My phone buzzed in my pocket. Summer's name flashed across the screen.
"Jules?" Her voice was sharp with concern. "What's the status? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Everything's contained."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure." I paused, watching Nick disappear behind the gatehouse. "Sum, I need you to handle the Reyes call this afternoon. Full authority. Don't wait for my sign-off."
Silence stretched on the other end.
“I’m sorry. Did you say full authority without developing a rash?”
"Don't get sentimental. I'm still judging the formatting."
Summer laughed, short and surprised. "Fine. I'll handle it. But you owe me an explanation when you land."
"Deal."
I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket. The company held.
So did I.
Chapter 23
Road Clear, Judgment Compromised
NICK
Thewirehadbeenbent, not cut.
I crouched near the fence line, gloved fingers hovering above the strand without touching it. Morning heat was already lifting off the red soil, pulling the smell of disturbed earth and dry thorn into the still air. Flies had started gathering where the ground had been turned.
Broken fences announced themselves. Bent fences asked questions.
Elias stood three meters back, radio silent in his hand, waiting for me to say what we both already knew. Daniel was farther out, walking a slow arc along the vehicle tracks that led away from the boundary and disappeared into the scrub beyond our patrol line.
I pulled off my sunglasses and didn't put them back on.
The boot prints were partial—heel strike visible, toe smeared. Whoever had stood here knew how to avoid leaving clean impressions. They'd parked beyond the obvious sightlines, walked in soft, and left before the first patrol sweep. The timing wasn't luck. Someone had watched long enough to learn.
"Camera trap?" I asked.
Elias shook his head. "Shifted. Not disabled. Someone turned it about fifteen degrees east."
Worse.
A destroyed camera was vandalism. A shifted camera was knowledge. Someone had studied our coverage angles and shifted the lens just enough to create a blind spot without triggering a maintenance check.
I cleaned grit from my thumb while I thought.
"How long between the first alarm and the guest collection?"
"Fourteen minutes to Daniel reaching the western suites. Eighteen to arrival at the lodge."
"And the road closure?"
"Twenty-two minutes from my call to full lockdown."
