Now, he made love to me constantly. Like a man desperate to prove something, or a man who knew he was working on borrowed time.
You are on borrowed time. It’s not a good idea for you two to be together. You’re too combustible.
I was the careful, methodical one. He was pure impulse. But that day when he’d begged me to be careful, begged me to stay safe, to ask for more help, had I been the impulsive one?
After rolling up the sleeves and buttoning a couple of the buttons of his shirt, despite my height, the shirttail still came down to my lower thighs, and I strolled out to the balcony overlooking Alden. The mountain view was spectacular down to the river, and the city lights twinkled. I loved this view. I loved Alden, and I was fighting to be able to stay in my new home. I hated bullies, and I refused to be chased from my home. But I worried how long this thing with Breck could last, especially if he was careless with his own life. Because of me.
Because of you.
With a glance back at the bed, I saw that he was still sleeping, so I went into the living room, grabbed my laptop, and took it back out to the balcony with me. I had missed something. At the very least, I’d missed Truman Nix being onto me. Because while I was watching him, he’d been watching me. So how long had he been in Alden? Had we seen him and his men only because he wanted us to? Had he been playing with us this whole time? Basically pulling an Ocean’s Twelve? While we were busy chasing our tails trying to catch him, he’d been playing an entirely different game. One we didn’t know the rules to.
Well, you’d better learn the rules… and fast.
We’d only been looking at immigration logs for a period of time in the last few months. But I went further back to a time where Kannon and London got married. And then even still earlier when their love story went public. At that point in time, nothing had been decided. We hadn’t known there’d be a Kannon Securities in Alden. Hell, Kannon and London hadn’t even discussed where they’d live. But Kannon hadn’t wanted her to leave her family, especially not with a baby on the way. Had Truman been watching us that long? Had he been planning since then? If so, he’d been directing this little circus freak show for months, not weeks.
Thanks to the software that Breck had lent me, I started scrolling through the passenger manifests, running the algorithm to root out all Aldean citizens. Residents. Those here on work visas. Anyone under the age of twenty to root out most of the students. Anyone with a student visa for longer than six months. Which still left a good deal of tourists. There was no point in trying to rule out the women, because even though it had been a man who attacked me in the parking lot that day, Truman could have anyone working for him. He was a misogynist, but there were plenty of female mercenaries who would do anything for money.
How the hell did I narrow this down?
“Why’d you leave bed?”
I whipped around with a startled shriek. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“I thought you were a security officer. Aren’t you supposed to be stealthy and always aware?”
My breath was still tearing out of me in ragged pants, and I glowered at Breck. “You startled me. And those are ninjas. I’m not a ninja.”
“Clearly. What are you doing? Why’d you leave bed?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Which was accurate. I wasn’t going to add that he was having a fucking nightmare.
“If you couldn’t sleep, I could help with that.”
I gave him a soft smile. “I know, but you need rest too.”
“What woke you? Tell me.”
He bent down until his legs straddled the lounger I was on. “Nothing. I just couldn’t sleep.”
He sighed. “You know, for all your intelligence training and your extreme sassiness, you are a shit liar.”
“It’s nothing, Breck, really.”
“When are you going to realize that I want to hear about it even if it is nothing?”
“You were having a nightmare,” I said softly. I watched him warily as the realization dawned on just what he’d been dreaming about.
“Right. I was dreaming of the explosion.”
“Once I was up, I was up.”
“I’m sorry I woke you.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if I’d listened, you wouldn’t be having nightmares right now. I’d have Truman. Kannon and London would be able to come back.”
“Is there room for another at this pity party, or is it just for you?”
“Go ahead, make jokes. But I’m being dead serious here. I could’ve gotten Wilder’s men killed as well as Niko. They were just doing what their boss commanded them to do. You’re a prince, and I could have gotten you killed too. So, what am I supposed to do with that? It’s sitting heavy.”
“And I’m telling you, they would have done it anyway. There’s someone who is terrorizing you in that building.”
“No, I don’t think he was ever there. I think it was a trap from the jump.”
“You and Niko have been on this all week. We followed the burner phones. There was a lot of activity coming from that building.”
“Was it possible it was fake? Like for example if they anticipated Olly doing a search for that kind of activity?”
He frowned. “Not many people know how to do that.”
“You know, I wouldn’t have said Truman knew how to do it either,” I shrugged, “but maybe he found out how. Maybe he’s been planning this revenge for a long damn time. Because he’s moves ahead of me in this game.”
He sighed and then adjusted his position so that my feet fell into his lap. As he gently rubbed my arches, I moaned. “Oh God, that’s not fair. I’m worried and tense. I think this state of mind helps my brain function.”
“No it doesn’t. Now, tell me what you were looking at.”
I sighed and ran him through it. “What if he’s been here for longer than we thought, or one of his men, or even a woman? It could be anyone. I’m trying to look farther into the past, exclude all residents, citizens, and students. Anyone who’s been here longer than a year. But I’m...”
“So you’re going back to the time when Kannon and London’s relationship was made public? You think he’s been here since then?”
“I don’t know, but he’s certainly been planning a lot longer than we thought.”
“What are we going to do?”
“The only thing we can do; find a way to fight him. We need to find out how long he’s been here, who may have been watching us, to look and see if there’s been any new staff hired at the palace. Staff meant for London. For the baby, maybe. Anyone who can get close enough to keep tabs on the family. I know you guys are generally pretty private, but your staff would know everything.”
He rubbed his jaw. “If that’s accurate, then Wild needs to be brought in on this.”
“I’ll call him in the morning. But right now, I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do. I know I said I’d call Kannon back, but if Nix is this in tune with us, knows exactly where we’ve been and what we’ve been planning, then Kannon, and most certainly London, are in trouble if we bring them back home too soon. And right now, no one, I mean no one, knows where they’ve gone.”