Chloe swallowed hard.“It was a message.”
“Yes,” Anja said.“And messages are meant to be answered.”
Kayne met Chloe’s gaze, green eyes dark with something ferocious and unyielding.“They want you scared,” he said quietly.“They want you desperate.”
Her chest ached.“What if they hurt her because of me?”
“They won’t,” he said immediately.“Not yet.You’re the leverage.”
That didn’t make her feel better.Not even a little bit.
The four of them stood there in the middle of the night, the kitchen humming softly around them, knowing with brutal certainty that the line had been crossed.Danica wasn’t missing anymore.She’d been taken.And whoever had her wanted Chloe afraid and fully aware that this was no longer a warning.
#
Kayne didn’t enjoydays that started with nowhere to go.He preferred plans, coordinates, or a target you could circle, narrow, and pressure until it broke.Today had none of that.Just an absence so loud it rang in his ears, and a hollow that refused to be filled.
“No club,” he said for the third time, voice calm but immovable.
Chloe stood at the kitchen island, phone still in her hand.He knew she didn’t want to let it go in case another call came in.She nodded, but he could see the effort it took.The gym was her anchor.Her instinct was always todo.Show up.Fix something tangible.Lift heavy things until the world made sense again.
Not today.
“Construction’s done,” he continued, partly for her, partly to convince himself.“There are no deliveries scheduled.Nothing there needs you right now.”
Anja leaned against the counter, eyes distant as she scrolled through data on her tablet.Leo paced near the back door, restless energy rolling off him in waves.They were four predators trapped in one kitchen, all of them frustrated by the same barrier.
Danica’s phone had been on for less than one minute.It was long enough to send the message, but barely enough to place her in the vicinity of her apartment.Then it went dark again.It was a cruel taunt.
Kayne had seen it before.Criminals liked to feel clever.What he hated was that itwasclever.
“Whoever has her knows what they’re doing,” Anja said quietly, confirming what he already knew.“They didn’t want us tracking the signal.They wanted us rattled.”
Chloe swallowed.“It means she’s alive.”
For now,Kayne added silently.
He moved closer, sliding an arm around her shoulders.She leaned into him immediately.He felt the tremor she didn’t want anyone else to see.
Four people were dead: Joel Erickson, Robin Day, Sandy, and Sandy’s husband.
Arson had been confirmed at Sandy’s house.No accelerant had been traced yet, but the fire had been set.Everything was converging, and he couldn’t see the damn shape of it, only the pressure of it closing in, the sense that they were being herded toward something inevitable.
“I don’t like this,” Anja muttered.“We’re reacting instead of controlling.”
Kayne agreed.He hated being on the defensive.And he really hated waiting.But there were no leads to chase.No warehouse glowing on a map or neon sign leading them to Danica.No careless mistake to exploit.Just a sister in chains and a monster who preferred silence to spectacle.
He tightened his hold on Chloe.Her breathing evened out, and the warmth of her body against his was the only thing that didn’t feel like a gamble.
Later, when the kitchen emptied and the house went into uneasy quiet, he took her upstairs.There was an urgency bordering on desperation.They needed each other too much.It was a frantic coupling of reassurance without words.
He made love to her like a promise.Like a spike driven deep into the earth.It wouldn’t stop what was coming, but it would remind them both that it was worth surviving it.
If everything really was coming to a head, then he would meet it moored to the one thing that mattered most.And God help anyone who tried to take her world apart.
#
Dark had lost meaning.Time too.Danica floated somewhere past hunger and thirst, past the acute edge of fear, into something duller and worse.Her body had betrayed her hours ago, maybe longer, and the shame of it sat heavy and sour against her skin.Cold seeped into everything.The wetness clung, impossible to ignore, a constant reminder of how far she’d fallen from the woman who once obsessed over appearances and control, over keeping everything just so.
