Forbidden With Me - Leigh Lennon Page 0,55

to end the subject. “Did you get some dinner?” His concern for me, in the way his tone fluctuates, has me swooning where I’m lying across the large overstuffed chair with my feet dangling off the side.

“Yeah, I ordered pizza. Kenzie had some, too, so if we’d been poisoned, we’ll both die.” I think it’s funny, but when Wells doesn’t join my laughter, I know he isn’t entertained.

“That’s not funny, Mal.” There is it again. I love sweetheart falling from his lips, but hell, Mal is more personal. And this is what I want from him, personal.

“So, are you going to tell me what you found?” I ask, and the hitch in my voice or maybe the crack in the tone tells him the sudden shift of subject has me nervous as shit.

“We’ll talk, sweetheart, when I get home.” Home, it’s the one thing I’ve never been able to call my aunt's house. It had been the closest thing since the murders, but creating my own family is all I want in this world with the man on the other line.

“Okay, how far out are you?” The knob turns, and when I think Kenzie is coming back in the house, it’s Wells, and he has a large goofy big-toothed grin on his handsome face.

“You’re a jerk.” I stay in the large overstuffed chair because I want to throw my arms around him as I’d imagined as a young girl—picturing my future.

“Ah, that’s nothing compared to what you did to me.” He’s slipping out of his work boots, coming straight over to the couch, kitty-corner from me, and as close to me as he can get.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I retort, switching the subject. “So, the uniforms are going home?” I ask, using the same cop lingo as him and Stewart.

“Well, they are leaving soon, but the upper brass are putting uniforms with you twenty-four hours a day, regardless if you’re with me or not.”

I catapult from my comfortable position, sitting as close to Wells, as I can get without leaving this chair.

“What has happened to warrant this, from this morning?” My pulse races, as I feel my face redden, and a sheen of sweat ascends on my forehead. He doesn’t look away, taking my hand in his. “Wells, please don’t sugar coat it.”

With his free hand, he rubs the back of his neck. “We believe the murderer snuck into your house and wrote a message. And in that message, we think there’s another set of victims who have not been called in or found yet.”

I narrow my eyes, and confusion clouds my mind. Taking my free hand, I steady myself, though, I’m sitting on my own.

“What do you mean?” I begin. “You think he’ll kill again, then get out there and solve it before he kills another person.” It’s my demand, and he sits motionless. “Fuck, Wells, why are you still sitting there? I don’t want to be the reason another family is gone.” I fall to my knees and start swinging at him. He kneels next to me, taking my beating, his hands soothing my back.

“Mal, sweetheart. Is this what you think? The murders are your fault?”

I can hear him, his words penetrate my mind, and my thoughts, but the anxiety is overtaking me by the second. I attempt to stand, and I’m rattling something off, I can’t make out, but I still absorb every little lull Wells pours on me. “You can’t leave; I won’t let you,” he whispers in my ears. Is this what I’m saying—that I want to leave? I’m so out of it. I have no idea what’s coming from my mouth.

My senses are on overdrive. His every touch is intensified as if he’s in my skin. When the sound of the door slamming registers, he has me scooped up and in his arms.

“She okay?” It’s foreign to this scene playing out between Wells and me, though I’m positive the voice is Stewart.

“Yeah, just having a hard time…” His voice trails off, and kisses assault my skin. Again, the sensation is intensified by a thousand. I love his lips on me, though it’s for all the wrong reasons. People are dead because of me, people who will never have a love for another as intense as I have with this man.

But he’s not finished telling me about the other family and why he can’t save them. “No!” I scream because I won’t be the reason for another death. “You gotta go save