Chapter 1
ONE
Orion
Maddox Security is a glass-and-steel fortress perched above the Atlantic—expensive, polished, and designed to make people believe nothing bad can happen here.
That illusion lasts exactly as long as it takes me to spot the fresh scrape marks on the service stair door.
Someone tried to get onto our floor again.
I’m standing in the conference room with Boone and Lincoln while Dean Maddox paces at the head of the table like he’s trying not to murder the furniture.
Asher is posted near the wall, too new to look bored, too sharp to look scared.
He’s doing that rookie thing where he holds his posture like it might stop bullets.
Ranger isn’t here.
He’s already gone—off on his “simple assignment” with the scientist’s daughter. Which means the universe has decided my day is the one that needs to go sideways.
Dean flicks his eyes to the wall of monitors. “Security footage from last night.”
A clip rolls. Grainy. Quick. A man in a maintenance uniform. Tool bag. Calm hands. He doesn’t rush. Doesn’t fumble. He moves like he belongs in every building on Earth.
He swipes a badge.
The panel flashes green.
He pauses just long enough to look directly at the camera.
Like he knows it’s there.
Like he wants us to know he knows.
Then the feed cuts to black.
Boone whistles, low. “That’s… ballsy.”
Lincoln leans back in his chair, expression unreadable, blue eyes sharp. “He didn’t just breach. He posed.”
Asher’s jaw tightens. “How did he get a badge that works?”
Dean’s voice is flat. “He didn’t. He got one that looks like it works.”
I feel my mouth curve without humor. “Cloned credential.”
Dean nods once. “Or an internal leak.”
Boone’s shoulders roll like he’s warming up. “Say the word and I’ll start breaking fingers until the leak confesses.”
Dean doesn’t even blink at the offer. He’s heard worse from Boone before breakfast. “We’re not going loud. Not yet.”
I push off the window ledge and cross to the table, eyes on the frozen frame of the man looking into the camera. “He wanted us to see him.”
Dean’s gaze snaps to mine. “Why?”
“Because it isn’t just a break-in,” I say. “It’s a message.”
Lincoln’s eyes narrow. “A warning.”
I tap the screen with one finger, right where the man’s head is angled. “Or bait.”
Dean’s phone buzzes on the table. He checks it, and the muscles in his jaw jump.
Boone notices. He always does. Boone notices everything when it smells like violence. “That look means something fun.”
Dean doesn’t rise to the bait. He slides a folder across the table toward me instead.
“Not fun,” he says. “Urgent.”
I don’t open it right away. I watch Dean.
The last year hasn’t been quiet. Dean’s been hunting a ghost named Bishop Blackstone, building cases, running operations, keeping this company standing while the world tried to take pieces out of it.
He wears his control like armor, but I know him well enough to see the hairline cracks when pressure hits.
Someone is squeezing.
And now they’re getting bold.
Dean lifts his eyes. “Orion. Your assignment.”
I flip the folder open.
A photograph stares up at me.
Briar Green.
Soft brown hair. Wide eyes that look like they’ve learned to measure rooms for exits. A face too pretty for the kind of fear tucked behind her expression. She’s holding a bird in the photo—bright feathers, sharp beak, the kind of animal that looks like it would bite you for breathing wrong.
I stare at it longer than I mean to.
Something ugly and primal slides through my chest.
Mine to protect.
I shut the folder like I didn’t just feel that. “Socialite’s daughter,” I say, voice rough. “Minnie Green.”
“Yes,” Dean replies. “But Briar isn’t the kind of spoiled you’re picturing. She works at the Saint Pierce Zoo bird aviary. She’s been trying for a trainer position for a year. She’s good at what she does.”
Boone leans forward, eyes bright. “She has a bird?”
Dean’s lips flatten. “Her bird. Jeb.”
Boone’s grin widens like Christmas came early. “Please tell me it bites.”
Asher looks confused. “Why is there a bird involved?”
Lincoln speaks without looking up from his tablet. “Because the universe hates Orion.”
I give Lincoln a look. “Do you feel better now that you said it out loud?”
He doesn’t even blink. “Yes.”
Dean taps the folder. “Focus. Briar has an ex-boyfriend. Name’s Jason Baker.”
The air shifts.
Not because I care about the name.
Because Dean’s tone changed when he said it.
“Stalker?” Boone asks.
Dean nods once. “Obsessive. Controlling. He’s escalated.”
I flip to the incident report inside the folder. My eyes scan fast.
Break-in attempt two nights ago. Forced window. No theft. No ransacking. Just… entry.
A message left on her kitchen counter in black marker.
IF I CAN GET IN, I CAN GET YOU.
My grip tightens on the page.
Asher sucks in a breath. Boone’s grin fades.
Dean continues. “She got a restraining order. It didn’t slow him down. She changed her route to work. He followed. She blocked him. He found her burner number.”
I glance up. “How?”
Dean’s eyes are ice. “That’s what concerns me.”
Lincoln’s voice is quiet. “He has help.”
Dean holds my gaze. “Maybe. And that’s not the only reason I’m assigning you.”
I wait.
Dean doesn’t waste words when it matters.
He lowers his voice. “Someone is moving on this team. On ALPHA. On me.”
Boone’s chair creaks as he leans forward. “We already knew that.”
Dean’s eyes flick to the frozen camera frame still on the monitors. “Last night’s breach attempt wasn’t about theft. It was about reach. They wanted to show they can touch us.”
Asher’s hands clench at his sides. “Who are they?”
Dean’s jaw flexes. “That’s what we’re finding out.”
He looks back to me. “Your job is to protect Briar. But you’re also going to use this assignment to see who bites.”
I feel the old itch crawl under my skin—the part of me that misses the hunt, the clean line between threat and solution.
“Dean,” Boone says, “you’re using the girl as bait.”
Dean doesn’t flinch. “I’m using the situation as an opportunity. She’s already in danger. We’re making sure she survives it.”
I nod once. That’s the only answer I have energy for.
Dean taps his throat mic. “Orion, you meet her at the zoo. Keep it low profile. Observe first. Confirm the stalker pattern. Then you move her to a secure location.”
“I don’t do low profile,” I say.
Dean’s eyes narrow. “You do today.”
Boone chuckles. “He’ll try. In his own terrifying way.”
Lincoln looks up. “Be careful at the zoo. Public places are easy to hide in.”
Asher’s gaze snaps to me. “Want me as backup?”
I shake my head. “Not yet.”
His face falls for half a second.
Then he straightens again, absorbing the lesson. Good. He’ll learn.
Dean slides his phone across the table. “Her number. Her schedule. Her entry points. Zoo security contact. And Orion…”
I pause at the door.
Dean’s voice goes softer. Deadlier. “If you see anything that smells like our breach guy, you call it. Immediately.”
I glance back at the monitors.
The intruder’s face is blurry, but the confidence isn’t.
“Copy,” I say.
Then I’m out.