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Kayne turned the chainlink over in his palm once, just enough to feel the cold bite of the metal and the faint burr where it had been snapped free.It was the same cheap steel and the same message as the other one he’d found in Chloe’s office.His pulse never changed, training saw to that, but something deeper went still, as if a blade had locked into place.This wasn’t theft.This was theater.Someone was demonstrating proof of access and patience.
This was the type of person who left something behind because he wanted to be felt more than feared, wanted Chloe to lie awake wondering when he’d been close enough to touch her and chosen not to.Kayne slid the link into his pocket and closed his hand over it, mouth tightening by a fraction.He didn’t need to tell Chloe yet.He’d carry this part.He always did.But whoever had dropped it had just crossed a line from nuisance to personal, and Kayne did not lose what was his to protect.Not ever.
The cameras were almost installed.Anja was finishing setting them up in the IT room, muttering Swedish profanity to herself.Kayne was shadowing Chloe across the construction floor as if it was second nature because by now, it damn well was.She insisted on checking progress herself, even though every fresh noise made her flinch before she pretended she hadn’t.
He kept a palm near the small of her back without touching her, the urge to steady her almost painful.She didn’t need a bodyguard, she kept saying.Didn’t need coddling or for him to hover.Yeah?Tell that to the universe, which seemed hell-bent on dropping an anvil on her head every twenty minutes as if she were Wile E.Coyote, falling prey to the Road Runner’s convoluted antics.
Chloe stepped beneath the open second-story landing, flipping through notes on her tablet, oblivious to the worker above her shifting equipment.
There was a loud scrape and wobble, then a shouted curse.Kayne’s instincts went ballistic.
He looked up and saw the metal ladder tipping off the edge directly above her as if he’d manifested it by thinking of the old Warner Brother’s cartoon.
“Chloe!”
He lunged without thinking.
One second she was reading measurements, the next she was airborne, arms trapped against his body as he slammed them both to the ground, twisting so he took the brunt of the hit.The ladder crashed to the floor with a metallic scream inches from where her skull had been.
Silence.
Then the foreman’s horrified voice spilled out in a rush.“Oh, my God, Miss Giordano, Kayne, I’m so sorry, it slipped, it wasn’t secure.Jesus, is she okay?”
Chloe trembled above him, tiny shivers running through her like aftershocks.She tried to push upright, but her legs were staging a full-scale rebellion.
Kayne hauled her into his lap before she could argue.“Cher, breathe,” he murmured, low enough for only her.“Just breathe for me.”
“I’m fine,” she whispered, breath stuttering.
“Bull.”He tipped her chin up, ignoring the audience.“You’re shakin’ outta your skin.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted again, the words wobbling like a bad lie.
The foreman hustled closer, mortified.“Kayne, Chloe, I swear, we check everything.I don’t know how this happened.”
Kayne cut him a look fierce enough to singe bone and muscle.“We’ll talk about it later.”
He wasn’t ready to pull his attention off the woman unknowingly clinging to his shirt.Her breath was warm against his throat.Her heartbeat thudded wildly beneath his palm, matching his.Relief hit him so hard it hurt, but something inside his chest cracked anyway.
She tried to sit back, but when her gaze snagged on the bent, twisted ladder lying exactly where she’d been standing, her face drained of color.
Kayne’s arms tightened before he could stop himself.“Hey.Look at me.”
She did, blue eyes wide, shaken straight through.
The world tunneled down to her face, her breath, the vulnerability she hated anyone seeing.
“Don’t scare me like that,” he said softly, even though none of this was her fault.
Her mouth pursed as her armor slid back into place.“I didn’t do anything.”
“You almost got crushed.”
“You caught me,” she whispered.“As always.”
That right there was what did it.He didn’t plan to kiss her.
