The Luna’s Choice (Theo and Ayla) by Kat Silver
Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Briggs We had been sitting in the car for two hours waiting for this Randall guy to leave for the day. Theowanted to get inside the house and see if we could learn more about what he was doing here. He hadfollowed up with the professor Randall said he was working with. Professor Armand did confirm thatthey were working on a project together, but Theo believed there was more going on. Since we had looked into every other outsider we could replace, I wasn’t going to argue with his intuition.We looked into pack members as well, of course, but everyone was cleared. Even the detectives didn’tthink this was the work of a Greytooth. So, this was as good a lead as any. I glanced over at Theo. He was looking at his phone again. He was trying to hide it, and he would deny it if I asked him, but I knew he was looking at the pictures ofAyla I had sent him again. I suppressed a smile. He had been looking at them almost constantly whenhe thought no one was paying attention. It made it harder to keep the secret. Luna Grace had told me that Ayla had agreed to write Alpha Torin’s biography. She would be coming tostay with them in a couple days. She told me not to say anything to Theo, but I was about to come outof my skin keeping this from him. Especially since he had been touchy about the subject since we gotback from the Gathering. When Luna Grace had nothing to tell him about Ayla, he thought he had lost his only chance at gettingclose to her. I had barely spoken to his mother since then. The only thing keeping him from beingpi**ed with her was Mina telling him she would visit to help plan our mating 0.00% 15:23 Chapter 61: Briggs

ceremony. “You’ll see her soon, man,” I said, breaking the silence. “Just have some faith.”

Theo shoved his phone into his pocket. “I’m not talking about it.” “I’m just saying things will work out ‘ “I know,” he said with a confidence that surprised me. “I’ll make sure it does.” “Just give it a week before you decide to do anything st**id, okay?” “Hey.” He bumped my arm and pointed toward the house down the street. Randall had stepped out of the house and was locking his door. We waited another half hour beforegetting out and going up to the front door. Theo knocked, and we waited to make sure there wasn’tanyone else home. When there was no response, he pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked thedoor. Ozzy must have given him a copy so we could get in easily. The place was spa**ely furnished. It wasn’t surprising since he was only here on a project, but it stillseemed empty, considering he had been here for four months. It was a small, two-bedroom house, so itdidn’t take us long to double-check for any other inhabitants. “There’s not much to work with here,” I said as I looked into the second bedroom, which was emptyexcept for an unmade bed and a nightstand. “Hopefully, that means it’ll be easy to replace something,” Theo said, flipping through a stack of mail.“There’s also a basement and a small attic space. And be on the lookout for any hiding places.” Chapter 61: Briggs We checked through the main part of the house and didn’t replace anything. Theo stood on a chair to see ifthere was anything in the attic. He was able to get the panel open, but we would need a ladder to get abetter look. That wasn’t an option, so we decided to move on to the basement. The basement door was through a covered porch at the back of the house. As we stepped out, Theostopped in front of me and cursed under his breath. He walked up to the door. There was a padlockinstalled on the door. From the look on Theo’s face, I don’t think he was expecting that. “I’m guessing this isn’t Ozzy’s doing,” I said. “No,” Theo replied, shaking his head. “He said the house key worked on all the doors.”

To prevent Randall from knowing anyone had been in the house, we had doused ourselves in a sprayto cover our scents. We ensured that anything disturbed had been put back in place. But I didn’t knowhow we would get around the padlock without him noticing. “Sh*t,” Theo said in frustration. “He’s got to be hiding something down there. Go see if you can replace thekey. I went back into the house and started looking through drawers, cabinets, and any containers that mayhold the key. After fifteen minutes, I didn’t have any luck. When I came back out, Theo was comingback up the porch stairs with a pair of bolt cutters. “Where the hell did those come from?” “The utility shed,” he replied, tipping his head toward the small wooden structure in the back corner ofthe yard. “I called Ozzy. He said he keeps tools there for maintenance.” Chapter 61: Briggs 288 iVouchers “If we cut the lock, he’ll know we were here,” I insisted. “That only matters if we don’t replace anything,” Theo said determinedly. “But Ozzy said he’d cover for us ifwe don’t. The padlock is against the lease agreement.” He cut the lock in seconds and opened the door. We headed down the rickety wooden stairs. Therewas a light switch at the bottom. Theo flipped it on. For a moment, my hopes sank. Except for a few oldboxes and building materials, it was also pretty empty. There was a door under the stairs, though. Theowent over and tried the k**b. It was locked. He tried the house key, but it didn’t work. “Check over there for a screwdriver or something,” Theo said, indicating the pile of stuff in the corner. While I searched through, he ran back up the stairs, probably returning to the tool shed. I could sensehis determination growing. He was confident we would replace something here. But as my ownexpectations. were shrinking, I started to wonder if he was just getting desperate. I understood hisfears. This was our last lead. But I was worried if this came to nothing, he would begin to spiral again. I rummaged through the pile of odds. Right as Theo was coming back down, I found a screwdriver inone of the boxes. He had one also, along with a mallet. We returned to the door, and Theo started to

remove the doorknob. Once it was off, he yanked the door open. The moment we looked inside, my concerns about Theo disappeared. 15:23