“It’s the most heated we’ve ever gotten with each other. And I don’t see us arguing any more than that, ever, so yeah. Glad we survived it.” I reached for his hand again. I simultaneously wanted to burst out into ballroom dance with him and yank him out of the door at the same time so that we could run and run and run, far away from all the bullshit that bogged us down.

“Come on. Let’s go to the police station and show them this text. Then we can come back home, shower, and get in bed. I’ve got some trashy movies we can put on. We can put this day behind us. When tomorrow comes, we’ll be rested and ready to hunt this fucker down.”

Noah swallowed what appeared to have been a boulder-sized lump of emotion. He nodded, no longer able to produce many tears but still sniffling. His hands squeezed around mine, and his head came to rest on my shoulder, his nose buried in the crook of my neck. We stayed that way for a long moment until Noah’s breathing calmed down and the sniffling had stopped. I could have stayed there forever, happy with feeling his heartbeat against mine, knowing that not even a couple of inches separated our bodies.

But we had shit to do, and the main thing on that to-do list: finding the sick fuck before he found us.

23. Noah Barnes

23

NOAH BARNES

“Gah damn, this place is huge,” Jake said, looking out the window as he pulled into the driveway, gravel sounding like a rocky symphony underneath the tires. He wasn’t exaggerating either. Robby’s parents’ cabin was something pulled directly out of a movie featuring sparkly vampires and awkward teenage angst. It was a mix of modern with a splash of classic: windows that stretched along the dark black wood, a wraparound deck that sported plenty of hanging chairs and comfortable benches, a white stone trim that blended in with the puffy white clouds that seemed to be touching the tip of the roof from how high up in the mountains we were. It was the only cabin on the road, perched on the edge of the cliff like a queen peering down at her woodsy kingdom.

This weekend was our book club mountain retreat, and hollllly crap did I need this escape.

The past week felt like I was living through a daily nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. Every second that ticked by was another second I expected the axe hanging over my head to drop. The police took down the threat and promised they were trying their best to find this person but couldn’t give me any guarantees, only warnings: stay with others, don’t go anywhere alone, change my number and my locks, increase security, blah blah blah.