Just holds it. Doesn't say anything. Doesn't need to.
The fire crackles. The storm rages outside. And I sit in the warmth of his cabin, my hand in his, feeling like maybe I crashed into exactly the right place after all.
CHAPTER FOUR
WOLFE
Iwatch her sleep.
Not in a creepy way. At least, I tell myself it's not creepy. I'm sitting in my chair by the fire, and she's on the couch because she fell asleep there after dinner and I didn't have the heart to wake her. The quilt is pulled up to her chin, her dark hair fanned across the pillow I brought her, her face soft and unguarded in a way it never is when she's awake.
She talks in her sleep. Of course she does. Mumbled words I can't quite make out, little sighs and shifts, her brow furrowing at whatever dreams are playing behind her eyes.
My hand itches to smooth that furrow away. I keep it locked on the arm of my chair.
Three days. She's been in my cabin for three days, and I'm already in trouble. The kind of trouble I swore I'd never let myself get into again.
Her phone sits on the side table where she left it. I pick it up, entering the passcode she gave me when I charged it that first night. I scroll to her camera roll, to the screenshots she showed me earlier.
SunriseWatcher_23.
The comments are worse when I read them again. More possessive. More knowing. Whoever this is has been watching her for months, tracking her movements, building a picture of her life. The kind of obsessive attention that doesn't just fade away.
I pull out my satellite phone and dial Mace. Guardian Peak's communication systems work independent of cell towers. One of the benefits of being a security outfit that operates off-grid.
He answers on the second ring. "Hendrix. It's past midnight."
"Need you to run a trace. Social media account, username SunriseWatcher_23. Cross-reference with Derek Whitmore, San Diego area. Her ex-boyfriend."
A pause. I hear him moving, probably heading to his computer. "You think the ex is stalking her?"
"There are comments. All with a pattern too specific to be coincidence. He knew her locations before she posted them. Knew details he shouldn't know."
"Give me an hour."
I end the call and sit in the dark, watching Sadie sleep, running through scenarios in my head. If Derek is behind the account, what's his endgame? Surveillance? Intimidation? Or something worse?
The satellite phone buzzes forty-three minutes later.
"Got your intel." Mace sounds more alert now, focused. "SunriseWatcher_23 is registered to a burner email, but we tracked the IP through a VPN bounce. Took some doing, but Sully's good at his job." A pause. "The account was created three days after your guest's breakup. Every login originates from the San Diego area. And here's the kicker: the access patterns match up with the schedule of one Derek Whitmore."
The confirmation settles in my gut like a stone.
"Former tech startup guy, currently working in venture capital," Mace continues. "On paper, he's clean. No record, no restraining orders, nothing official. But I dug deeper. He's been engaged three times before this. All three engagements ended after the women filed harassment complaints that were later dropped."
My grip tightens on the phone. "Dropped why?"
"Settlements. NDAs. His family has money. The kind of money that makes problems disappear."
I process this. The picture forming in my head is uglier than I expected. Not just a jealous ex. A predator with resources and a pattern.
"There's more." Mace's voice drops. "Sheriff Parker got a call yesterday from a guy matching Whitmore's description. Said he was looking for his girlfriend, showed her picture around at Darlene's Diner. Claimed she went hiking and never came back, asked if anyone had seen her."
"He's in Whisper Vale?"
"Was. Storm drove everyone indoors before we could get eyes on him. He's probably holed up at the inn or one of the rental cabins, waiting it out." A beat. "Wolfe, this guy drove through a blizzard warning to get here. That's not casual concern. That's obsession."
I look through the doorway at Sadie, still sleeping on my couch. Peaceful. Unaware that the man who spent three months stalking her online is now fifteen miles away, waiting for the storm to clear.
