“What about Isabella?” Mila asked.
The question sent a jolt of urgency through me. I’d left her alone, asleep, unprotected. “I’ll go check on her.”
I moved quickly through the corridor. The door to my room was still locked, exactly as I’d left it. I opened it silently, expecting to find Isabella still asleep.
Instead, she was standing by the window, fully dressed, her posture tense. She turned at the sound of the door, her expression guarded, my gun in her hand.
“Where were you?” Her voice carried suspicion and distance, so different from the intimacy we’d shared hours before.
“Grey was here,” I said, closing the door behind me. “He’s got some urgent business and is leaving the island for a couple of hours.”
Isabella’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of business?”
“He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t ask.”
She studied my face, searching for something. Then her expression shifted, anxiety replacing suspicion. “Someone was here while you were gone,” she said quietly. “Something woke me up.”
I frowned. “That’s impossible. The kids had the building locked down. Grey’s men waited outside, and only Grey was inside—” I stopped myself, seeing the certainty in her eyes. Was I still believing in anyone or anything more than in her? I’d done that once before; I wouldn’t make that mistake again. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
She moved to the door, pointing to the frame with my gun. “It was subtle. Just a faint scraping sound, like someonewas doing something very carefully, maybe trying to unlock the door?”
I opened the door, examined the area methodically, checking the door frame, the hinges, the lock, and the surrounding wall. Nothing seemed out of place. I expanded my search, moving systematically through the room, checking everything.
Then a lightbulb went off. “A scraping sound?”
I turned back to Isabella, who finally put my weapon back on the nightstand, then nodded.
“Like someone did something to the electrical wiring?”
She cocked her head. “I don’t know how it sounds if someone does something to the electrical wiring,” she said.
I grabbed my little toolbox, then went back to the door, the light switch, and the outlet right next to it. “But you located the noise to the area of the door, right?”
“Yep.”
“Okay.” I unscrewed the cover and sent in my endoscope. To most eyes, it would be invisible, but years of training had taught me to spot even minute details. And sure enough, there it was. I didn’t touch it; instead, I took out my phone and captured the screen of the endoscope. The image wasn’t super clear but detailed enough.
“Maybe it was just a mouse,” I said quietly, showing her the screen. “They’re everywhere on the island, nearly undetectable.” I pulled my endoscope back, then screwed the cover back on. The listening device was military grade. Custom work. Expensive. And whoever was monitoring would hear everything we said.
“What now?” she asked, her voice dropping to match mine.
I shook my head.
“I don’t—” Before Shorty could continue, I covered her mouth with my hand, pressing a finger to my lips. “There’s not much we can do against these buggers.”
I led her to my desk, took out a pen and paper, and wrote:Room compromised. Don’t talk. Trust no one. Stay within my sight at all times.
My handwriting remained precise despite the rage coursing through me. Years of training had taught me to eliminate all emotional tells in even this most basic of actions.
Shorty read the note, then looked up, her eyes meeting mine. In that moment, something passed between us—a silent communication built on the intimacy of the previous night, on shared danger, on mutual understanding. She nodded once, decisively. “I’m not scared of mice. But does that mean there are snakes, as well?”
I tore the paper into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet. “Not that I know of,” I said for the benefit of whoever was listening. “But we can ask Anton over breakfast.” Then I took Shorty’s hand and led her from the room, my movements casual as if nothing was wrong.
In the hallway, we passed Anton and Roman. I made eye contact with each of them and pointed back to my room.
They both stared at me as if I’d lost it, until I showed them the photo on my phone before deleting it.
Understanding dawned on their faces.
