Page 126 of Kiss of Deceit

“Just for an hour.”

I glanced up. “I slept for ten hours like you wanted. Susan will want me back at the station when the sun comes up. I need to keep looking. If he’s here…” I trailed off. “I need to know.”

He blew out a breath. “Fine. I’ll be up later. If anyone knocks on the door, ignore it. Harry knows we’re not coming in tonight.”

I chuckled. “He does? He’s already knocked three times. Even after Susan questioned me for an hour.”

“She doesn’t like you.”

The smile felt foreign on my lips. “She doesn’t like you either. I’m sure it didn’t help when you kicked her out of the house.”

“She wouldn’t have ever left. You needed rest.”

“I need to find the murderer—or murderers.” I clicked into another inmate’s file, scanning his picture.

His footsteps were quiet on the soft carpet as he walked toward me. “Fine. I won’t be too long. I’m going to eat after working out. Want anything?”

If he was cooking, that meant he’d be another couple of hours since he always cleaned up right after. I closed the laptop, tilting my head to look up at him.

“I ate earlier.” I gave him a small smile before he leaned down to kiss me softly.

“Are you sure?—”

“Kole,” I interrupted him. “I am barely holding it together right now. All I want to do is go outside and search for the asshole who’s terrorizing the town. But I know you’ll have a problem with that?—”

“Damn right I have a problem with it. You’re not leaving this house when it’s dark.”

“Exactly. So instead of doing what I really want, I’m keeping myself busy by doing this.”

A muscle in his jaw flexed as if he wanted to say something more. He gave me one more quick kiss before backing away.

“You’re not going to run off when I’m out of sight, are you?” he murmured. “I don’t want to spend all night chasing you down.”

“Why?” I teased. “That might be fun. Though, I might get a little cold since all I’m wearing is your shirt and a pair of panties.”

Heat flared in his eyes, and he smirked. “Don’t test me, Dani.”

“Later, then. When we don’t have a killer obsessed with me.”

His smile fell flat. “We’ll get him.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m not going anywhere tonight. I promise.”

He gave me a firm look before his gaze went to the small pocketknife on my nightstand. The one I’d stabbed Tristin with. After cleaning it, I’d been keeping it on me at all times. Kole questioned it, not liking how it was connected to a crime. It took a while to assure him there was no possible way for it to come back to me. There wasn’t anyone in this town who had the experience to match Tristin’s wounds to this blade, if it ever came to that. No one except Kole knew this was a murder weapon.

I couldn’t exactly go back to the shop and buy more knives after I’d bought four in the past few months. The killer stole my first two, and now the ones I used on Tristin and Leon. After all the murders, the weapons in town were being watched more closely. It was either I use this knife or the one I took from Lucas after pushing him off the cliff.

“I’ll cook some extra if you get hungry,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “I like this. Not everything happening in this town…but us. It feels right.” I nearly regretted my words the moment they left my mouth. I shouldn’t be letting him think there was a chance of this becoming permanent.

A slow smile spread across his face. “I like it too.”

His lips met mine in a bruising kiss, and my heart panged in a way I’d never experienced. I didn’t want this to end. Whatever Kole and I had—I never wanted to let it go. He pulled away far too soon.

“I’ll see you later,” he murmured. “You know where I’ll be if you change your mind and want to join me.”

He exited my room, and I listened as he went down the steps. Shaking my head, I grabbed the laptop, going back to my search.