POV: Ivy
The silence of the Vane Estate was never truly silent. It was a hum of electronic surveillance, the distant crash of the Atlantic against the jagged cliffs, and the rhythmic, heavy breathing of the man who owned the air I breathed.
I sat in the library, the black leather folder still open in my lap. Silas had been gone for two hours, called away to a secure line in his "War Room." He had left me under the watchful eye of Elias, who stood like a stone gargoyle by the mahogany doors.
The tracker on my wrist felt heavier than usual. The blue light pulsed against my skin, a constant reminder that my pulse, my temperature, and my very location were being broadcast to Silas’s phone. I felt like a tagged animal in a high-priced preserve.
Suddenly, the blue light turned a frantic, fla
