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WE’RE RIGHT BACK TOsquare one, only this time, the guys are so much more protective. Mali and I are never allowed to be alone. We can be with each other, or we can be with one of them. But the option to stay home or drive ourselves somewhere? Yeah, that’s long gone. It feels a lot like being grounded, but I get it. They’re just trying to keep us safe.
There’s even a day where the girl Mali was scheduled to work with calls out, so Cam sits at Wrapped in Lace with her for her entire shift. Some may call it overkill, but after seeing what this person is capable of, we call it necessary.
Research goes back to the start, too. We got it wrong last time. And even though in the back of my mind I always had a feeling this wasn’t over, I let myself get too comfortable in the quiet of the last couple of weeks. But that taste of my old life, the one where Hayes and I are happy together and everything is great, it’s the main thing driving me to fight back.
We look into everyone that could possibly be a suspect, even Isaac, because it’s not a longshot that he could be acting like it isn’t him—though, that would be a dumbass move given what Hayes has on him now. But he never really did have much of a brain.
“Did you get anything on Craig?” I ask Mali.
She shakes her head. “Nope. He just got engaged to some girl he met at college. I don’t think he even cares enough at this point.”
Thank fuck for that.
“What about Lucas?”
Hayes sighs. “Nope. You were right. Just a squeaky-clean fuckboy with a thing for my wife.”
I smirk. “That’s twice in three days that I’ve been told I’m right.”
Mali groans. “We have to stop that or she’s going to get a complex.”
“Too late,” I singsong.
A part of me thought this was going to be a shitshow, all of us living in the same house, but somehow, it works. Cam goes to the gym at the ass crack of dawn every morning, so he always brings home coffee. Mali and I make breakfast—because the morning Hayes tried, we all felt sick for the rest of the day. He can handle bagels and cereal. Nothing more.
Instead, he’s responsible for making sure his mom is safe. We don’t know what this person is capable of or how far they’re willing to go to get what they want, so he ups his visits to twice a day. Sometimes, I go with him. She loves seeing us back together, and because she’s distracted by that, she doesn’t notice how stressed Hayes is.
But I do.
“All right,” I say, closing the computer and getting up to stretch. “It’s four in the morning and I’m exhausted.”
“Yeah, same,” Mali agrees and calls it a night.
Cam is already upstairs, passed out in the guest room he’s sharing with Mali. He was assigned with looking into Owen, which was simple enough. He was the least likely of all suspects, so it only took a half hour before he was ruled out.
“Are you coming to bed, babe?” I ask Hayes.
He nods but as he gets up, he grabs his laptop to bring with him. “Yeah. I can do this from bed.”
Mali and I share a look and she mouths a silentgood luckat me before heading upstairs.
Ugh.“No, come on,” I press. “Put it down and just come to bed with me. It can wait until tomorrow.”
The truth is, Hayes isn’t sleeping. Like, at all. He thinks I don’t see it because most days, he pretends to fall asleep when I do. But in the middle of the night, I’ll peek my eyes open to see him sitting up in bed, scrolling on his phone.
Even now, I can tell he’s considering just staying down here so he can continue looking into everything, but he’s worn out. It’s all over his face. He just won’t accept the fact that it’s a problem.
“Hayes,” I say softly, stepping closer and resting my hand on his chest. “It’s okay. Let’s just go get some sleep. We can look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.”
He stares past me, and I lightly put a hand on his cheek to make him look into my eyes. It’s the only way I’ll get him to agree. And when his gaze meets mine, I feel him give in as he sighs.
“Okay,” he murmurs, putting the computer back down on the coffee table. “Let’s go to bed.”
It feels like a small win as we walk up the stairs and climb into bed. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close. It’s the only thing that makes me feel comfortable anymore—the feeling of him. He’s my rock, my protector,my home.
And when I wake in the morning to see the computer next to the bed, I know thatheneeds to be protected, too.
THE REALITY OF WHATwe’re dealing with hangs heavily over me. Even though it’s been a relatively quiet front, with only a few taunting text messages and Hayes’s truck tires getting slashed one night while he closed the bar, I know that if we don’t figure this out, we’re in for something dark.
