Chapter 24 Liam
We'd fallen into bed early that night, still wrapped in the loose, unhurried warmth of everything that had passed between us that morning.
Roxy had drifted off first, curled against my good side, her breathing slow and even against my chest. I lay awake a while longer, restless despite the exhaustion of the day, my mind circling back the way it always did lately to Declan.
Where he might be. What he might be planning.
Eventually I gave up on sleep entirely and eased myself carefully out from under Roxy's arm, careful not to wake her, and padded out to the living room to check the tablet one more time before finally letting myself rest. Habit, mostly.
The same restless compulsion that had kept me scrolling through security feeds for three straight days.
The grid of camera feeds loaded up, quiet and unremarkable. The tree line swayed gently in a light wind, the dark shape of the greenhouse glass catching faint moonlight The gravel drive was empty and still.
My whole body went cold and alert at once, every trace of drowsiness burning off in an instant. I leaned forward, thumb swiping to pull the feed full-screen, watching the grainy night-vision footage with my heart hammering hard against my ribs.
There was an unmistakably human figure, moving low and careful along the tree line at the property's eastern edge, deliberately staying just outside the reach of the motion-activated floodlights. Male. Solitary.
I didn't need a clearer shot to know who it was. Some things you recognize in the shape of a man's walk long before you can make out his face. A decade and a half of family barbecues and backyard football games taught my body to know Declan's silhouette on instinct alone.
He'd found us.
My mind raced through the logic even as my pulse spiked.
Of course he'd guessed the cabin eventually.
He knew about our deal with the Brotherhood and knew that this was a secure location.
A hunted man running out of options would circle back eventually to the one place Roxy and I could hide without fear, gambling that desperation would outweigh the risk.
I moved fast and quiet back to the bedroom, shaking Roxy's shoulder gently, one hand already pressed lightly over her mouth in case her first instinct was to make a sound loud enough to carry.
Her eyes flew open, panic flaring bright and immediate before she registered my face above her in the dark.
"He's here," I whispered, the words tasting like ash. "Declan. East tree line, moving toward the house."
She blinked as alertness filled her gaze, shaking off the final clutches of sleep. "How long do we have?"
"Not long. Maybe ten minutes, if he keeps moving at this pace." I was already pulling on clothes with my left arm, wincing as I forced the injured shoulder through a sleeve too fast. "We stick to the plan."
We'd talked through it two nights ago, half-joking at the time.
Garrett's careless mention of the security system's full capabilities sparked an idea neither of us had wanted to seriously consider until now.
The tablet controlled everything: every lock, every window, a full lockdown protocol our security team had built for exactly this kind of nightmare scenario.
Seal the exits, trap whatever's inside, buy enough time for backup to arrive.
The greenhouse, attached to the cabin's east wing by a covered walkway, had its own separate lock, its own tablet extension, glass walls giving clear sightlines to the main house without exposing whoever was hiding inside.
Roxy would go there. I'd stay in the main cabin, visible, drawing Declan in through the back entrance.
It was the one door positioned exactly right for the trap to close clean around him once he crossed the threshold.
"You remember the trigger sequence?" I asked, watching her pull on her jacket, hands steady despite the fear plainly written across her face.
"Wait for him to fully cross into the kitchen, hit the lock icon, hold for three seconds to confirm." She recited it back perfectly, the same way she'd repeated it to me two nights ago in a light, amused tone, neither of us truly believing we'd ever need it. "Liam—"
"I know." I pulled her in for one hard, quick kiss, tasting fear and adrenaline and something fiercer underneath it, something that felt dangerously close to love. "You get to the greenhouse. Lock yourself in from your side first. Watch the feed. Wait for my signal."
"And if something goes wrong?"
"Nothing's going to go wrong." I said it with far more confidence than I actually felt, cupping her face in my good hand for one brief, steadying moment. "We've got this. Together. Just like we planned."
She nodded, some of the fear in her eyes hardening into the same fierce determination I'd watched carry her through three years alone, through a dozen impossible situations I still didn't fully understand.
"Go," I said. "Now, before he gets any closer."
She slipped out the side door toward the covered walkway, disappearing into the dark, and I forced myself to turn away, to focus on the part of this plan that was mine to carry.
All I had to do was move through the kitchen, flipping on just enough light to be visible from outside, arranging myself where Declan would see me the moment he came close enough to look through the window.
Bait. Simple as that. My shoulder throbbed in dull, insistent warning as I moved, a reminder of exactly how compromised I still was, how much this plan relied on timing. Everything had to be absolutely perfect.
I picked up the second tablet, mirroring Roxy's feed from the greenhouse, and set it on the counter within easy reach, watching Camera 4 one more time
Declan had closed half the distance already, moving faster now, no longer bothering quite so carefully with the shadows.
He was coming.
I squared my shoulders, ignored the pain screaming through the injured one, and made myself stand in full view of the kitchen window, waiting for the man who'd once taught me how to throw a punch to come finish what he'd started in my father's driveway.