Chapter 25
The footage loops for a third time.
I don’t blink or breathe for what feels like minutes. My lungs ache while I just watch, frame by frame, as Daniel steps through that doorway like he has any right to exist near her.
She sidesteps to the left.
He reaches for her.
He fucking touches her.
My jaw locks. The mug in my hand cracks down the side, a quiet fracture that spills coffee across the table and bleeds through my notes. I don’t even glance at it. Fuck those notes.
Why am I here while she’s there?
Kieran’s voice filters through the phone, steady but tight. “She’s not scared. You should see her face. She’s still furious.”
That makes something dark in me twist and reshape.
Good.
Let her be furious.
Fear keeps people alive, but anger makes them dangerous… And I want her to be as dangerous as possible.
Jace paces across the loft, restless energy in motion. “Did he hurt her?”
I keep my eyes on the screen. “Not yet.”
“Don’t be cryptic,” he snarls. “She messaged. She’s shaking.”
“She’s not shaking,” I argue. “She’s alive and ready to fight.”
“But not safe.” That comes from Kieran again, his voice low through the line, like he’s whispering.
He’s somewhere outside her building; his reflection flashes in one of the feed cameras, a hooded figure near a newspaper stand.
Watching. Waiting.
We all saw her smile this morning. It was so pure and genuine.
But we all knew it wouldn’t last, either. Not yet.
I push away from the table, stomp to the kitchen for a dish towel, and wipe my hand clean before taking my tablet.
“Where are you going?” Jace asks.
“To do what should’ve been done days ago.”
He moves in front of me, blocking my path to the door. “You’re not going after him alone.”
I meet his eyes. “Watch me.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“So am I.”
“We made a deal.” Kieran’s voice drops to steel through the phone. “You made a fucking promise.”
“The deal was: protect her,” I say, my control holding on by a thread. “Not sit on our hands while he escalates.”
“She’s not ready for a body count,” Jace says quietly, trying to defuse me. “Not yet.”
I laugh, short and hollow. “You think she doesn’t know what we are?”
“She doesn’t know what you are,” he bites out.
I take a step closer, heat rising through my limbs. “Then she’ll learn.”
Silence folds over the room, the pressure from my anger a palpable thing I can reach out and touch.
It’s not tense… Just certain. Defensive.
Because we know the truth already…
We want her.
We’d all bleed for her.
But I’m the one who will kill.
“She asked for our names,” Jace says suddenly, changing direction like it’ll pull me back from the edge.
I blink at him, hoping he didn’t… “And you gave them?”
“Just our usernames.”
“She’ll want the rest.”
He nods. “She deserves the truth.”
I roll my neck, trying to shake the lingering pressure holding my spine in a vise. “She deserves peace. He just took that from her. So now we take something from him.”
Kieran’s voice is quieter now. “What’s the plan?”
Finally.
A real question.
I pull up a chair and open a file on a second monitor.
Photos.
Daniel’s apartment blueprints.
His office security rotation.
The bar where he pretends to have friends.
The gym he goes to but never actually works out in.
Schooling. Parents. Siblings. Loans. Bank accounts.
I’ve been tracking him since I learned his name.
Just in case.
Jace leans forward, eyes narrowing as the images scroll. “You’ve been sitting on this?”
“I’ve been waiting for the right reason.”
“And now?” Kieran asks, a car door closing in the background.
The feed flickers in front of me. Eris’s cubicle is empty now, her bag gone, the hallway lights dimmed. But I can still feel her anger as if it’s shared between us.
And as I look at Daniel’s face frozen on my screen, all I can think is how much I want to see that same fire burn behind her eyes again.
Because I don’t just want to protect her.
I want to earn her fury.
And make it mine.
“Now,” I say, opening another file on Daniel, this one built to make him disappear, digitally and realistically. “We take him out and move in on her.”
Part Two coming soon!