Page 52 of Papers Don't Lie

“Someone broke in while you were sleeping and put this on the nightstand.” I hand her the envelope, watching how her cheeks turn from red to plain white. She takes a deep breath, touching her heart with a hand.

“Kai, your sister is in the house,” she tells me, true worry shocking through her body.

I shake my head. “He wants you, not my sister. He has no reason to go after her.”

“Are you insane? Go check on her!” She pushes me out of bed. “You don’t know how far Carter’s mind goes.” She hits me with her leg. “Go!”

I take my phone out of my pocket and check the camera in her room. “I checked on her before you woke up. She’s sleeping.” I turn the phone.

Esmeray exhales in relief, hitting her head on the headrest of the bed. “Thank God."

She takes a second to catch her breath before opening the envelope. Esmeray reads it a few times before handing it to me. “The message isn’t as scary as the fact that someone was in this room while I was sleeping. I didn’t think he’d go to this extent.”

With a nod, I read it too.

I always win, Esmeray Hamilton—not Graves. See what I did there? Je sais tout. Remember that when you go to sleep. C.

The wordsthat I repeated over and over in my dream.

“Esmeray, you won’t like what I’m going to say,” I tell her, folding the note and putting it back on the nightstand. “But you’re not going to sleep alone again. I’ll be sleeping on the chair. I’m sorry, but I can’t rest if I don’t know you're safe.”

I can’t rest anyway.

She bites down her bottom lip, hugging herself. “Okay.” She nods.

“Now rest. We’ll figure out what to do next in the morning,” I say, and she lowers herself on the bed, letting me drag the blanket over her. I stand up to close the window, but she grabs on my hand.

“Is tonight not included?” She looks at me from under her lashes, clearly ashamed of asking me this.

I was only going to make sure there are no other entrances in here. There’s no way in hell I’m going back to the other room and leaving her alone.

“It’s not just tonight, Ray. It’s every night for the rest of my life. I’m just going to close the window,” I let her know and walk to the window. I close it and shoot Kendrick a text before sitting down on the chair.

“Kai?” she asks from under the blankets.

“Yeah?”

“You can’t sleep on the chair. Come here.”

“I’m fine.”

“Please," she mutters, and because I don’t want to agitate her anymore, I do as she says, getting into the bed.

My body is as much as possible glued to the edge, not even one of my limbs touching her. She turns to the side, the distance between us growing and killing me. It’s like if she’s not embedded in my skin, I can’t protect her, and for now, the three feet between us isn’t allowing me to do that.

She moves closer, reaching my half of the bed. “Can you… hug me? Your warmth will confirm that I actually have someone with me and I’m not alone.”

“Come on.” I get closer to her, opening my arm.

Esmeray is quick to snuggle into me, her head finding a crack between my neck and shoulder to sneak in while her arm hugs my waist. My nose finds her hair, and I can’t help but inhale her floral smell.

She squeezes me in her tiny arms. “Thank you.”

At this moment, I realize there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her and to keep her safe. “There’s nothing to thank me for.”

Esmeray doesn’t say anything anymore, just makes herself comfortable in my hug, growing more relaxed when my hand settles in her hair and caresses it—the same position the light of the morning finds me in, where I didn’t sleep a wink all night, jumping at the slightest sound in the room.

TWENTY-NINE

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