"Pass the bread, please," she said.
Kara handed it over without a word. The conversation didn't resume. We finished dinner in near silence, the only sounds the scrape of forks against plates and the evening news playing softly in the background.
A shrill ring cut through the silence, making me flinch. The sound came from the command room, electronic and insistent. An alarm?
Alex pushed back from the table. "That's for me." She walked out without another word, her footsteps fading down the hall.
I froze with my fork halfway to my mouth. A phone? They had told me repeatedly that no outside communications were allowed. Protocol, they had said. Security measures.
My gaze darted between the remaining women. Cam continued eating as if nothing had happened. Kara exchanged a quick glance with Ellie, whose fingers tapped a nervous rhythm against her water glass.
My stomach tightened. The marinara sauce suddenly tasted metallic on my tongue. Something wasn't right here.
22
Sabine
I was halfway throughmy slice of cheesecake when Alex emerged from the command room. I heard her boots on the marble of the foyer, but caught only a glimpse of her face as she passed the kitchen door. Her shoulders were rigid beneath her black sweater. She headed straight for the stairs without a word.
"Everything okay?" Kara called after her.
Alex kept walking as if she hadn't heard, her boots making muffled sounds as she climbed the staircase.
The silence that followed felt thick enough to touch. Kara's eyes met Cam's, then Ellie's. Something passed between them, a wordless communication I wasn't privy to.
"Let's clean up," Kara said finally, gathering plates and utensils. Ellie stood, collecting our glasses. Their movements were synchronized, like dancers who'd performed the same routine a thousand times. I watched them work, feeling useless and out of place.
"I'm going to gear up for evening patrol," Cam announced.
Kara nudged Ellie with her hip as she passed. "I'm sure it's nothing. She'll tell us if it is." She turned toward the hallway. "Cam, I'll be on cameras and comms tonight."
Cam nodded once before disappearing into the command room.
I pushed back from the table, my chair scraping against the floor. Ellie didn't look up from the dishes she was rinsing, her back to me, water running loudenough to discourage conversation. The muscles in her forearms flexed as she scrubbed a stubborn spot on a plate.
I stood there for a moment, uncertain, the air between us vibrating with unspoken tension. Whatever had happened on that phone call had changed something in the house. I could feel it, like the pressure drop before a storm.
I needed to escape the tension, so I slipped away to the solarium at the far end of the house. The glass-walled room stood dark and silent, a sanctuary of green shadows against the night. I flicked on a single wall sconce, casting just enough amber light to navigate between the potted palms and trailing vines.
The phone call bothered me. Not just the call itself, but the ripple effect it created—the way Alex had shut down, the worried glance Ellie tried to hide when she thought I wasn't looking. Something was wrong, and I was being kept in the dark. Again.
My fingers trailed along the leaves of a sprawling monstera as I made my way to the wicker chair tucked beneath its canopy. The plant's massive leaves created a natural privacy screen, though who I was hiding from in an empty room, I couldn't say.
I settled into the chair, feeling the humid warmth of the solarium envelop me as I opened my book. Marius and Cosette were meeting in the garden at night, finding each other in the darkness. I ran my finger along the lines, picturing the lovers' whispered conversations, their tentative touches, the thrill of forbidden connection.
The glass walls of the solarium seemed to disappear as I read, replaced by Hugo's garden walls. The scent of the tropical plants around me transformed into night-blooming flowers of a Parisian garden. For precious minutes, I wasn't a journalist in hiding, wasn't a target, wasn't surrounded by women hired to protect me. I was simply lost in a world where love conquered all, where even in darkness, two souls could find each other.
A shadow darkened the doorway, and I barely had time to register Ellie's presence before the room plunged into darkness. The light switch clicked under her fingers.
"Sabine." Her voice was tight, professional. "You realize you're sitting in what's essentially a display case, right? Glass walls, interior light, pitch black outside?"
My book slipped from my fingers. "I didn't think—"
"Kara just radioed me from the tree line." Ellie moved toward me, a silhouette against deeper shadows. "She could see every page you turned, every move you made."
I felt her proximity before I saw her, the air between us charged with something beyond professional concern. Her hand found my elbow in the darkness, warm through the thin fabric of my sleeve.
"Anyone could have," she added, softer now. "You shouldn't be in here."
