Her eyes shone. “I thought it was random. Nothing to do with me. But after the note last night…”
“You think it’s the same person doing these things. Tommy?”
I was trying to stay cool and calm because I didn’t want to upset her even more. But if Pickering was behind this, they weren’t going to find his fucking body when I was done with him.
“I don’t know. I don’t see why he would do it. He didn’t care about Jessa.”
I didn’t understand it either, but the whole thing had me on edge. “You shouldn’t be going anywhere alone.”
“A little harassment isn’t going to kill me.”
“I really don’t like that choice of words.”
She twisted a strand of her dark hair around her finger. “Whoever was doing it in high school never said anything to my face or threatened me. They just wanted to make me miserable. Clearly they want the same thing now. When I was at the motel…”
I sat up. “The serial killer motel?” I asked incredulously. “Something happened there?”
That strand of hair kept winding tighter and tighter around her finger. “I might’ve thought someone was watching me a couple times at night.”
“Fucking hell, Z. You should’ve shared all this before.”
“I didn’t connect it all until last night. And I didn’t want to talk about it when you got here. You’d had a long day, and I just wanted…”
“To be cozy with me?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
My arm hooked around her, tugging her into my side. Where she belonged.
If Teller Landry had still been chief of police, I would’ve called him up right now. We had to find out who was harassing her and vandalizing Hearthstone.
Now that Chief Susan Nichols was in charge, I was sure she’d do a good job as well. But I just didn’t know the new chief as well as my friend. I wasn’t entirely confident in Chief Nichols keeping this quiet, and I had the feeling Z didn’t want to be a renewed subject of Silver Ridge gossip.
Teller was still a part-time member of Silver Ridge PD, though. I could ask for his advice. Earlier this year, when Ayla had a stalker, Teller had used some less official means of investigation.
I’d have to look into that later.
“Even better reason for me to keep you here,” I said. “We have cameras and an alarm system. Installed them when my sister lived here and there was a break-in. It’s perfect.”
“I amnotmoving in with you.”
“You’re supposed to be saying yes to everything today.”
“Not if it’s unreasonable.”
“You know I’d treat you right. It would be like a sexy B&B. Meals included. Booty calls on demand.”
She laughed. “And I know you’re not serious.”
“I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” I pulled her on top of me,nudging her to straddle me high enough that I could kiss her breasts. They overflowed my hands when I cupped them. So sexy. I could feast on these all day.
“Because we’re—I don’t know what we are.”
“Do we need a label?” I licked her nipple and then sucked it into my mouth. She moaned before batting me away.
“We have another month of working together, and then one of us will be the boss.”
“So, we have a month of enjoying this. That’s what I’m hearing.”