"Your job doesn't include obsessing over one patron for hours." He sets down his glass. "So tell me honestly—are you keeping her safe, or are you making her yours?"
The question is direct enough that lying would be pointless. "I've installed surveillance in her apartment; I have to add that Lucien wanted me to do it. And I actually did it, with her knowledge and consent. She has full admin access to the system."
"Consent doesn't make it healthy. It just makes it legal." His expression hardens. "What else? Phone tracking? Following her home?"
I don't answer immediately, and Elias reads the hesitation perfectly.
"Christ, Jax." He stands and walks to the window. "You're repeating every mistake I warned you about. The ones I made with Mara before I learned the difference between love and control."
He's right. About all of it. But hearing it stated so bluntly makes the obsession feel more dangerous than it did this morning when I was fastening a necklace at her throat.
"She's in danger," I say. "Real danger. Gabriel's brother is building a case to discredit her. There are investigators following her. She needs protection."
"She needs protection. That doesn't mean she needs you specifically." Elias stands and walks to the window overlooking his garden. "You're too close to this. Too invested. And when protectors become personally invested, they stop thinking strategically and start thinking emotionally. That gets people killed."
"I'm thinking strategically. Everything I'm doing is calculated threat mitigation."
"Everything?"
“Lana is being hunted by people who want to discredit her or worse." I lean forward, making him hear this. "Gabriel Pope was connected to The Glasshouse. His death threatens to expose networks that can't afford exposure. His brother is building a legal case, but that might just be cover for something more dangerous. She needs protection."
"She needs protection. That's not in question." Elias turns from the window. "What's in question is whether you're the right person to provide it. Whether you can maintain objectivity when you're already emotionally compromised."
"I'm not compromised. I'm invested. There's a difference."
"Is there? Because from where I'm standing, investment looks a lot like obsession." He crosses back to the desk, refills his scotch even though he's barely touched the first glass. The gesture signals this conversation is going to be longer than I anticipated. "Tell me about the apartment surveillance. What's the justification?"
"Someone followed her two days ago. Professional surveillance, probably hired by Ezra's legal team. Her building security is inadequate—outdated locks, no doorman, blind spots in the corridors." I count off the tactical reasoning. "Installing cameras gives her early warning if someone breaches her space. It's threat mitigation."
"And the phone tracking?"
"Same principle. If she's being followed, I need to know where she is in real-time. Be able to respond if something goes wrong." I pause, looking at Elias as he’s processing. "I haven't crossed any boundaries she hasn't agreed to. Everything I'm doing, she knows about. She has veto power, exit clauses, weekly check-ins to assess whether the protection is working."
"You negotiated exit clauses?" Elias's eyebrows rise. "That's actually smart. Better than I managed with Mara."
"You taught me that consent requires ongoing negotiation, not just initial agreement. That power dynamics shift, and protection can become control if you're not constantly checking."
"I did teach you that. I'm just surprised you're applying it." He sips his scotch. "But here's what concerns me—you can negotiate all the boundaries you want, but if your motivation is personal rather than professional, you'll find ways to justify crossing them. That's how obsession works. It convinces you that every violation is actually protection."
"The apartment surveillance was Lucien's directive. He wanted her home monitored for threat assessment."
"And you agreed enthusiastically, I'm guessing. Jumped at the opportunity." Elias's tone isn't accusatory, just observant. "I'm not saying the surveillance is unjustified. I'm saying youreagerness to implement it suggests personal investment beyond professional duty."
The accuracy stings worse than accusation. "I just want to make sure she’s safe."
"You want to watch her. There's a difference." He sips his scotch. "I'm not saying your attraction is wrong. I'm saying you're using security as justification for behavior that crosses boundaries. And the problem with that approach is eventually you stop seeing the boundaries at all."
"I haven't crossed any boundaries she hasn't agreed to. Everything I'm doing, she knows about.”
He leans back in his chair. "So tell me—why her? What is it about Lana Pope that made you cross from professional surveillance to personal investment?"
The question requires honesty I'm not sure I can articulate. Why Lana? Because she looked at Camera 12 and saw me watching? Because she goes through the act of recovery with the kind of precision that suggests she knows exactly how broken she is underneath? Because standing in her kitchen this morning, fastening a necklace at her throat, I felt present for the first time in two years?
"She reminds me of the hollow place," I say finally. "The emptiness you talked about when I came back from overseas. The sense that competence without connection is just high-functioning isolation."
Elias is quiet for a moment. "Go on."
"I've been watching people through cameras for two years. Monitoring threats, documenting patterns, keeping everyone safe from a distance. It's effective. It's also empty." I finish my scotch, welcoming the burn. "Then I spent two weeks watching Lana pretend for people who don't deserve the effort.Watching her count rotations and steps and the cost of every decision. Watching her live in an apartment she hasn't unpacked because she's still deciding whether surviving her husband was worth the guilt of how he died."
