Chapter Thirty-Five
Zane
Nothing made me feel more powerless than watching her tears fall, but eventually, she finally stopped crying, allowing her body to relax against mine.
The rise and fall of her chest was steady, almost hypnotic.
Her lips, slightly parted in sleep, a reminder of how her kiss had been as good as everything that had followed.
She looked so peaceful when she slept. Her face, usually tight with frustration or set in defiance, was now soft. Completely different from the fiery, stubborn woman I usually get to see, the one who never missed a chance to fight me at every turn. In sleep, she was... vulnerable, fragile even.
And I fucking hated how that made me feel.
How I wished I could protect her from more than just shadows.
I wanted to rip apart whatever had done this to her. But first, I needed to know what the fuck had happened.
The moment her breathing steadied, and I was sure she was deep in sleep, I carefully untangled myself from her and slipped from her bed.
The warmth of her body didn’t leave me as I made my way out of her room.
Outside, my men were still sweeping the property.
I’d called for a full perimeter check the second she fell into my arms and I saw her face pale with fear. My muscles were still tight with the shot of adrenaline that had surged through me after hearing her scream.
Mike emerged from the shadows, walking to me at the bottom of the stairs the second I stepped outside.
“Perimeter’s clear,” he reported. “We’ve looked everywhere, no sign of any intruders. Nothing suspicious at all. I have no idea what she saw, boss.”
I nodded, my jaw clenching. “Call Carter. I want him to go over all the surveillance for the last twelve hours. If anything or anyone came even near this place, I want to know about it.”
Mike didn’t hesitate. He nodded once and disappeared into the night, already dialing Carter’s number. I trusted my men, but I wasn’t satisfied.
Something had spooked Chloe badly, and whether it was real or a figment of her imagination, I wasn’t taking any risks.
I couldn’t shake the image of her so terrified at that moment.
It had burned into my mind and had also made me fucking furious.
No matter how tightly I tried to hold on to control, danger always seemed to find a way in. And it was my job to make sure nothing touched her.
Not now. Not ever.
Not even an hour later, Carter, my tech specialist, was setting up his laptop, hard drives, and a bunch of other gadgets on the dining table.
He could surf the entire dark web in minutes.
An expert at tracking people through their digital footprint and made magic when it came to surveillance—private, public, governmental, it didn’t matter.
If it was recorded or on the web, then he could find it.
The CIA had tried to recruit him once, but we’d reached him first.
We had a fully equipped control room at the warehouse, filled with a sea of screens and high-end tech for exactly this type of situation. But I didn’t want to leave Chloe alone, not until I knew exactly what had happened.
Carter’s fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up footage from every camera around the property.
The soft glow of the screens lit up his face as images from all angles filtered through.
“Anything?” I asked, looming over him, my eyes scanning the screen as footage sped by in fast-forward.
“So far, nothing out of the ordinary,” Carter muttered, not looking up. “It’s twelve hours of recordings from ten different cameras. This can take a while, boss.”
Mike leaned against the wall on the other side of the room, arms crossed, and brow furrowed. “The men are still searching the area, but I’m telling you, boss, there’s nothing out there. Not even a stray animal. Whatever she saw, or thought she saw, it’s not there anymore.”
His tone carried doubt, and it was grating on me.
He was questioning Chloe’s credibility, but I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t the type to freak out over nothing. If she’d seen something, if she’d believed it was real, it was enough for me to take it seriously.
I exhaled hard.
“Keep looking. I don’t care if it takes all night. I want every second of footage reviewed until you find it.”
Mike nodded and pushed himself off the wall, tugging out a chair to join Carter as they continued combing through the footage.
Minutes stretched into hours. I paced the room, tension creeping into every fiber of my being as I watched Carter’s eyes flicker over the images, his fingers moving swiftly between camera angles and timestamps. The longer we waited, the more my frustration mounted.
I rubbed a hand over my face, exhaustion creeping in.
“Wait,” Carter suddenly squeaked, and Mike quickly hit pause. I snapped to attention, stepping closer as he zoomed in on a grainy shape skulking between two trees.
I narrowed my eyes, forcing them to focus. “What the hell is that?”
“Not sure, but it moves. Too big to be just a wild animal. Definitely a thing that shouldn’t be there,” Carter said. “This is from about five hours ago. Something, or someone, was there.”
My blood turned cold.
Carter continued scanning the footage, isolating a reflection from one of the glass windows. The faint outline of someone’s hoodie was visible. No one in this house walked around with their head covered like that. It was an intruder.
“...and then, it disappears,” Carter continued. “Can’t track it on any other camera after that.”
“How the hell is that even possible?” I demanded, irritation bubbling out.
“We don’t know how they got in… or even if they already left,” Carter admitted, clearly afraid it would piss me off. “Whoever it was, they knew exactly where the cameras were and avoided detection at almost every angle.”
I let out a low growl of frustration as my palms smacked down on the table, my mind racing. Someone had been watching us. Inside our perimeter. In my goddamn house.
How could someone get so close to the house without triggering the alarms or appearing on the cameras?
And more importantly, why? What were they after?
“Carter, I don’t care what it takes. Start running facial recognition, infrared scans, go lick the fucking floor for DNA if you have to! I want to know who the fuck was in my damn house. NOW!”
“On it, boss,” Carter quickly said, gathering his equipment in a rush and bolting out of the room before I had the time to direct my fury at him.
Mike scuttled behind him.
I moved to the window, staring out at the dark expanse of the property.
My fists clenched at my sides, anticipation coursing through my veins.
I wanted it to be the Red Scorpions. I wanted it to be a sign they were finally ready to face me.
But it didn’t make sense. If it were them, they would not be pussyfooting around the garden.
If they’d made it this far, they would’ve blown up the house and murdered me in my sleep.
Whoever this was, they came for something else and they were good—too good.
My blood boiled. I was seeing red.
Whoever was out there was playing with fire.
And I was ready to burn them to the fucking ground.