The screen lit up.Danica.
“Kayne.”
He was instantly alert and beside her as she opened the message and the image loaded.No, not an image.A video.
Chloe’s breath left her lungs in a thin, broken sound.
Danica was tied to a chair.Her blonde hair hung loose and tangled around her face, makeup smeared, eyes too wide and shining in the dim light.The room around her was little more than shadow and concrete, the edges of the frame swallowed by darkness.A lone bulb glowed somewhere overhead, harsh and unforgiving, bleaching everything it touched.
A message appeared beneath the image.
Come alone and unarmed.No cops.No boyfriend.If you’re not alone, she will die.
Her lungs stopped working.This couldn’t be real.It had to be a trick, another manipulation or twisted attempt to isolate her.Danica had always loved drama and attention, loved being at the center of Chloe’s world.
Danica’s eyes stared out from the screen, terrified and unmistakably real.There was no haughty arrogance.This wasn’t exaggerated.This was pure fear, stripped bare.
“It’s a live feed,” Kayne said after a moment.“Or close enough to pass as one.”
Her pulse roared in her ears.“They want me alone.”
“I know.”
“They said—”
“I know what they said,” he interrupted gently, finally looking at her.His hand came up to cup her face, warm and solid, calming her when everything else inside her was spinning.“Listen to me.This is exactly what he wants.”
Chloe swallowed hard.“She’s my sister.”
“I know.”
“If I don’t go, she might be hurt.”
Kayne’s thumb brushed beneath her eye, wiping away a tear she hadn’t felt fall.It was a simple, steadying touch.“If you go alone, he wins.And he doesn’t stop with Danica.”
His voice didn’t rise or harden, which somehow made the words hit harder.
Her throat closed.He was right, but she hated that logic had any place in this moment when her sister’s life was hanging in the balance.
“She’s scared,” Chloe whispered.“I can see it.”
Kayne exhaled slowly.“So are you, and that’s okay.But you are not doing this by yourself.”
“They said no cops.No you.”
A humorless huff slipped out of him.“People who say that are lying, delusional, or very proud of their plan.None of those options earns obedience.We don’t take instructions from psychopaths.”
She shook her head, tears blurring her vision now.“He’ll watch me.”
“Then he’ll watch someone who’s not as easy to break as he thinks,” Kayne said.“And someone who’s not alone, no matter what he believes.”
He reached for his phone, already moving, already planning.Chloe recognized the shift, the quiet recalibration, the way his mind locked into purpose.Pieces clicked into place faster than she could follow.
This was the Kayne, who walked toward danger instead of away from it, who treated threats like problems to be solved rather than monsters to fear.
But terror still clawed at her.
“What if he hurts her because of me?”she asked, voice breaking.
