I Let Her Ruin Herself novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Not Alone

Wyatt took the photograph out of my hand by its edges.

He turned it over, read the capital letters, and turned it back.

"Don't touch it again," he said. "Go inside and lock the door."

"You're coming in too."

"I'm checking the yard first."

He walked the whole fence line with his phone flashlight while I stood in the kitchen doorway and watched.

Then he called the police from our porch, in a voice so calm it frightened me more than shouting would have.

A patrol officer came and bagged the envelope.

He photographed the mat, the steps and the dead street light, and told us it would be logged.

"Logged," Wyatt repeated.

"Without a face on a camera, that's what I can do tonight, sir. I'll have a car go by."

When the officer left, I locked the door, and Wyatt stood in my kitchen with his hands braced on the counter.

"My mother's at work until seven," I said.

"I'm staying."

"You don't have to ask."

"I'm not asking." He turned around. "I'll take the couch. I'll take the floor. I'm not leaving you in this house with a window anyone can reach."

"Wyatt."

"I mean it, Ruby."

He looked frightened, and not for himself.

I had never seen a man so plainly afraid of losing me, and I knew where it came from.

He had already lost his sister to the dark.

I crossed the kitchen and put my forehead against his chest.

His arms came around me slowly.

"Don't be careful with me," I said into his shirt.

"I'm trying to be good."

"You are good. I'd like you to be something else for ten minutes."

He laughed once, rough, against my hair.

Then he lifted my chin and kissed me, and it was nothing like the careful kiss at the bridge.

It was hungry, and a little desperate, and I loved it.

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