Forty-eight hours.
Carlos held up the tracker. “It was magnetized to the inner wheel well. They could have planted this anywhere.” His eyes met Tonio’s. “The question isn’thowthey found you at therestaurant. It’s when they got close enough to the car to put it there.”
The unspoken possibilities hung in the air: a moment of vulnerability in the city, or a violation within their own walls.
It meant they hadn’t been safe for the last two days. Every trip, every move—the car sitting in the driveway, a perfect beacon pointing directly to this fortress—had been exposed.
He ran a silent threat assessment. The perimeter was compromised. The enemy was desperate, aggressive. But the real weakness wasn’t obvious—it was personal. His eyes found Sofia. She was the flaw in his armor, the one thing he couldn’t afford to lose. Wanting her was a risk too big to allow. He shut the thought down. Too dangerous.
“They didn’t just find you at the restaurant,” Luc concluded, his words dropping like stones. “They knew you were here. They knew where ‘here’ was. The restaurant was just the first time you were vulnerable enough for them to make a move.”
The threat was no longer outside the gates. It had been sitting in their own garage.
Tonio turned to her. No softness. No hesitation.
“You don’t leave my sight until this is finished.”
Sofia searched his face, as if trying to find the line between order and protectiveness. “You mean… stay here? With you?”
He stepped in, close enough she had to tilt her chin up.
“I mean everywhere. If I move, you move. If I breathe, you’re within arm’s reach.”
Her pulse kicked hard at the intensity of it. Not a cage. A shield.
“And if I say no?” she asked quietly.
Tonio didn’t flinch. “They sent a man to take you. Saying no isn’t on the table anymore.”
There it was—simple, final. No pretending she wasn’t already in this.
She exhaled, a single nod. “Then tell me where you need me.”
Tonio’s hand settled at the small of her back. The same place it rested when they first walked into the restaurant. This time, it felt permanent.
“Right here.”
Because from this point forward, they weren’t running. They were hunting.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The world had shrunk to the small black device on the command desk—quiet, seemingly harmless, and anything but.
Sofia stayed close, the adrenaline from the aborted restaurant trip still in her system, but the room itself felt different now. No chaos. Just order. Tonio had made it clear she wasn’t to leave his reach, and the way he positioned himself behind her left no room for argument.
Luc and Carlos worked the consoles with quick, practiced movements. Then Wraith’s filtered voice slid through the speakers—the same ghost who’d once helped her escape him was now their best shot at finding whoever had gotten close enough to plant the tracker.
The weight of his hand at her back steadied her—quiet authority disguised as touch. He was aware of everything—the men, the screens—but his center of gravity was her. His protection wasn’t just presence; it was a perimeter. And she stood at its core.
“What’s the latest?” Tonio said, his voice cutting through the low murmur. His hand pressed lightly against Sofia’s back,guiding her toward the wall of monitors. Luc shot him a brief look—surprised, maybe—but didn’t question it as his fingers flew across the keyboard.
“Tracker’s professional grade,” Wraith’s metallic voice crackled over the speaker. “Short-range. Whoever planted it had to get close.”
“We already know that,” Carlos muttered. “The tracker activated within the last forty-eight hours.”
Sofia expected this to be the moment she was nudged aside, told to wait outside. But Tonio didn’t shift her away. His hand slid from her back to her shoulder—steady, deliberate—placing her just ahead of him. When he leaned toward the console, his voice brushed her ear.
“Pull up the car’s travel log for the last three days.”
