19. Silas
Silas
I shouldn’t have left her.
I hadn’t even wanted to in the first place, but it wasn't exactly a choice. I had to basically force my feet to move in the opposite direction. My body fighting against each step, reminding me that I belonged with her.
The thought stayed with me the entire drive.
For almost an hour, my knuckles stayed tight on the steering wheel, my foot heavier than it needed to be.
As each mile passed, I replayed the night and every look on Ember’s face.
Once I watched the slimy manager touch her, I had decided to fortify my claim on her, rather than hunt him down.
But still, I definitely shouldn’t have left her.
Pulling up the cameras, I checked on her to make sure she was home safe.
From the TV in her room, I could see her curled up in bed, reading a book.
The sight of her calmed some of my agitation.
As soon as I was done with this, I could go back to her.
But for now, Knox was the only one I trusted to make sense of things before I did something reckless.
I turned onto his street too fast, braking hard in front of the house with the white picket fence.
It looked exactly like it always did—too clean, too normal.
Toys were scattered across the yard with a plastic truck tipped over in the grass.
His house was the kind of place that screamed average, when the man who lived there was anything but.
I killed the engine but didn’t get out right away.
Clients dropping in wasn’t exactly something he loved.
In fact, he’d made it clear on multiple occasions that it was not allowed if you worked with him, but we’re family, so I figured I could bend the rules a little.
Grabbing my phone, I called him. He picked up by the third ring.
“Yeah,” Knox said quietly.
“I’m outside.”
There was a pause before I heard something faint in the background and then the line went dead.
Staring at the screen, I hoped he was in a good mood.
A couple minutes later, the front door opened and Knox stepped out.
One hand dragged through his dark brown hair as he spotted me by the curb.
His expression only tightened further as he walked down the path.
“You just show up here? Unannounced?” he asked the second he was close enough.
I didn’t bother pretending. “I need help, and you’re the only one I can ask.”
His jaw ticked as his green eyes narrowed in on me. “You always need help.”
“I need us to figure out the tracker, Knox.” I cut in, my voice low and sharp. “I can’t just sit here and pretend that’s nothing. Something is going on with her.”
That stopped him from glaring at me, but the anger didn’t disappear completely. He leaned into my car door before looking around his neighborhood, clearly weighing his options. After a moment, he motioned toward his house. “Garage. Keep your voice down.”
Moving fast, we cut past the toys and around to the detached garage.
Unlocking it, he flipped on the light and ushered me inside.
The space was exactly what you’d expect from Knox, organized chaos.
His workbench was lined with tools, and multiple monitors were mounted against one wall.
Different wires and components had been laid out in neat, almost obsessive patterns.
He was already moving toward his monitor before I said anything else.
Waking up his system, he pulled up several windows.
“I’ll give you what I’ve found so far,” he said, as we started going through everything he knew about Ember.
Her routines, her job, anyone who’d gotten too close. There were names and faces associated with her, along with places she frequently visited. Knox had been busy, pulling records and cross-referencing information.
“No one has stuck out,” he said after a while, leaning back in his chair. “No recent incidents, no reports, nothing online. Whoever this is isn’t making anything obvious.”
“I don't like it,” I muttered as I shook my head. “People don’t just plant trackers.”
Knox didn’t argue that. Instead, he clicked into another system. “Let me show you something. The feed you set up in her room—I can help you swap it out for something that will pick up audio.”
My attention sharpened instantly. “Do it.”
Clicking through multiple boxes that popped up in the interface, he navigated to the camera feed. “So, this is—” He stopped mid-sentence.
I felt it before I fully processed it, the way his posture locked. “What?” I demanded, stepping closer.
He didn’t answer me, but his arm moved, tilting the screen slightly so I could see what he was looking at. My heart dropped straight into my stomach as my eyes locked on the image.
Someone was in her room. The same room she was just reading her book in.
I knew the camera angle all too well, the one I'd placed. What I didn’t recognize was the person standing next to her bed, half hidden in shadow. Their face was hidden, whether it was a hood or maybe just the angle—I couldn’t tell. But I could see enough. He stood over her as she slept.
Something inside me snapped as we let the live video play.
The figure moved slowly, deliberately taking up the space around her.
My chest ignited completely when a hand slowly reached out, pulling part of the blanket.
With her legs now exposed, they slid their fingers over her skin, tracing the muscles there.
My vision tunneled. “Who the hell is that?”
Knox started typing, running something in the background. “I’m trying to identify him, just give me a second.”
Clearly, it was a man touching her—his build and arms were proof of that.
I clenched my teeth together as he leaned closer, pulling the blanket completely off. His fingers continued to trace along her skin, lifting up her clothes as they moved. The act was both possessive and predatory, like whoever this was thought they owned her.
“Knox!” I yelled, unable to contain my frustration at having to watch this. Clenching my fists, I fought the urge to throw punches against the wall. I stepped back, then forward again, deciding whether to break something or run out the door. “I’m going to kill him,” I said flatly.
“Silas.” Knox’s voice was firm, controlled. “I’m doing what I can, just give me a minute.”
“A minute!?” I snapped, turning on him. “He could use that minute to—”
“If we don’t do this right, we won’t ID him, ” Knox cut in, sharper now. “You think he doesn’t have an exit plan? You think this is his first time?”
That hit harder than I’d expected, and now I imagined this happening to her all the time. A low growl escaped me, and my pent-up anger threatened to spill over as my gaze snapped back to the screen.
The man straightened and then lingered for a second longer. After another moment, he moved toward her vanity and out of frame. Just like that, he was gone.
The room was still again, and Ember had yet to stir.
Knox exhaled and immediately started pulling up more footage.
“We need to know how long this has been happening.” The screen flickered as he scrubbed through recorded data, and that’s when we saw it again.
A different night but the same room and same figure.
My stomach churned with each clip. Different positions, different times—but always the same pattern and always when she was asleep.
Knox sighed as he turned toward me. “At least a few weeks on random days.”
Dragging a hand down my face, I tried not to punch through the monitor. “How did we not know this?!”
“I only gave you access. I didn’t scan past footage. There was no reason to. What we’re seeing now is raw data I pulled directly.”
I paced the length of the garage. With every step tight, I coiled tighter. “We go there, now.”
Knox stood, blocking my path before I even reached the door. “And then what, Silas?”
“I get her the fuck out of there.”
“And if he’s already gone? We have to know who this is to do anything about it.” Knox’s eyes locked on to mine. “You tip him off, and he will disappear. We can’t keep her safe that way.”
I hated that he was right.
I looked back at the screen one more time; toward the empty room where she slept, completely unaware.
“She’s alone if I don't go,” I said, quieter now.
Knox’s expression softened just a fraction. “We’ll keep the feed up the whole time, if he comes close again, I call the police and you head there. I need your help here, you know more about her than I do.”
I felt fractured, and in more ways than one. I knew what he said had truth to it, but everything in me needed to be with her. “We keep the feed on, and you send everything you find to the app on my phone. I want every video, every picture, every detail.”
“Deal. I’ll dig deeper too. We’ll figure out who he is before morning, and we'll have a plan.”
I hesitated again because every instinct I had was screaming to leave. I forced myself to think—to see the bigger picture, the way Knox did. I had to trust him in order to keep her safe.
“Fine,” I said finally. “But I’m not leaving her again once I get back to her.”
“You won’t have to,” he replied, already turning back to his screens.
Sinking into the chair behind me, my eyes stayed glued to the monitor, watching the empty room like he might come back the second I looked away. He wasn’t going to get away with this again because I wasn’t going to just go after him. When I found out who this was, I was going to kill him.