The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Behind Me
I let him stand behind me on a Tuesday night, with the lights off.
It was the first week of November, and the dark came down at half past four.
He had cooked in my kitchen, which until that month had never held a second person.
He had made the spaghetti and I had watched him make it.
We had eaten at opposite ends of my little table with the rain on the glass.
Then I had washed the plates, and he had dried them, and neither of us had spoken.
I stood at the window with my hands on the sill.
The bay was black.
A container ship moved across it, lit like a street, very slowly.
"Niko," I said.
"Yes."
"Come here."
He crossed the room behind me.
I heard each step on the boards.
I heard him stop, and I did not turn.
My shoulders were tight as rope.
The old animal in me had the knife halfway down my sleeve before I decided to let it go.
"Stand behind me," I said.
"Lena," he said.
"I'm telling you.
"I'm not asking.
"I want to find out what it is when it's you."
He did not move for a moment.
Then he came up behind me, close, so that I felt the heat of him down my back before he touched me.
He did not touch me.
He stood with his chest an inch from my spine and his hands at his sides, and I could hear him breathe.
It was the longest minute of my life.
I made myself look at the ship.
I watched the lights on its deck.
The hair on my arms stood up, and my heart tried to climb out of my throat.
And nothing happened.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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