Kayne didn’t let goof Chloe’s hand until his pulse settled.Because the truth was, the second he’d read that note, something primal and ugly had detonated inside him.
You won’t see me until it’s too late.
He’d seen threats.Real ones.Men who meant every word they carved onto paper.Notes like this didn’t come from impulsive idiots.They came from people who’d already practiced the kill in their heads.
But he didn’t tell her that.Not when she was already holding herself together with sheer willpower and whatever wholesome snacks she survived on.
He inhaled, forcing the anger back down where it belonged.Anger turned men reckless.Focus kept them lethal.
Then a glint on the floor caught his eye.He bent and plucked up a single chain link.
“Is this yours?”
Chloe studied it.“Nope.Never seen it before.”
“Probably dropped by one of the workers,” he said, pocketing it automatically.
But the faint prickle at the base of his spine didn’t ease.If anything, it crystallized.Something was off in this building.And he trusted that feeling more than he trusted luck.
“Start with the construction crew,” he said as they moved down the hall.“Names, habits, who lingers where they shouldn’t.If someone’s been watching you, I want to know.”
Her shoulders rose, tight with nerves she pretended weren’t there.“You’re assuming it wasn’t just, I don’t know, a bored teenager with Sharpie access?”
He almost snorted.“A bored teenager would’ve drawn something obscene.”
She made a wounded noise.“Okay, true.”
They rounded the corner toward the main gym floor.A couple of crew members nodded at her, smiling widely as if she weren’t holding herself together with sheer willpower.She smiled back, gentle and brave.
He hated that she had to be brave at all.
“Kayne,” she whispered, tugging him closer, “please don’t make a scene.”
He leaned in just enough that his Cajun rumble rolled over her spine.“Me makin’ a scene is what keeps you breathin’,cher.”
Her eyes flashed annoyance, fear, and something that looked suspiciously like longing.“You can’t hover.”
“Watch me.”
He scanned the corners of the gym, the exits, the shadows.Nothing screamed danger, but the hair on the back of his neck stood up anyway.The note had changed the atmosphere.Tilted it.Someone wanted her rattled.
He’d make sure they regretted that.
They reached the construction area where two workers were arguing over blueprints.Neither looked up.Good.Innocent men rarely flinched around authority; guilty ones tended to break into spontaneous sweat.
He stopped Chloe with a hand on her lower back.“Any of them give you trouble?”
“No.They barely notice me.”
“That’s a damn lie.”His gaze flicked to a younger guy whose eyes were very much noticing her legs.The kid caught Kayne’s stare and snapped back to the blueprints so fast he almost sprained something.
Kayne’s jaw tightened.“They notice.”
Chloe released an exasperated sigh as if she were trying not to roll her eyes.“Kayne.”
“Chloe, this ain’t flirting and it ain’t ego.”His voice dipped lower.“Somebody got close enough to your desk to plant a note.That means proximity.That means opportunity.And that means we narrow down every person who had access.”
She opened her mouth to argue because he noticed that was her instinctive survival skill, then froze.Her lashes dipped, hiding the fear she didn’t want him to see.
