Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“You can,” I whispered against the crown of his head, his hair soft against my lips. I kissed him. “We can, Noah.”
He sniffled and patted his cheeks. My shirt was stained with his tears, the light red fabric turning dark around my chest. “No, I refuse to put you in any danger, Jake.”
“Danger is a part of life. It can come at you slow, something that takes your mind and body from you at a snail’s pace, or it can come fast, in a car crash that turns off all the lights in the blink of an eye. Me being away from you doesn’t keep me safe. I can trip down the stairs leaving your house and die from hitting my head, and that’s probably way more likely than being murdered by whoever this lunatic is. They’re all bark and barely any bite.
“Don’t give them this power, Noah. Don’t let anyone tear us apart.”
“I don’t want to let anyone do that, but I feel like they’re getting more desperate, and that means that we have to take this threat seriously.”
“And we will. We’ll be extra careful; we’ll make sure neither of us is alone for long. And we’ll keep trying to figure out who’s behind this so they can be locked up.” I took his head in my heads, drawing his glassy eyes up to mine. “Please, trust me. I don’t want to lose you.”
The words were the most honest I’d ever spoken. They were imprinted on my heart, across my ribs, down my spine. I didn’t want to lose Noah. Not now, not ever. He was the best thing to have ever happened to me. The reason why I woke up with a smile on my face. A smile. I thought only sociopaths woke up grinning, but I was wrong. There were other reasons to feel thrilled about the day ahead, and all those reasons were looking directly into my eyes. He was a story that I never wanted to end, never wanted to get to the last page. He was my everything. Sun, stars, ocean, and air.
“I can’t lose you.” I rubbed away a streak of moisture just under his eye.
“I’m sorry…”
He pulled away from me, turned his back to me, his head shaking. It was like getting impaled with a harpoon. A sudden and painful shock spread through me. Had I really lost him? Was this really going to be the thing that snuffed out our growing flame? I didn’t want it to be true—I couldn’t have it be true. But what else was I supposed to do?
Beg. I’ll get down on my knees and beg for you, Noah. Please.
He turned back around, his upper lip quivering. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
That gave me a dose of momentary relief. But our relationship still wasn’t out of danger yet. “Are you kidding me? My life could use a little extra excitement. I was getting so bored of my routine that I was seriously considering selling my shit and trying out van life.” I was able to muster up a wink, trying my damnedest to inject some light back into his situation.
“Really?”
I shook my head. “No, just joking. I can’t live without my memory foam mattress and rainfall showerhead.”
“Yeah, I was gonna say.” He arched a judgmental brow at me.
“What? You don’t think I can do it.”
“You just said it yourself, you can’t do it.”
My lips curled into a half-cocked smile. “I can never win an argument with you.”
“No, you can’t. And that was an argument?”
“It’s the most heated we’ve ever gotten with each other. And I don’t see us arguing any more than that, ever, so yeah. Glad we survived it.” I reached for his hand again. I simultaneously wanted to burst out into ballroom dance with him and yank him out of the door at the same time so that we could run and run and run, far away from all the bullshit that bogged us down.
“Come on. Let’s go to the police station and show them this text. Then we can come back home, shower, and get in bed. I’ve got some trashy movies we can put on. We can put this day behind us. When tomorrow comes, we’ll be rested and ready to hunt this fucker down.”
Noah swallowed what appeared to have been a boulder-sized lump of emotion. He nodded, no longer able to produce many tears but still sniffling. His hands squeezed around mine, and his head came to rest on my shoulder, his nose buried in the crook of my neck. We stayed that way for a long moment until Noah’s breathing calmed down and the sniffling had stopped. I could have stayed there forever, happy with feeling his heartbeat against mine, knowing that not even a couple of inches separated our bodies.