Chapter 76

‘Something is going on with Lorenzo,’ I thought to myself. ‘I can feel it.’

Ever since Cruz had been decent enough to send over that odd envelope to the house, I’ve noticed how strangely Lorenzo had been acting since then. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but things just haven’t been the same between us since we both sorted through those old newspaper clippings and photos.

He was right about my needing a break before, though. It was easy to let my mind become wrapped up in the case when it was only the girls I was working so diligently on. But Cruz had gone ahead and made the choice to pull my dad into the mix of things.

For the first time since the murders started happening, I felt like I knew what those poor parents were going through.

So, I gave myself the time I needed to rest and regroup my thoughts.

But since that day, Lorenzo had been spending the majority of his time hauled up in his office. I figured that his work had really been catching up to him since he decided to take the dive and help me out with the investigation. He became such a great help to me that I knew I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did without him.

But, needless to say, I was worried about him. Aside from the sparse words we shared in the early mornings and briefly before falling asleep, there was practically zero conversation between us. It was as though Lorenzo was choosing to keep me at a distance...And I hated it.

It was odd enough that everything had come to a standstill ever since Cruz replaced his brother as Blue Moon’s Alpha—but the last thing I needed to deal with was trying to figure out Lorenzo was hell-bent on shutting me out.

What was I to do?

Without our conversations, there would be no new theories or possible ideas to be made on the case. It led everything to come to a crashing stand-still and it drove me utterly mad.

The only thing that truly stuck out to me was that the murders had stopped.

Why?

Granted, yes, it was a good thing that no one else was getting hurt now, but so what? That didn’t necessarily mean that the case was closed.

“Nothing had been really resolved,” I said under my breath. It all just seemed to be muted. Put on pause until further notice.

I didn’t want this case to suddenly stop. No progress meant no more support. And without the support of the public, as well as the Lycan Luna, I feared that I would evidently end up failing.

I knew I couldn’t let such a thing happen.

It was around mid-afternoon when I finally made the decision to visit Lorenzo in his home office. I softly knocked on the door and waited for him to call out.

Slowly, I stepped into the room and found him sitting behind his desk. My breath caught in my chest. He looked just as worn and rough as I felt inside.

“Hey,” I spoke softly. I came to rest my hand on his shoulder. I tried to ignore the way he inevitably tensed beneath my touch. “Are you alright?”

Lorenzo lifted his head up from his hand and pulled his eyes away from his laptop screen. His features were drawn, and he looked utterly exhausted. My heart clenched in my chest.

“Jesus, Lorenzo. You look awful,” I told him. “Why don’t you take a short break from whatever you’re doing?”

He humored me with a smile and shrugged. “I’m alright,” he said. “I should be finished up with this in just a little while.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and went straight for the main question that’s been hammering at the back of my mind.

“Is something going on?” I questioned firmly.

“Nothing’s going on,” he responded passively. “Why do you ask this?”

“Because I feel like we’ve stopped trying to get to the bottom of all this,” I pointed out.

He could tell I was desperate for a real explanation. But I already knew that I wasn’t going to receive one that I wanted to hear. The look in Lorenzo's eyes appeared lost and highly distracted.

“Look, Eleanor,” he started gently. He took my hand between his own. “Why don’t you take a little break from the case and perhaps focus on some of the preparations for the ceremony?”

I stared back at him with a blank expression, not speaking a single word.

‘Oh, yeah. He’s keeping something for us.’

[Lorenzo’s POV]

Lorenzo felt an immense pressure of guilt rip through his chest as he watched Eleanor walk out of the office without so much as another word. He fought back the animalistic urge to storm after her and bring her back to his side.

He knew he was acting dodgy and suspicious around her lately. He hated lying to her but Lorenzo truly felt like he had to. Listening to that disk made him decide to take the reins of the investigation into his own hands.

‘It’s taken too much of a dark toll on Eleanor,’ his wolf stated.

His mind hasn’t been able to escape the information that Cruz sent him. But since then, his mind has been spinning with countless thoughts.

Lorenzo leaned back in his chair and pressed a small intercom button on his desk. Moments later, two guards entered his office.

“Alpha, you called?”

“Yes, I’ve got an important job for you both,” Lorenzo said.

“Anything you need. You know we’re here.”

He nodded his head and held up the one news article about the felon who committed suicide while being held in captivity during the trials.

“You two are to go to the prison where he was originally kept during the trials,” he instructed. “Find out anything you can on him before he died. Records. Visits. Anything strange.”

One of the guards narrowed their eyes on the photo and tilted their head.

“He looks familiar...Isn’t he the one that was convicted a few years back for those kidnapping cases?”

“He is. It’s imperative that you two keep your utmost discretion with this research. No one is to know that we’ve been trying to dig around.”