Chloe swallowed, straightened, and forced her shoulders back.She always did better once she had a plan, even if it was one she hated.She’d give Robin another hour or two.Then she’d start making contingency arrangements, however much she disliked them, and try not to run to the supply closet to cry.
Still, the unease lingered.Robin didn’t seem like the type of person to disappear.And lately, Chloe had learned that when something felt off, it usually was.
#
Kayne slipped intothe IT room and shut the door quietly behind him.
The gym hummed on the other side of the wall, with thumping music and construction tools whirring and buzzing as the last of the renovations were finished.
It was too alive for what his gut had been whispering all morning.
He rolled his shoulders once and stepped up to the monitor bank.Several screens blinked back at him, each fed from a different exterior camera.Parking lot.Side alley.Rear service drive.Street-facing sidewalk.
He scanned out of habit first, eyes cataloging vehicles and foot traffic, letting routine do the work while his instincts stayed wired.Nothing spiked his pulse.Then he rewound the street camera.
“Damn,” he muttered softly.
There.A man stood across the street, half-hidden behind the trunk of a sycamore.Baseball cap pulled low.Hands shoved deep into the pockets of a parka despite the mild weather.He wasn’t doing anything dramatic.He wasn’t pacing, didn’t have his phone out.No obvious tells.
Which was exactly why Kayne noticed him.
The guy didn’t look at the gym sign, check his watch, or scan traffic.He stared straight at the front windows.
At Chloe.
Danica’s offhand comment from earlier replayed in his head.He just stood there.It was super horror-movie-esque.But I didn’t want to freak you out.
It was never nothing.
He tapped a few keys, jumping feeds to track the man’s movement as he shifted his weight and leaned farther into the tree’s cover.The camera caught his face when he lifted his head.Recognition hit like a sucker punch.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Kayne breathed.
Fraiser Talbot, Chloe’s stalker from Oregon, with the restraining order and the GPS ankle monitor he was supposed to be wearing.The man who’d smiled as if this was all some cosmic misunderstanding when the judge had told him to stay away from Chloe.
Kayne snapped screenshots, fingers flying.His pulse didn’t race; it went cold and focused.
So Danica hadn’t imagined it, and Chloe hadn’t been dramatic.Someone really had been watching her.
And he wasn’t bothering to hide it anymore.
Kayne grabbed his phone and headed for the door.Talbot didn’t bolt when Kayne stepped outside.Didn’t even flinch.That, more than anything, told Kayne exactly what kind of trouble they were in.
Talbot stood there with his chin lifted, eyes glittering and unhinged in a way Kayne had seen before in men who believed the world owed them something.Men who had rewritten reality so many times they believed the lie more than the truth.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Kayne said calmly as he closed the distance.
Talbot smiled.“I knew she’d replace me eventually.”
Kayne stopped an arm’s length away, close enough to punch him if necessary.“You’ve got about five seconds to explain why you’re violating a court order.”
Talbot scoffed.“Court doesn’t mean a damn thing.She’s my wife.”
There it was.
Kayne felt something feral wash over him.It wasn’t jealousy exactly, but something darker and protective.Possessive and territorial in a way he didn’t bother to deny anymore.
“She’s not married to you,” Kayne said evenly.“She’s never even met you.”
