“Gotcha,” I murmur, resuming playback.
Her figure moves away from the lights, blending almost seamlessly with the shadows like she’s done it a hundred times before. I check the timestamp and switch to the next footage covering the path, but she doesn’t appear.
She’s good. Really fucking good.
It takes nearly thirty minutes of scanning different feeds before I pick her up again, and I watch with grudging fascination as she disappears into the woods. No cameras cover that area—another oversight I’m now regretting—so there’s no way to know what she went in there to do or who she might have met.
I skip through more footage, needing to see if someone else joined her and when she comes back out. Time ticks by on the screen, but nobody follows—the woods swaying in the darkness the only movement for hours. And then, just before sixthis morning, she reappears, dirt clinging to her clothes, her steps heavy.
What the hell are you up to, Mia? What were you doing all night?
Finding out now isn’t possible. Not without more information. So I make a mental note—no, a decision. Having Lorik look into who she might be isn’t going to be enough. If she’s slipping in and out right under my nose, I need to see for myself what the hell she’s doing and who the hell she really is.
Tonight. I’ll follow her myself, if she goes out again.
Right now, though, I have business to handle.
I turn off the footage and wipe the dirt from my fingers with a handkerchief just as a knock sounds on my office door. “Come in,” I call, dropping the soiled cloth into my desk drawer.
The door swings open and Dhimitër steps in. “Just got word that our ship is pulling into shore tomorrow morning. A day early.”
“Problems?”
“None,” he says, closing the door behind him. “The customs officers know to expect us and look the other way. They’ll offload at Dock C, following the usual procedures. We won’t have any complications.”
“Good,” I say, leaning back. “I have some positive news myself. Rafael Moretti got in touch last night. He wants more firearms.”
“More money for us.” Dhimitër grins, dropping into the seat across from me. Then he hesitates, clearly weighing his next words. “I know you said you want to handle it alone, but I’ve been thinking… we could reach out to your brothers-in-law to connect us with reliable architects to take over our stalled projects.”
My lips thin, but I’ve been considering the same thing. Especially since discovering that Fabian might be actively sabotaging my expansion plans. “It’s not a bad idea,” I admit.
He raises a brow, looking surprised by how easily I agree. “Yeah?”
A faint smirk tugs at my mouth. “Yeah.”
“Perfect. Who knows, maybe once we get back on track, we can still open the restaurant by the original target date.”
I nod, but even as I think about my projects and the satisfaction of having more revenue streams, Mia slips through the cracks in my concentration.
The shadows under her eyes. The sudden, unwelcome pounding of my heart when I touched her. The heat that stole my breath when she woke up and looked at me with those guileless blue eyes.
Whatever game she’s playing, I’m going to find out.
And then I’m going to have her. One way or another.
The scent of roasted lamb pulls me from my office—our longtime chef Besart’s cooking, rich and mouthwatering, impossible to ignore. I glance at my watch as I shut down my laptop, surprised to find it’s already 7 PM.
Where did the day go?
I roll up my sleeves as I head towards the dining room, my stomach grumbling more insistently the closer I get to the source of those incredible smells.
Quiet murmurs reach me first—my father’s rough, steady voice and a softer one that tugs harshly at my insides.
Mia.
“You’re getting gaunt, girl,”Atësays, his tone gruff but oddly gentle. “Are you working yourself to the bone again? Sit down and have dinner with us. Eat properly tonight.”
There’s a brief, tense silence that makes me pause just outside the doorway, staying out of view so I can observe undetected. Mia stands at the edge, closer than I expectedher to be, her fingers twisted together as she bites her lower lip.
