Chapter Nineteen
Adrian
I strolled into our private gym early, practically vibrating with excitement as I cradled my new iPad Pro in its matte black case.
The setup had taken most of the night—coding the custom surveillance app, installing the tiny button cameras throughout Isla's apartment while she slept, and programming the motion sensors to alert me if so much as a dust bunny moved wrong.
But seeing her peaceful sleeping form through the screen made every sleepless minute worth it.
I was such a romantic psychopath.
"Look what I've got," I sang, bouncing on my toes like an overgrown puppy as I approached the training area.
Connor and Jax were already warming up, their iPads propped on identical stands at the edge of the mat.
Connor barely glanced up from his shadowboxing, but I caught the slight twitch of his lips when he noticed the iPad in my hands.
“Finally joining the stalking club? "
"Damn right I am." I set my iPad next to theirs with ceremonial precision, angling it just so.
Three screens in a row—our own little command center of obsession.
Jax's showed Estelle in at the academy, already reviewing files at her desk like the brilliant principal she was, and Connor's displayed Sierra in their penthouse, getting ready to meet Estelle.
The two girls loved being the big bosses at the academy, and Estelle happily let Sierra manage the fancy library in there.
And now… mine , with Isla's blonde waves spilling across her pillow, my white ribbon still tied loosely around her throat like a collar.
We were three certified lunatics with our own personal porn. As Connor once put it.
Jax paused his heavy bag workout, gold chain swinging against his bare chest as he leaned over to examine my setup.
"Nice quality. Where'd you hide the cameras?"
"Everywhere," I grinned, swiping through different angles on the screen.
"Bookshelf, kitchen vent, this little ceramic thing she loves, and my personal favorite—" I switched to a view that showed Isla's sleeping face in perfect detail "—inside the alarm clock."
"Sneaky bastard,” Jax approved, tapping the screen admiringly. "You get audio?"
"What kind of amateur do you think I am?" I scoffed, turning up the volume just enough to hear Isla's soft breathing. The sound sent a pleasant shiver through me.
“I can hear if she so much as sighs my name in her sleep."
Connor approached, towel draped around his neck, dark eyes assessing my handiwork.
"Look at us," I cheered, gesturing to our row of screens. "Three psychos with three goddesses. Who would've thought we’d all find our missing pieces? ”
"Speak for yourself," Jax smirked, already returning to his workout. "I'm perfectly sane."
I barked out a laugh, pulling off my top and tossing it onto the bench. "Says the man who literally begged me to run him over.”
"Irrelevant," he defended, landing a particularly vicious hook on the bag.
I began wrapping my hands, the familiar ritual calming the constant buzz of energy under my skin from having my Isla.
"Speaking of, I need to tell you guys about Noah."
That got their attention. Both men paused, turning to me with identical expressions of predatory interest.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees, and I felt that familiar rush of having my pack ready to hunt.
"Isla's ex," I clarified, my smile turning sharp as I pictured the fucker's bland, forgettable face.
"Been lurking around her for the past year. Shows up at her exhibitions uninvited, claims he 'understands her art' better than she does. Makes new accounts to watch her stuff. Classic creepy weirdo behavior."
Connor's eyes darkened, and I knew the exact men he was thinking of—the piece of shits we'd turned into fertilizer.
"Same type of problem?"
"Different flavor," I answered, testing the tightness of my hand wraps. "Not violent, just... off. Wrong. Like a puzzle piece that doesn't fit but keeps trying to force itself into the picture."
I pulled up Noah's photo on my phone, showing them the unremarkable face that had dared to upset my angel. "He's the kind of guy who thinks studying someone makes him entitled to them."
Also, the kind of guy who was about to learn why that was a fatal mistake.
Jax rolled his shoulders, tattoos rippling across his muscles. "You want him gone?"
The casual way he asked it, like he was offering to pick up coffee, made me grin wider .
This was why I loved my psychotic brothers. No judgment, no questions, just immediate willingness to help me bury a problem—or body.
I tested the tightness of my hand wraps, my knuckles well-hidden. "Oh, I want to play with him first. Really play."
They exchanged a look—the silent communication that comes from years of murder plans and a mutual understanding of each other's particular brands of crazy.
"What's the plan?" Connor asked, already on board.
I grinned, wide and dangerous. "I'll start with some digital reconnaissance. Kill him before he’s dead.”
I pulled up Noah's information on my phone, scrolling through the data I'd already compiled last night: Social media profiles, workplace details, financial records. I'd dug it up while Isla slept beside me.
That familiar giddy rush built in my chest as I revealed my plan. “First of all, I’m gonna destroy his credit and get him fired. He’ll have no idea how it happened.”
