My stomach turned to stone.
The ocean sound vanished.
The fucking spy.
There was only Reo's phone screen—too bright in the afternoon sun—and the sick certainty flooding my veins.
"Kenji. . ."
"Just say it."
He looked up, meeting my eyes with the kind of steady certainty that preceded devastation. "The spy signaled again. One hour ago and. . .this time it was about your Heart."
The words hung in the air between us.
I felt Nyomi's eyes on us from the blanket. Felt the sun burning my shoulders. Felt the sand between my toes and the salt drying on my skin.
We’d been two lovers in Paradise, relishing in our new love.
But every paradise had a venomous serpent.
And ours had just opened its mouth and tried to sink its fangs into her throat.
Chapter twenty-four
The Serpent’s Strike
Kenji
The spy tried to send a message about my Heart.
While I'd been kissing Nyomi in the water. While we'd been wrapped up in each other, tasting salt and sunshine. While we'd been resting, sharpening our blades in the forge of paradise.
The spy hadn't rested at all.
The realization hit me like a physical blow. We'd made the decision to pause, to take this moment for ourselves before the hunt began.
Strategic rest.
Necessary recovery.
But the spy had used that same time to work.
Rage burned through me.
Reo cleared his throat. “Of course the message to your father was intercepted.”
Luckily, my hackers were already in place, already cutting every transmission before it reached my father.
But the spy didn't know that. The spy thought their messages were getting through. And that made them even more dangerous.
"They sent the message from where?" The question came out sharper than I’d intended.
Reo's jaw clenched. "This time. . .the spy sent the message from inside the mansion."
The world tilted. The sunlight over the sand lost its warmth. Every shadow in my home turned suspect.
Not the East near the villas.
