Page 69 of Shark’s Pride

“Right?” I then tapped the fast-forward key. While the footage zoomed ahead, with birds flitting and trees blowing at five times their normal pace, I specifically kept my gaze on the gate between the lawn and the front driveway. Somehow, I sensed the intruders had chosen that route instead of the house. Less chance for detection and a clean escape route.

“We looking for anything in particular?” Elijah posed as I sped past high noon on the footage. There was still nothing to see but the breeze in the trees, the birds on the fence, and a couple of wayward ground squirrels dashing across the lawn.

“If I knew that, I would have told you,” I supplied. “But right now, we only know that Tawny Mansfield is basically missing again—and my pool house is turned upside down.”

“Maybe she just didn’t straighten up before she left,” he commented.

“The scene is beyond not straightening up,” Abbi volleyed. “I grew up with four brothers. I know messy. What happened in that casita is…” She shook her head and frowned before blurting, “Well, it’s chaos.”

The conviction of her statement appeared to sink into Elijah. He ditched the charm-and-awe for fixed-angle focus, his stance firm and his arms folded. “And goddammit…this footage is going to show us nothing.”

“Why do you say th—the hell?”

I repeated the last couple of words and for good cause.

The security cam footage, which I’d only sped past the two p.m. mark, suddenly jumped to eight thirteen.

“Wh-What happened? Wh-Where did the rest of the afternoon go?”

As Abbi stammered that out, I flipped the video to rapid-rewind mode—and, once arriving at two o’clock again, to normal speed.

At exactly two thirteen p.m., the image jumped forward by six hours.

“I yanked the footage at nine thirty-three,” Elijah muttered. “No more than a minute after you texted, Bas.”

“Which means what?” Abbi interjected.

I spewed the F-word so powerfully, it was more a snarl than a syllable. I lurched to my feet and stabbed both hands through my hair. “It means that after those assholes messed with the pool, they tampered with the stored video footage in my system.”

“And before that, they messed with the lights in the backyard.” Abbi sounded like she’d rather be disclosing news of a bomb threat.

I turned and slammed my laptop shut. “So we’re really not dealing with neighborhood punks here.”

Abbi pushed her way back against my side. While her nearness eased the twist in my gut, no way was my tension fully dispelled—nor would it be. At least not tonight. “I think losing consciousness made me rule that one out already, baby.”

“Losing what?” Elijah dropped his arms. “As in, you passed out? Why? From what?”

She snaked a trembling grip around my waist. “You’d probably better just show him, Bas.” But she pulled back with equal distress, a new look of impending nausea across her face.

I pressed my palms to her cheeks. There was a burning pressure in my head as I dipped it low, aligning my gaze with hers. “But that doesn’t mean you have to come along, baby.”

“Baby?” Elijah taunted beneath his breath. I ignored him. It was easy as long as Abbigail’s face consumed my vision.

“I—I want to come with you,” she said, once more in her miserable bomb-threat voice.

I took her lips in a gentle kiss. “Okay, but I don’t want you near the water.”

The first time she’d lost her shit, I’d been terrified of her tumbling into the muck. I took her hand and followed Elijah back outside. The man knew his way around the lighting control box since he’d been the main decision-maker about its purchase and design. In less than a minute, he had punched in new directions for the system.

Still, while hovering a finger over the blinking green Ready button, he swiveled back toward me. “Your neighbors might disinvite you from their Christmas party list for this.”

I hiked a brow. “And you thought they weren’t already doing that?”

His lips quirked. “All right, just so we’re clear, I’ve programmed the full electrical enchilada here. Your yard’s about to look like Chavez Ravine on night seven of the World Series.”

Wordlessly, Abbi twisted her grip against mine. I felt her impulsive heave on top of it.

And that was what changed my own mind.