Chapter 11
Liam caught the faint smile tugging at Lina’s lips out of the corner of his eye. The focused intensity she’d worn for the last fifteen minutes softened into something almost triumphant. He couldn’t help asking, “What did you find?”
She looked up from her phone, eyes bright.
“The house is owned by a shell corporation called Pentagram, Inc. That business entity is tied directly to the alias from that PO box we traced. Penelope Atwood, which was to be expected, but there’s another name buried in the filings.
Marguerite Ainsworth is listed as a co-owner of the company.
I think it’s one of Mrs. E’s older aliases.
The address history matches a previous owner of the Bayshore house. ”
He gave a slow nod, impressed despite the grim subject matter. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be without a DNA sample,” she said, tapping to enlarge the document on her screen. “She’s been careful, but not careful enough. The digital trail’s faint, but it’s there.”
Liam watched her face as she talked. He liked the spark in her eyes, and the way her whole posture shifted when she was on the hunt. She was dangerous and beautiful all at once.
“So we’ve got two working names and a front company,” he said, bringing his focus back to the job.
“And a link between ownership on the Bayshore property that I can’t ignore.
I’m going to check the chain of ownership of both of these properties and check the names against a few databases.
It could be that she’s been keeping the houses in continuity, just selling them to herself under different aliases,” Lina said, the thrill of the chase in her tone.
“Good thinking. Is there anything I can do to help with that?” Liam offered.
“Not really. I’ll get the searches running, and I can check most of the data from here as it comes in.” She held up her phone and wiggled it in her hand.
Liam nodded, then turned back to contemplate the house they were watching.
“If Mrs. E is still using this location, odds are she’s been meeting someone here, or maybe moving something to and from here.
The water access makes that scenario highly probable.
” He scanned the quiet street through the windshield again, every sense on alert.
“My thoughts exactly,” Lina agreed. “And if she’s gone to this much trouble to hide ownership of her various houses, whatever’s happening inside them isn’t minor.”
Liam grunted his agreement. “Then we wait. If and when she shows, we make sure she doesn’t slip away this time.”
The two of them fell silent again, remaining watchful.
Outside, the sun continued its path across the sky.
So far, nobody in the area had remarked on their presence, parked as they were in a cluster of construction vehicles.
When the work day drew to a close, however, it might be a very different story, but they’d deal with that when the time came.
It should’ve been just another stakeout—hours of watching, waiting, and thinking too much. But with Lina sitting beside him, it felt different. The atmosphere remained charged. Dangerous in a way that had nothing to do with the witch they were hunting.
He liked the way her mind worked. She was quick witted and highly intelligent, which was a total turn-on for him.
She also wasn’t easily rattled, even after the explosion.
Most humans, even most shifters, would’ve needed time to recover from that kind of close call.
Not Lina. She’d rolled right into the next move, steady and composed, that laser focus of hers never slipping.
His lion approved. Hell, all of him approved.
She was beautiful, of course. Anyone could see that.
But it wasn’t just her looks that held his attention.
It was her quiet strength, the confidence behind every movement.
The soft brush of her scent in the enclosed space did things to him he had no business acknowledging right now.
His cat prowled just under his skin, restless and intrigued, recognizing something his human side refused to admit.
He wanted her. No use pretending otherwise. He wanted to touch her and explore every inch of her to discover if that steel core would melt under his hands the way he suspected it would.
But that was a distraction he couldn’t afford. Not here. Not now. Not with a witch who could unleash hell itself if they didn’t stop her in time.
He drew in a slow breath, forcing his lion to settle.
He promised himself that when this mission was over, when the danger was past, he would discover if the attraction between them was fate or just madness.
Either way, once this mission was over, he’d do his best to find out exactly what this pull between them meant.
The buzz of an incoming message cut through his lusty thoughts, the faint vibration against the console snapping him back to the here and now. He glanced down at the phone lying between them.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Might’ve seen something. Rear corner, west side. Can’t be sure. Just a flicker of movement. - M
Liam’s focus sharpened instantly. The man signing as simply M was his cousin, Michael. Older than Liam, Mike was a former SEAL, who he knew to be steady and unflappable. If he thought he’d seen something, it was worth paying attention. Liam tapped out a quick reply.
LIAM: Hold position. Do not approach.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Copy. I’m just gonna swing wide, see if I can get a better angle.
“Damn it,” Liam muttered, typing again.
LIAM: Negative. Last house was rigged. Don’t take unnecessary risks. Maintain visual only.
He hit send and waited, watching the faint pulsing of the screen. The seconds stretched. Finally, a response blinked back.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Understood. Holding position for now. Will update if I see anything else.
Liam exhaled slowly, tension coiling low in his gut. “Mike thinks he caught movement at the back of the house,” he told Lina, eyes still scanning the property through the windshield. “He’s checking from the water side.”
Her head came up immediately, alert. “Could be nothing,” she said quietly.
“Yeah,” Liam agreed, though his tone said otherwise. “Or it could be the start of something. Either way, we don’t move until we know for sure. I don’t want this one to blow up too. One exploding house was my limit for this week.”
He set the phone back down, gaze fixed on the darkened windows across the street. The earlier warmth of the car seemed to vanish, replaced by the cold, tight focus of the hunt.
The phone buzzed again a minute later, the faint vibration loud in the silence between them. Liam grabbed it immediately.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Confirmed movement. Lower level, west corner. Looks like a curtain shifted. Can’t tell if it’s just air flow, or someone inside.
Liam’s pulse ticked up a notch. He zoomed in on the house using Lina’s binoculars, scanning the line of windows that faced the side street. Nothing. Still shadows and drawn blinds.
He typed back quickly.
