“What did they say?” I question.
“Anna answered first.” Sloane reads from the screen. “‘I know you might be thinking you need to leave, but really, it’s best to stand your ground. The Irontrees will keep you safe.’” She scrolls. “And then Ellie said, ‘Damn right we will.’”
Aldar arrives in under twenty minutes. He takes one look at the photos spread across the kitchen counter, one look at the cracked wall, and says nothing about either. He checks the security cameras immediately.
“Gap in coverage,” he confirms, jaw tight. “They knew the camera angles and stayed in the blind spots. This was planned reconnaissance.”
Kelt’s voice comes through the speakerphone, tight with controlled fury. “This is a warning shot. Aldridge wants her scared. He wants her to run. If he wanted her dead already, he wouldn’t have announced himself.”
“So what’s the play?” I growl.
“He’s hoping she bolts. Goes somewhere without orc protection. Somewhere easier to reach.”
Sloane speaks up from the couch, her blue eyes blazing. “Then I don’t bolt. I stay right here and finish the goddam story. He wants to scare me into silence?” She shakes her head. “He has no idea who he’s dealing with.”
I look at her—this female who climbed out of a pit with her bare hands and ran through a jungle with destroyed feet. No, Aldridge has no idea what he’s up against.
Aldar orders additional cameras to cover every blind spot.
“No more outings,” Kelt orders. “No matter how stir-crazy she gets. Curtains drawn after dark. Dane and Laurie are fully briefed and on alert in their house next door—their own safe room is stocked and ready. Two fortified positions are smarter than putting everyone under one roof when Sloane is the specific target.”
“Agreed,” Dane remarks.
“I’ll move to heightened surveillance tonight,” Aldar adds. “And I’m calling the local sheriff’s office to let them know what’s happened.”
“And I’m getting in touch with the Neighborhood Watch,” my uncle says.
The rest of the afternoon is tense. Dane and Laurie go home and stay there, with the exception of briefly escorting Zoe home after she gets off her school bus. Garlen and Ellie come homefrom work and see the pictures. Garlen’s expression goes stone cold.
Ellie’s hand instinctively moves to her belly and then she crosses the room and hugs Sloane hard. “We’re not going anywhere,” Ellie says fiercely. “None of us are.”
Zoe arrives home from school, oblivious and happy. We all keep it together for her. Dinner is quieter than usual. Sloane pushes food around her plate more than she eats, but she laughs at Zoe’s story about a boy in her class who tried to eat a crayon.
After Zoe goes to bed, Garlen works with Aldar to check the new cameras one more time. Aldar retreats to his room to continue coordinating. Ellie squeezes Sloane’s hand and heads upstairs with Garlen.
The house goes quiet.
I carry Sloane to our room and set her on the bed. Then I stand and check the lock on our bedroom window, scanning the dark back yard, with my hands braced on the windowsill.
My knuckles still throb from where I hit the wall.
“Come to bed, Jonus.”
I don’t move. “Someone was outside, possibly out back too.”
“And now you’re between me and the window. So come to bed.”
I turn. She’s sitting up against the pillows, those blue eyes steady on mine. Not frightened or panicked, just waiting for me. My female—and she is mine, whether she’s said the words yet or not—is looking at me with an expression that has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with trust.
“You should be afraid,” I say roughly.
“Of what?” She pats the mattress beside her. “The very same orcs who flew to Colombia to save me are right here in this house. I’m not afraid.”
I cross to the bed and lie down beside her. She immediately curls against me, as she does every night now, tucking herselfinto the curve of my body like she was designed for exactly this space. Her head on my chest. Her arm across my waist. Her legs tangled with mine.
My arms wrap around her and I bury my nose in her hair and inhale deep. Her scent floods my lungs and the rage, the fear, the murderous need to find whoever was outside that window and tear them apart—all of it slowly, slowly quiets.
She doesn’t say anything else. Just holds on.
