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I watched her as the sun rose higher in the sky and flooded the bedrooht She was usually awake at the crack of dawn, and her sleepiness told ht

Since I had work to do, I couldn’t wait around forever I got out of bed, took a quick shower, and then headed to the base Crow and I had a brief conversation on the phone just before we prepared to leave for our flight, so not much was said

But he was definitely pissed

I got to the base, took care of a few things, and then found Crow sitting in the asseuns were stacked on shelves while the others were on tables in the center of the rooun work needed to be co in his pockets He was staring straight ahead at a plain wall He was absolutely still like one of the statues in Role breath His expression didn’t seem different because he wore the same look of consternation at all times

But I kneasn’t the same man anymore

I walked down the aisle and stopped when I was ten feet away He was in a black suit, obviously intent on heading to the winery when he was finished at the warehouse I gave him the opportunity to speak first, to see just how sour his mood was

But he didn’t speak He didn’t even look at me

This was going to be a bad day

“Pretty fascinating wall, huh?” I tried to lighten thea smartass It usually coaxed Crow into so on the table and felt it inthe smooth barrel before I returned it to the table

Crow turned his head slightly to look at me, but his reaction was exactly the same He didn’t spit out some harsh insult or tell me to jump off a cliff

Noas really worried “What did Pearl do?”

He turned his gaze back to the wall

I tried to be patient and wait for Crow to speak when he finally found the words My brother was the strong and silent type, but he usually had hts in his head to keep thehtly that he couldn’t unhinge it to talk