LIAM: Hold position. Do NOT approach. That last place was booby-trapped six ways from Sunday. We play this careful.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Copy. No movement now. I’ll stay dark and watch.
Liam’s jaw tightened. He knew M could handle himself. Years of fieldwork proved that. But the memory of that last explosion still scraped raw against his nerves. The idea of one of his family getting caught in another blast sat wrong in his gut.
He glanced over at Lina, who had leaned forward slightly, reading the tension in his posture.
“Who’s Mike?” she asked softly.
“One of my many cousins,” Liam explained. “A seal SEAL, if you know what I mean. He trained me, and we worked together for a while before he had to retire. He’s a good man, and a great operative. Something definitely moved in the lower windows, but he’s staying put until we know more.”
“Could be Mrs. E,” Lina murmured. “Or one of her people.”
“Could be,” he agreed, lowering the phone but keeping it close. “Either way, she’s running out of places to hide.”
Lina nodded, gaze shifting back to the target house. “Then we wait and watch. If she’s in there, she’ll slip eventually.”
Liam settled back, the edge of adrenaline humming beneath his skin. The lion in him hated waiting, wanted to charge in and drag the threat into the open, but the SEAL knew better. Patience won fights.
“How does a seal text from the water?” Lina asked a few minutes later, breaking some of the tension in the car.
“The phone’s in a waterproof case, and he shifts to his human form to type out the messages.
The phone’s hanging around his neck in either form.
They did something to lower the screen brightness to next to nothing.
Seals can see amazingly well in the dark, and that way the phone’s screen doesn’t give away their position in the water,” Liam explained.
“Ingenious,” Lina commented, then fell silent once more.
The minutes dragged by, the daylight fading into the long gray of early evening.
The quiet hum of passing cars had slowed, and streetlamps were beginning to flicker to life one by one.
Shadows stretched across the yard of the target house, swallowing the narrow strip of lawn between the hedges and the back door.
The construction vehicles had all left for the day, but the remaining cover was good enough that he hadn’t had to move his own vehicle. They could keep watch without drawing attention of the neighbors, which was useful.
Liam checked his watch, then the phone again. Nothing. He was just starting to think maybe they’d imagined the movement when the device buzzed once more.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Got something. Faint glimmer near the back door. Low and steady. Looks like candlelight or maybe a lantern. Too dim for electric. Just became visible when it got dark enough outside.
Liam’s pulse kicked into gear. Candlelight meant deliberate concealment. Mrs. E, or whoever was inside, didn’t want to draw attention from outside.
He showed the message to Lina. She leaned in close, eyes narrowing as she read. The proximity sent a wave of her scent curling around him, but he forced himself to focus on the text.
“She might be in there,” Lina said quietly. “Or maybe someone is. Nobody lights a candle at dusk unless they’re trying not to draw attention.”
“Agreed.” Liam typed quickly. “We should go take a look.”
Lina sucked in a breath, but firmed her lips as her expression tightened. “We have to be cautious. We know what to look for after last time, right? No touching anything until we’re sure the place isn’t rigged like the other house.”
“Good plan,” Liam said and sent her a tight grin as he sent his message to Mike.
LIAM: Hold position. We’re moving in for a closer look. Keep eyes on that door. If it opens, ping twice.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Roger that. Staying low.
Liam pocketed the phone and looked over at Lina. “You ready?”
Lina already had her sidearm holstered and her jacket zipped. “Always.”
He liked the steadiness in her voice. She showed no fear, just focus, and damn if that wasn’t sexy as all hell.
“We’ll go in slow. If Mike texts again, we freeze until we know what we’re walking into.”
She nodded once. “Got it.”
They slipped out of the car and closed the doors without a sound, moving together down the dark street. The night air carried the scent of salt and damp earth, mingled with something else—something faintly acrid, like old smoke and the faint, coppery tang of blood.
Liam’s beast stirred restlessly beneath his skin, sensing danger. Whatever was waiting inside that house, it wasn’t anything ordinary.
Liam moved first, motioning silently for Lina to follow. They kept to the shadows, using the line of hedges as cover while they crossed the narrow side yard. The grass muffled their steps, damp with the evening dew.
At the corner of the house, he paused and scanned the backyard with a practiced eye. Mike was out there somewhere in the water, invisible but watching. No movement. Only the faint glow that shimmered through the small window beside the back door.
Lina crept up beside him, crouching low. Together, they eased closer, stopping a few feet from the back door.
The light flickered. It was a muted, pulsing yellow that sent a ripple of unease down Liam’s spine. It wasn’t steady like candlelight. It throbbed, faintly rhythmic, as if alive.
Lina’s sharp intake of breath told him she recognized it too.
“That’s the same thing we saw at the other house,” she whispered, barely audible.
“Yeah,” he murmured, his voice a low growl. “And the last time we saw that glow, the whole place went up.”
They exchanged a look. No words were needed. Slowly, they backed away from the door, retracing each step until they reached the relative safety of the hedgerow.
Once they were shielded by the dark again, Liam took out his phone and typed fast.
LIAM: Pull back. It’s a trap. Same as previous explosion. Don’t get any closer.
The reply came almost instantly.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: Copy that. Moving to secondary position. You two clear?
LIAM: We’re good. Heading back to our vehicle. Sit tight and keep watch.
Liam slipped the phone into his pocket and let out a slow breath. His heart was still hammering, the adrenaline high but controlled.
“That was close,” Lina murmured, scanning the house again. The golden glow pulsed once more, then dimmed, as if aware it had been spotted.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “But now we know she’s been here, and that she’s still playing with fire.”
Lina met his gaze, her expression grim. “Next time, we’ll be ready for her.”
They turned and moved back through the shadows toward the street, leaving the house to brood behind them, its sinister light winking out one last time, as if mocking their retreat.