Page 6 of Midnight Whispers
“It might.” Cass liked to keep pack business separate from his job as a deputy for the Fortune Falls sheriff’s department. But it seemed their case was related to pack business. “Let’s hope the third wolf escaped.”
Iven raised his eyebrows. “Do you honestly think that’s the case?”
“No. I think our guy is a Fortune Falls pack member.” But he didn’t have evidence to support it. He hoped he found something to prove him wrong. The pack had enough problems without having a murderer amongst them.
Chapter Four
Riley folded each item of clothing carefully and packed it into a box. He intended to donate his mother’s clothing to the local homeless shelter. She would have wanted someone in need to get some use out of her stuff. Riley hoped a recovering addict would receive it all. Knowing someone who was on their way to recovery, doing the thing his mother hadn’t been able to do, made Riley content even amid packing up his mother’s life.
He wished he had someone to help him, but he didn’t have family in the city. Vivianne’s family had died long before Riley was born. Riley had work acquaintances, but he didn’t know anyone well enough to ask them for anything, especially not to help him grieve.
He’d been too busy for too long to have friends beyond his brother, who lived a day’s drive away in Fortune Falls. Phone calls and video chats had made them closer, but the truth was he hadn’t actually seen Griffin in a long time. He didn’t remember the last time.
Riley didn’t have to be alone, though. With that thought firmly planted in his mind, he dialed his brother’s number.
“Hey, little bro. How are you doing today?” Griffin must have been at work because Riley could hear metal clinking against concrete.
“I haven’t gone back to work yet.” He couldn’t seem to get back into his old routine. It didn’t feel right. He just knew the second he walked into the store and put on that smock he would feel empty inside. After a while of doing the same old thing, the emptiness would swallow him whole. He’d get stuck in a life he hated surrounded by his mother’s shot glasses.
“Do you even have a job anymore? It’s been what…three weeks?” Closer to four, but who was counting besides his boss, who had stopped calling two weeks ago.
“My landlord is going to kick me out if I don’t pay the rent.” He hadn’t paid his light bill, either. He figured he had a couple more weeks before they shut off his electricity.
“Hold on.” The line went silent. Griffin was probably dialing their dad. It wasn’t the first time they had one of those three-way conference calls.
Griffin’s end of the conversation came back to life again.
“What’s going on, Griff?” Dad had as deep a voice as Griffin. The sound of it was just a little harsher. He always sounded as if he couldn’t shut off the part of himself that made him a good sheriff.
“Riley’s on the line with us.”
“Hey, son. How are you doing?” Was it Riley or did his dad’s voice soften? There was definitely concern in the tone.
“I’m fine. Packing up some of Mom’s clothes. The shelter comes to pick up donations for free.”
“He needs help paying the bills.” One thing about having an older brother-even one he wasn’t geographically close to-was he still acted like a brother and told all of Riley’s business to the one person Riley didn’t want to know.
Riley was just about ready to hang up when his dad said, “I’m here for you, Riley.”
“I am too, little bro.”
Something about the words, spoken with such heartfelt honesty and openness made the floodgates open, and Riley spilled his guts. “I don’t want to be here anymore. Not without mom. I-I don’t want to be alone.”
“Griffin, can you take a few days off?”
“Yep.”
“I can, too.”
“No. I…No, don’t do that.” He didn’t want them to be in the house. He didn’t want his emptiness to suck them in with him. “I’ll finish packing up the house. At least the stuff I want to donate, and I’ll throw out everything else.”
“And then what, Riley? We’re your family. We can help you.”
“I know.” He wanted to be a family with them. Nothing was holding them back now. “I’ll call the shelter and see if they can help pack stuff up. And then I’ll load my car and come to Fortune Falls.”
As soon as he said the words, it was as if his soul felt right about it, too.
“I’ll hire a local moving service for you, Riley.” His dad offered.
