“That’d be fun. We should go on a double date,” Ashley said, our conversation pivoting but the dark cloud still looming overhead.

Truth was, I likely would continue to keep being worried until whoever was behind this was caught and made to answer for their fucked-up thinking. There was a certain sense of violation to think that someone was fidgeting with my locked window and trying to get inside my home while Noah and I slept peacefully together. I tried to keep hopeful, tried to think that maybe the cops would do their jobs and figure out who was behind this. And if they didn’t, then maybe Noah and I could.

One way or another, it had to end. I didn’t want Noah to jump at every shadow and second-guess every tiny noise.

“Right?” Ashley waved a hand in my face, pulling me out of my dark thoughts. “Hello?”

“Yeah, yeah. A double date sounds fun.”

“But what do you think about my idea?”

She must have read the question on my face. What idea?

“To have a Cats watch party, Jake. We obviously won’t watch the entire thing—I don’t have years to spend. But we can play that drinking game you made up. Every time they lick themselves, purr, sing the word ‘jellicle.’”

I laughed and nodded. “We got blasted the last time we played that.”

“I know, so it’s perfect. Or should I say purrrfect?”

My eyes practically rolled out of my skull, the two of us continuing to laugh even as the car salesman walked back over to us, a clipboard in his hand and a smile on his face. The day was shaping up to be a good one, and I was excited to share it with Noah, wanting to talk to him about Ashley and the Cats drinking game and the way the car salesman tried to get me to buy a dying Honda Civic that Ashley and I were sure was haunted.

I was excited for all that and more, ready to rain kisses on him, every one on him, from his feet to his forehead. I wanted to worship him, spend the evening doing nothing but each other.

Unfortunately for the both of us, life had other plans. Twisted plans. Noah’s nightmare was far from over. In fact, from the moment I picked up his panicked call as I parked my new car in the driveway, I knew that this nightmare had only just begun.

21. Noah Barnes

21

NOAH BARNES