“For you to leave.”
Emma went still.
Zach stood, pulling up the staff roster on his phone, cross-referencing. Assignments. Contractors. Subcontracts. Nothing. No match. No authorization. No record.
His jaw tightened.Insidethe perimeter. Moving freely. Using Zach’s authority to gain access and manipulate systems. Testing infrastructure. The threat level in his head escalated. Red.
“Zach.” Emma’s voice pulled him back. “What did you find?”
He looked at her. Sunlight filtered through the palms, catching in her hair. Concern in her eyes. Focused, but unaware of the scale of the threat. The same woman who made him coffee this morning. Black. Without asking. Who’d stood at his sink like she belonged there.
Who had strolled unknowingly—unprotected—past an active threat.
Anyone close to him became a target. The thought hit hard. Immediate. Unwelcome.
He shut it down. Compartmentalize. Control.
He couldn’t tell her. Couldn’t pull her deeper into this. The less she knew, the safer she’d be.
“Probably nothing.” The lie came out smooth, practiced. “Just following protocol.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed. She realized he was holding back, but she didn’t push. She just considered him with that steady, perceptive gaze that saw too much.
That was worse.
Zach turned away first, heading back up the trail to the hotel, Emma falling into step beside him. “Stay in the hotel area. I’ll catch up with you later. We’ll discuss your little side trip then.”
He veered off toward the security office, already running through the next moves. Tighten perimeter surveillance. Lock down access points. Review forty-eight hours of footage. Flag every unknown face. Re-verify all staff credentials.
Find the entry point. Find the gap. Find him. Inform Nick and David.
Behind him, he could feel Emma stop. Not following. Watching.
He didn’t look back.
His instincts on the beach were right.
This wasn’t random.
Someone was on the island.
And Emma had walked right past him.
Chapter 21
Wrong Answer
Emma heardthe soft click of the cottage door just after nine.
She’d been curled on the couch for the past hour, a book open but unread in her lap, moonlight spilling through the uncurtained windows in silver bands across the floor. She hadn’t turned a single page. Her eyes stared at the same paragraph, unseeing, her mind replaying the afternoon.
The grounds worker. The empty path. Zach’s reticence.
The door closed behind Zach with a muted click. He prowled through the great room like a shadow. Quiet. Controlled. Every step placed with intention. He didn’t look at her.
Emma’s chest tightened; she knew his body language now. Had learned it faster than she wanted to admit. Tight shoulders indicated he’d found something off. Measured steps meant he was thinking three moves ahead. And avoiding eye contact? That meant he wasn’t planning to tell her about it.
Emma shut her book with a soft snap. “Did you find him?”
