Page 116 of Like A Moth To A Flame

Lie.

That was a fucking lie.

Everything was not great. I’d just found out my childhood hero was stalking me.

Fucking funny how that worked.

“Something I can help you with?”

I cleared my throat, realizing I’d been staring.

“Uh, yeah. I’m here to see Tommy.”

He blinked, looking down at the desk. I could see him trying to think of an excuse, or maybe a reason why I’d be here.

Oh yeah, I wasn’t supposed to know.

Whoops.

“Sure, no problem,” he said after a minute, lifting from his seat. He snatched a ring of keys off the desk beside him and moved down the aisle. At the back of the room, a single steel door with a hashmark window separated us from the cells, and my heart sped up when I looked at it.

He was in there, behind that door.

It isn’t too late to turn around and walk out,the voice in my head reminded me, but I cleared my throat to force it away.

I had to do this. I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t.

Besides, my inner monologue was pretty fucking stupid if she thought this meant it was over. I had a sneaking suspicion it would never be over.

Sheriff Banner unlocked the door with a dull thunk of finality that felt like a door slamming somewhere around my heart. Myentire body shook as I followed after him, and it only intensified when he pushed the door closed behind us with a dull thunk.

“Uh,” I started, turning to look at him. Except I couldn’t look him in the eyes. “Do you think I could talk to him alone?”

The way he looked at me was an odd mixture I couldn’t quite place. It was concern, confusion, and questioning all rolled into one.

“That’d be fine,” he said finally, giving me a nod. “I’ll just—”

He waved the keyring in the direction of the door we’d just come through and sighed.

“I’ll be sitting out here when you’re ready to go. Just knock on the window. He’s at the end of the hall there.”

He pointed to the last cell on the right, and I nodded.

After thanking him, we parted ways. I forced myself to hurry down the hall, taking my time when I reached the end. My heart was pounding and fluttering, skipping beats until I felt like my soul was set to leave my body. When I looked up, I caught his gaze, and I nearly hit the ground.

He was sitting on a long, low bench, pressed close to the bars. His hands wrapped around the steel, and his piercing brown eyes looked up at me. He clenched his stubbled jaw, remaining stone-cold and stoic as I approached the bars. I held onto the strap of my purse so tightly that part of me worried my fingers would turn purple and fall off. I recognized everything now—pieces of a puzzle that fell so correctly into place that I wondered how I had been stupid enough not to see it before. His broad shoulders, the slicked-back dark hair that I’d buried my fingers in, and theintense, tar-pit pool of his eyes that I’d found myself so hopelessly stuck in so many times.

When I stepped up to the cell, I sucked in a shaking breath, and the smell overwhelmed me. The scent of him slammed into my chest with so much force that I rocked on the spot.

There was no questioning it now.

I knew that smell. There was no denying it now if there ever had been before.

He was quiet, looking up at me, his eyes darkening when they met mine, and I almost lost my nerve. Almost.

How did he do that? How the fuck did he control me with just a look?

He stared up at me, meeting my eyes unapologetically, like he hadn’t been stalking me for weeks.

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