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I don’t have to play games with her every night. I don’t have to take her to the park every day when it’s sunny. I don’t need to chase down those natural springs—we’ve visited seven of them so far, and I still don’t like the water.
But I like spending time with her. I like her laugh, beautiful and cheery, like bells ringing. I like her smile, and how her eyes turn the prettiest shade of silver when she’s happy.
I like how smart she is, and that dry sense of humor, and when she pokes fun at herself, so self-aware but still confident. And I like her curves, the ones that tempt me in my sleep. That hourglass figure that sways just the right amount when she walks, and makes me nearly swallow my tongue whenever she bends over.
Not that I’m noticing. Much.
Maybe after all this is over, and if I still feel the same way, then maybe I’ll talk to her about it.
For now, I’ll keep things professional and—
Charlie comes out of her bedroom wearing a sundress, and I almost fall out of my seat.
It’s not revealing at all, falling just above her knees, and the neckline a shallow V that only hints at her cleavage. But it’s the way the fabric drapes across her breasts, over her hips, and I wonder what she’ll look like when she turns around—
“Ry, did Leo come back with the mail yet?” Another thing, somehow she started calling me Ry instead of Rylan and I like that, too.
“He should be coming back any second,” I say, quickly moving behind the small kitchen island so she can’t see exactly what that dress did to me.
“My new game was delivered,” she says, smiling. “So now I can kick your butt for a change.” I keep teasing Charlie, saying that I’m letting her win at Grand Theft Auto, but she beats me fair and square every time.
Charlie comes over to the other side of the island and sits down at one of the stools, facing me. She sets her phone on the polished white marble and spins it with a finger. “What should we have for breakfast? Or did you eat after your workout?”
One perk about Charlie’s building is that it has a gym, so Leo and I can take turns watching Charlie and getting our workouts in.
“Just a protein shake and a granola bar. So, I could eat again.”
There’s a quick sequence of knocks at the front door, interrupting our conversation. Even though the door is locked and Leo has the key, we always use Morse code to communicate when we’re guarding someone. Not that I think anyone is going to incapacitate Leo on his way from the mailbox to here, steal the key, and try to break in—but we always err on the side of caution.
A second later he walks in, and from the first glance at Leo’s face, I know something’s wrong. There’s a stack of envelopes in one hand, much thicker than any other day since we’ve been here; in the other, the expected package from Amazon.
“Oh!” Charlie leaps up and heads toward Leo. “My game!”
“Wait.” Leo’s voice is low, calm but commanding. I don’t need to hear anything else; I’ve worked with Leo long enough to know what he really means.
There’s a problem.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie stops a few feet from Leo, her brows arching up in concern. I come around from the counter to stand next to her, putting my hand gently on her arm.
“There’s some concerning mail.” Leo walks to the counter and puts the Amazon package down, still holding on to the stack of envelopes.
I lift my chin at him. “What do we have?”
Splaying the envelopes out like a deck of cards, Leo shows them to me. “There are ten of them, all handwritten envelopes, no return addresses, and look at the writing—sharp, heavy strokes on most of them.” He glances at Charlie, explaining, “That’s often an emotional tell of anger.”
Jaw tight, Leo continues, “Considering Charlie usually gets one or two pieces of mail a day, all typed, from official institutions with return addresses, these seem… suspicious.”
Shit. As soon as we got the case, Leo scrubbed Charlie’s address from the internet, which means somehow it got out there again. And my guess is it’s the same person behind all this other crap, finding a new way to fuck with Charlie.
Charlie tenses under my hand. “So these people watching the videos know where I live now?”
“We won’t know until we open the mail,” I say, hating the look of fear on her face. “But it’s likely your address was made public somewhere online.”
“Your building is very secure,” Leo reassures her. “I’ll add more surveillance cameras outside the front and rear entrances, just in case. But you have an alarm on your door, it’s triple locked, and we’re here in case there’s a physical threat.”
I still don’t feel great about it. I turn to Charlie. “Maybe we should think about moving you to Blade and Arrow.”
“I can’t, Ry.” She frowns, her brows pulling into a little V. “I need to find a job. I have bills and my savings are running out. Rent, student loans, paying for my health insurance, my car…” She sucks in a shaky breath, her voice going wobbly. “I don’t have anyone to help. I need to stay here and find a job.”
