“I couldn’t even fathom it. It confused me. I didn’t understand why I’d put in the effort to fix it when there was nothing to save.”
I pulled him closer, right up against my chest. “I’m terrified that going to see Tate’s grandmother and helping you remember what happened will take you away from me. I can’t stand it. But… If there’s even a remote possibility she can help us, that she can explain how you’re here, how I can keep you here, I’ll do it. I’d do anything to keep you, Charlie. I’d give everything I have. You say you’d follow me anywhere, but I’d go to the ends of the Earth for you.”
He rested his forehead against mine and breathed deeply. “I can’t put words to how much I hope for that, no matter how impossible it seems. But if anyone can do it, I know it’s you. My grumpy, stubborn, irritatingly perfect man.”
“Perfect?”I asked, my chest swelling three sizes at being calledhis. “I’ll remind you of that the next time I burn your grilled cheese.”
He flicked my ear. “I prefaced that with irritating for a reason.”
I chuckled, nuzzling into the bend in his neck. “You love it.”
He smiled, eyes soft and twinkling in the dim glow of the fairy lights all around. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I think I do.”
My chest cracked open. I pulled away, just enough to look at him—toreallylook at him. I wanted him to feel the weight of the words on my tongue.
Before I could say them, though, a slight movement just over his head caught my eye. I peered up, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the pitch black darkness, only to find the outline of a man standing right outside the window, staring at us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ishot up, fumbling for the gun I kept in the nightstand. The sound of boots hitting the deck jarred Charlie upright as well.
“What the fuck is that?” he yelled, confused.
I slammed the clip into the gun and made for the exit. “Stay inside!”
“Wait!” he yelled, just as I opened the door. Judging by the sound of the man’s steps, he was already on the stairs. “Don’t!”
His voice was desperate enough to make me pause. “He’s getting away!”
“He wants you to follow him, you idiot!” He untangled himself from the sheets and lurched forward to grab my arm. “Don’t.”
I shook him off and ran out onto the deck just in time to hear a loud metallicbang,followed by a pained shout. The whole tower shook.
“I think he tripped on the stairs,” I hollered back to Charlie. “I’m just going to go?—”
Charlie’s nails dug into my arm. “It’s a trap,” he snarled. “If you go out there, he’ll kill you.”
Just then, the beam of a flashlight lit up a small strip of the ground below, erratically bobbing back and forth as it moved away from the tower and into the trees at a fast clip.
“He’s getting away again! I could catch up, I could?—”
Charlie yanked me by the nape of the neck back into the tower and slammed the door, throwing the lock into place. He strode over to the solar light panel and flicked off the switch, plunging us into darkness.
Then his hands were on my shoulders, holding me fast. “Youcouldcatch up, because hewantsyou to catch up. He’s been luring you and me and Janine and probably every other poor, naïve hiker he’s killed into a trap. He’s a predator. He knows those woods better than you, and he’s hunting you. Don’t let him.”
I breathed through my rising panic long enough to see the sense in Charlie’s words. “You’re right,” I said, voice scratchy. “I’m sorry.”
“Of course I am,” he said, and then he threw his arms around me, clutching on as if his life depended on it, trembling violently.
I shuffled backward to where I knew the bed would be, keeping an eye on the door and holding him close with one arm until we tumbled down. Setting the gun on the nightstand, I tucked Charlie under my arm.
“We’ll sit here together,” I whispered. “And we’ll watch—all night long. If he comes back up those stairs, I’ll shoot him.”
Charlie nodded.
“I should call Tate,” I said, reaching for my phone.
He picked up on the fourth ring. “This had better be an emergency,” he said with a yawn.
