto his chest. “Things are good, Wolf.”

“Yes,” he said, tracing shapes into the smooth skin of Beau’s back. “Things are good.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Two daysafter Noah had set up camp in Lincoln’s apartment, Lincoln took a day off from work to begin his observations of the building at 330 West.

Noah was surprised when he came home that night with pages upon pages of notes and a whole album full of photos on his smartphone.

Noah made them dinner—nothing special, just a few sandwiches—as Lincoln set up at the kitchen table.

They pored over his notes and photos. He hadn’t seen Beau that day—that would’ve been too good to be true, probably. He hadn’t seen much of anything. Just a lot of men and women in nice clothes coming and going from a nice, big building.

The only outlier, in fact, was one delivery that Lincoln witnessed.

Samuel’s Meats, an uptown butcher, had made a huge delivery to someone in the building. Lincoln showed Noah pictures of the delivery van, the driver, and the severalcratesof meat he’d rolled off the truck.

“You said your billionaire had an exotic pet or something,” Lincoln recalled. “All this meathasto be going to them, right?”

Noah nodded. “Sure, but what does this mean for us? I already knew he had some big, freaky animal up there.”

“It could be anin,” Lincoln said, fanning his hands out in excitement. “You could hack into anything the butcher has online. Maybe there’s something in their orders that would out the penthouse guy—like, notes about the ten tigers he’s keeping or something.”

“Even so—what are we gonna do then? Blackmail them again?”

Lincoln deflated. “I don’t know. I have to think about it more. Maybe I could pose as a delivery guy for them and—“

“And get yourself killed, Lincoln,” Noah cut in. “You’d be breaking the law.”

“You break the law all the time from what I understand,” Lincoln shot back. “Why are you so suddenly worried about someone else doing it?”

“Yeah, I do itonlinewhere nobody can decide to break my legs—orkidnapme. Breaking the law in the real world is what got Beau into this whole stupid thing.”

“I can handle myself,” Lincoln said.

“Can you? We don’t even know what we’re up against yet. That’s what you’re supposed to be finding out—not looking for ways to sneak in like James fucking Bond.”

“At least I’m doingsomething,” Lincoln spat.

“What do you mean by that?” Noah asked, his anger flaring. “I’m doing things, too. You’re not the only one working on this.”

“Well, what haveyoubeen doing?”

Noah snorted. “I found out the basics of their security system, for one,” he said. “I didn’t touch anything at the actual penthouse, but I found out who they hired to install it and what sort of measures they took.”

Lincoln raised an eyebrow and took a bite of his sandwich.

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