Chapter 40

Asher

I can’t sleep.

Neve slept almost all day. Mercy made sure of it, and Ellie sat with her until dinner, painting the toenails she’d smeared during the worst of it, and I went home and stood in the shower until the hot water ran out and then lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, still feeling her hand crushing mine at three in the morning.

Around midnight, I give up and drive back to the packhouse.

I don’t know what I’m planning to do there. Check that the prospect on her door is awake, maybe. Sit in my truck in the lot and look at her window. Something.

I’m halfway across the lot when I see the glow behind the building.

Just the faint orange of old embers in the fire pit, and a shape sitting beside it on one of the log benches, wrapped in a blanket so big it looks like a small, lumpy tent.

I’d know that shape anywhere.

I stop at the corner of the building. For a second, I think about turning around. Leaving her alone. She ca