Page 34 of Forsaken Hearts
“You’re welcome.”
Her soft voice edged under his skin in ways he couldn’t think about. Silence hung between them as she fussed with the blanket unnecessarily.
He watched her hands, feminine and soft, hands that drove him crazy and left his heart warmer than it had ever been before. She made the room warmer just by existing.
That lump was back in his throat, bigger and harder than before.
Everything smelled like Summer and looked like Summer and had the love and care of Summer’s touch.
Even the damn half-dead houseplant near the window.
And he didn’t belong anywhere near this world.
He was stronger than he’d been a year ago, whole in some ways and broken in others.
She finally straightened and looked up at him, smudges of fatigue under her eyes. “You’ll be okay out here?”
He nodded once. “I’ve slept in worse places.”
A tiny smile tugged at her lips before it faded.
Another moment stretched between them. They had too much history, too much attraction.
Too many things neither of them was saying.
He forced himself to step back toward the couch before he did something stupid like touch her.
“Get some sleep.”
Summer hesitated, then nodded. “Goodnight, Vander.”
Hearing his name after everyone else called him Pope all day hit somewhere deep.
He watched her disappear down the hallway before finally setting on the couch. The house creaked softly around him. He took out his phone and the camera feed glowed across the screen.
The grainy night image showed the duplex and the empty road.
Then movement flickered near the edge of the frame.
Pope sat up straighter.
A shadow crossed near the side yard between Summer’s duplex and the neighboring unit. Human-sized. Gone almost immediately.
He replayed the clip twice.
Dammit. Nothing clear enough to identify.
But the hair along the back of his neck prickled long after the screen went still again.
He sent the clip to Carson and received an instant reply.
I’ll send one of the guys over now to check things out. Stay with your ward and wait for backup.
He stared hard at the screen, wondering if he’d imagined a threat that wasn’t there. Outside, nothing but cold wind moved through the quiet Willowbrook neighborhood.
Inside, Summer and Ben slept only feet away. He set the app with alarms to sound for any movement, even a branch waving in the wind.
Half hour later, he received a text from Dutch.
