Page 101 of Love Me Fearless

Anger flares hot beneath my skin. “Did he touch you?”

“No. But his eyes…through that awful mask…”

“What did you do?”

“That’s when I screamed.”

Atta girl, I want to say, but I don’t think she’s in the right mindset for praise. “And he just…left?”

“He was gone in a flash. It happened so fast. Like the whole encounter lasted maybe five seconds.”

From what Ava shared with me at the time, I know that theintruder had come in a window but left through the front door. That nothing else was disturbed or taken. A set of fingerprints was found on the doorknob but not the window. Like the perp had used gloves to get in, but had taken them off once he was inside, then must have forgotten to put them on when he fled.

If Ava hadn’t screamed, what would he have done to her? I shut that thought down—I can’t go there.

“Where was the rose?” I ask.

“I think it was in his hand.”

“You think?”

“It doesn’t make sense.” She gives a frustrated sigh. “I woke up and he was there, staring down at me. The rose is touching me…” Her fingertips brush the place between my collar bones. “Here. But I don’t remember him holding it.”

“He must have left it behind when he took off,” I say.

She sighs, her warm breath tickling my skin.

“And nothing else happened? You don’t remember seeing anyone following you? No roses left for you to find?”

“No. I got the feeling that my scream…scared him.”

This would be a really great question for Luke Ballard, who hasn’t texted me back yet.

“The detective told me that the prints didn’t match any they had in the database. I think he pretty much dropped the investigation after that. Though the detective working on Nichole-Renée’s disappearance paid me a visit.”

“Did he think the two were connected?”

“He didn’t exactly say so, but…why else would he have reached out?”

It’s what I had been afraid of, too.

It makes sense now what spooked her about the rose. I release a heavy sigh and caress the smooth plane of her shoulder blade. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

Ava wraps her arm tighter around me. “You’re a pretty incredible listener.”

I curl up so I can kiss the top of her head. Telling her that I’m here anytime is on the tip of my tongue but I swallow the words because that’s not a promise I know how to keep. At least not yet.

“Does talking to me help?” I ask.

“This helps,” she says in a sleepy voice, curling closer to me.

I adjust the comforter so she’s covered then gently stroke her hair until her breaths grow heavy and she drifts back to sleep.

It takes me a while to downshift thanks to the questions spinning round and round in my mind. Is the person who broke into her San Francisco apartment the same person who left that rose on her car today? I denied it in the moment, but what if I’m wrong? If Zach found prints, that would give him something to compare to, assuming the San Francisco detective still has that evidence and is willing to cooperate.

What about Marin and those bones? Are they connected to this too?

Walkingto the pale light peeking through the blinds and Ava tucked against my chest stirs up feelings I don’t know how to process. I like her in my bed. In my bathroom. At my family’s dinner table, laughing and teasing alongside my sisters and my mom. I like waking up with her curled into me, like it’s the most natural thing in the world. And I like that she feels okay sharing her fears. It’s a gift I’ll never take for granted.

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