"Since when are you patient?" Jax asked, raising an eyebrow as he leaned against the heavy bag, designer sweatpants soaked with sweat.
"You're the guy who wanted to torch Estelle’s apartment before we even had a plan."
I laughed, my smile turning vicious. "Since I found something worth being patient for."
My eyes drifted to my iPad, where Isla was stretching in her sleep, reaching for the space I'd occupied hours earlier.
"I want to savor this one. Make him feel hunted—in the bad way—before he ever sees me coming."
Connor moved closer, his dark eyes gleaming with the kind of interest that meant someone was about to have a very bad time. "Timeline?"
"A week of digital haunting, maybe two. I want him jumpy.” I grabbed my water bottle, mind racing with delicious possibilities.
"I'm thinking we make him feel watched everywhere he goes…”
I paused, the thrill rushing through me. “Playing some screeching on his phone at night, fucking perfect,” I breathed, almost fanning myself at my perfectly evil plan.
"And the endgame?" Jax asked, though his knowing grin suggested he already knew.
"Oh, that's the best part. He’ll understand exactly what happens to men who make my angel feel unsafe. What you exist in my periphery.”
As if sensing my thoughts, on screen, Isla's hand drifted to the ribbon at her throat, fingers tracing it even in her sleep. Mine. All fucking mine.
"You'll need backup for the final conversation," Connor said, already strategizing. "Three men are more intimidating than one."
"Absolutely. Plus, I want you both there," I bounced on my toes, that familiar restless energy crackling under my skin.
"Need you to keep me grounded. Can't have me going full psycho like—" I cut myself off, but the unspoken memory remained heavy in the air.
Connor's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Jax's hand stilled. They knew. They'd always known about that night when I was seventeen, when years of burns and belt buckles finally snapped something inside me that should have stayed whole.
"Won't happen," Connor said quietly, voice carrying that protective edge that meant family. "We've got you."
"What about Isla?" Jax asked, smoothly redirecting as he glanced at his screen, where Estelle was navigating the academy halls.
“You planning to introduce her to our girls?”
My grin shifted into something softer, warmer. "Actually, yeah. But not some stuffy dinner at my place."
I could already picture it—neon lights, screaming rides, cotton candy, and three beautiful women laughing while their monsters watched from the shadows.
"There's that end-of-summer carnival down by the bay. Perfect for a little chaotic bonding."
"A carnival?" Connor raised an eyebrow, but his lips twitched with enjoyment. "That's very... you. "
"Exactly! Ferris wheels, haunted houses, rigged games I can actually win." I gestured wildly, already planning it out.
“Bee can cling to Connor every scary ride, Star can eat poor people food again, and Isla can paint the whole damn thing from memory later."
Jax huffed, amused, the sound echoing through the gym. "Estelle only eats the best. But they’d love to meet the girl who finally tamed the wild animal.”
“Tamed me?" I scoffed, flexing my knuckles. "Please. If anything, she's unleashed something worse. More focused. More..." I trailed off, remembering the feel of my knife handle inside her, the way she'd begged for it. "More dedicated to protecting what's mine."
"That's what makes you dangerous," Connor said quietly, his eyes knowing. "You with a target is one thing. You with a purpose is a fucking apocalypse."
The last time I'd had real purpose—survival, escape, revenge—my parents had ended up in pieces.
"Noah Brown has no idea what's coming for him. No idea what happens to men who touch what belongs to us."
As if on cue, my iPad pinged with a motion alert. Isla was stirring, stretching like a cat in the morning sunlight, her blonde hair spilling across the pillow.
The three of us paused our conversation, watching our respective screens with undisguised hunger.
"You're fucking whipped already," Jax observed, though his own eyes never left Estelle.
"Proudly," I confirmed, watching how the light framed Isla’s blonde hair in sleep.
Jax and Connor nodded—the silent communication of men who'd pulled me back from edges I shouldn't have approached, who understood the monster that lived behind my playful exterior and loved me anyway.
"Just try not to make headlines," Jax drawled, but his blue eyes were sharp with protective approval. "Some of us have a public image to maintain."
I placed a hand over my heart in mock offense. "When have I ever been sloppy?”
"That first time," Connor muttered.
"Not with her," I assured, my eyes finding Isla's sleeping form on the screen once more. "Not when it matters this much."
The smile that spread across my face would have terrified most people. But not my brothers. They just grinned back, ready to help me bury another threat to our family's happiness, and ready to pull me back if the darkness got too deep.
Time to show Noah what happens when you touch what belongs to a monster.