My phone vibrated once more as signal returned. Unknown number. Call incoming. I stared at it for a second. Then accepted. “Yeah.”
Static crackled through the line, then the call dropped. Silence rushed in behind it. I stood there for a long second, staring into the dark beyond the deck.
Behind me, Mila stepped out of the tub and grabbed a towel. “Who was it?”
“I don’t know.”
I forced my shoulders to loosen before turning back toward the house. Headlights cut across the trees again—closer this time.
“Inside,” I ordered.
No one argued.
Jax stepped in immediately, hand hovering at Avery’s lower back as he steered her toward the sliding doors.
Chase didn’t hesitate. He caught Chloe’s wrist and pulled her with him, jaw locked.
Theo moved with Tori at his side, one hand braced against the doorframe as he ushered her through.
Mila lingered half a second too long. Our eyes met. “Now,” I told her quietly.
She went. The glass door shut. Locked. Only then did I turn back toward the railing.
“Stay inside,” I added, voice carrying through the glass.
Jax was already moving toward the edge of the deck, eyes scanning the perimeter.
Theo had gone quiet. Chase straightened.
The night hadn’t escalated. Not fully. But the crack was there. Small. Intentional.
My phone buzzed again.
Logan:You’re being watched.
I stepped off the deck and into the dark alone to take the next call. The second call came through from Drew before I could message Logan back. That tightened something deeper than the anonymous threat had. I answered immediately. “What?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
No greeting. No buffer. His voice carried that familiar edge—half irritation, half warning.
“Define doing.”
“At a party that’s being blasted all over social media.”
My spine went rigid. “What?”
“You’re trending locally, genius. Someone posted a full panoramic of Theo’s house. Tagging location. Tagging names. Including yours.”
Ice slid down my back. “That house isn’t public.”
“It is now.”
I turned slowly, scanning the tree line again. The driveway. The faint glow of headlights lower down the mountain road that hadn’t been there earlier.
“How many views?” I asked.
“Enough.”
