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“In the meantime, though, there’s gotta be more we can do,” I add, almost to myself. My mind is already sifting through possibilities. We’ve got nothing but suspicion and a pile of anxiety, and the cops aren’t going to do anything until it’s too late. We could call them and give them Kyle’s name, but again, there won’t be anything they can do, especially because we don’t even know his last name.

“Matt,” I say, the name dropping out of my mouth like a light bulb flicking on. “Matt from work. He’s our IT guy, and he loves this kind of stuff. He’s always watching those murder documentaries and listening to true crime podcasts. He might be able to pull something from the emails like an IP address or a metadata tag or whatever.”

Ryder raises a brow. “You think he’d help?”

“He owes me a favor. And honestly? He’d probably beexcited to dig into this. If there’s anything in those emails we missed, he’ll find it.”

Ryder hesitates. “You sure we should pull someone else into this?”

“I trust him,” I say simply. “And we need another set of eyes. This guy’s targeting you—or us. If we want the police to take this seriously, we’ve gotta bring them proof and that means taking this into our own hands.”

Ryder nods, slowly but surely. “If you trust him, I’m in.”

It’s not a fix by any means, but it feels likesomething.

“I’ll call him,” I say. “And in the meantime, we keep doing what we’ve been doing. Don’t go anywhere alone. And promise me, if you get another email, I want to know the second it hits your inbox.”

Ryder’s lips curl into a smile. “I can’t wait to continue to be stuck to you.”

And fuck, that does something to me.

Because no matter how bad this gets—and I have a feeling we haven’t seen the worst of it yet—there’s no reality where I’m not by his side.

12

RYDER

Despite the small moment of relief when Logan told me his coworker was willing to help us this morning, it all vanishes with another goddamn email. This guy has some seriously fucked up timing.

Every time I hear my email notification go off, it feels like a trigger. I try to tell myself that it’s anything but another message from the one person who’s seemingly deriving pleasure from ruining my life, but as soon as I see the sender's name, my stomach drops.

Subject:You're not listening.

I didn’t want to be upset with you, Ryder. I really didn’t, but you keep ignoring me. Pretending I’m not here. Pretending he matters more. I’ve been nothing but patient. Why don’t you realize he’s holding you back? You know you’re meant to be with me. So why won’t you admit it?

Bile rises in my throat, and it feels like a punch straight to the gut. Whoever this is genuinely believes they’re good forme. That Logan is the one standing in the way of our supposed happiness. How do they not see how deranged this is? How could they possibly believe this invasive approach would work? That threatening Logan would somehow make me want them?

If this is their idea of a romantic gesture, I don’t even want to know what they thinkdisturbinglooks like. There’s no universe where this is ever okay. No sane person would be interested in someone who stalks them, who invades their privacy, and then acts like they deserve a reward for it—and in this case, it feels like they thinkI’mthe reward.

They’ve wedged themselves into my life and made me feel like I’m constantly being watched, and they think I should be grateful? That I’d respond to their email with a ‘yes, come save me’ plea and a trail of exclamation points?

It’s fucking delusional.

Logan is everything to me, and somehow, this stalker is the only one who doesn’t know it.

“Logan,” I call out.

“Yeah?” he asks, coming over and sitting next to me on the couch.

I turn my laptop toward him, the email still open on the screen.

He grabs it, and his eyes narrow as he reads the email. “What the actual fuck?” he whispers, almost to himself. “They’re trying to make it sound liketheycare about you? And I don’t? What kind of twisted shit is this?”

I shake my head because I don’t even know what to say. I don’t understand their game here. “It feels like they really believe there’s something between us, and you’re somehow in the way of that. I don’t know.”

Logan clenches his jaw so tight I’m worried he’s going to crack a tooth.

“That’s fucking crazy,” he hisses. “They’re acting like I’m holding you fucking captive or something.”