“He was just here.”
“Fuck.”
I put him on speaker so Charlie and I could fill him in on what happened, and I swore I heard a faint “Who isit?”whispered in the background before Tate prompted us to continue.
He sighed once we finished. “And he’s not trying to get in? He ran off?”
“Yeah. Not sure if he’s still out there waiting or if he left. I didn’t follow.”
“It’s probably best that you didn’t. Stay in the tower, I’ll call the station and have a response out to you in?—”
“Wait,” Charlie cut in, a hand on my arm. “Let’s think about this.”
“What do you mean?” Tate asked.
“Other than the three of us, does anyone else know about me? Have you said anything about having a guest up here with you? Maybe that someone hiked in to stay?” he asked me.
“No. I didn’t want to lie, I’m just not sure how to approach that conversation with Dad or Bobby.”
He soothed his hand along my arm. “I understand that. What I’m saying is, he saw… us.” He shuddered, and my blood boiled that such a tender, intimate moment had been tainted and violated.
“Tate is the only other person who knows you’re not alone,” Charlie continued. “Tate, andhim.If we are the only ones who know, the killer could slip up and admit to knowing something only the three of us do.”
Tate hummed, considering. “Did you see him? Or what he was wearing? Is there anything more you could identify him by than the first time he lured you into the woods?”
“No. I only saw an outline, and then he ran.”
He sighed. “I need to think about this. If you can’t help, it might be beneficial to keep it to ourselves for now. Even the information that he was out there at all, never mind Charlie, would be a secret. I’ll talk it over with Waters, see what he thinks about divulging this more widely.”
“You two working better together now, are you?”
I could hear the scowl through the phone. “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve always been perfectly cordial.”
There was a whisper of a chuckle in the background.
We decided that, given a response would be at least a half-hour out by helicopter and the killer had already fled, Tate would consider what was shared more widely in the morning. For now, Charlie and I would hole up and hike out at first light.
After we hung up, I ran a hand through his hair, tangling my fingers in the soft strands. “That was a good idea. You’re so much smarter at all this than I am.”
He kissed my shoulder. “And you’re hellbent on charging into danger to protect the people you care about.”
“You sound irritated by that.”
“I am irritated by that.Irritatinglyperfect, remember?”
How could he make me want to laugh in a moment like this?
“I love you,” I whispered, voice warm and adoring. The confession just slipped out, and it was shitty timing, but I’d never felt more sure about something in my life. Judging by the way the emotion swelled in me, sudden and overwhelming, I knew I’d felt it for far longer than I realized.
Charlie scoffed but leaned in to kiss me, hard and quick. “I’m not saying it back until it’s romantic again. Huddled in the dark with a serial killer outside is not how I want my first real love confession to go.”
I grinned even though he couldn’t see and kissed his temple. “Alright.”
“But I do, you know.”
“Mmhmm.”
“I’m just not saying it until my twinkle lights are back on.”
