CHAPTER6
1107 Words
The photo on Lucas’s phone still glowed in the dim bedroom light.
Elena stared at it in disbelief her bare back visible against his sheets, Lucas’s arm wrapped around her waist, their faces half-turned in sleep. Taken from a distance. Through the window.
“You made her your weakness. Now she’ll be mine.”
Her heart pounded in her ears. “This was taken… tonight?”
Lucas nodded grimly. “Hours ago. While we were sleeping.”
He stood, grabbing his phone and moving toward the window. The blinds had been half-closed, but not enough. Not to someone watching with a zoom lens and malicious intent.
Elena rose too, pulling a robe around herself. “This is serious, Lucas. This isn’t Vivian playing media games. Someone is stalking us.”
“I know,” he said, already dialing.
Within minutes, his head of security, Marcus Devlin, arrived. Sharp-eyed, silent, and dressed in black, he moved like someone who never let his guard down.
Lucas handed him the phone. “Trace the number. Cross-reference any known surveillance tech purchases within a ten-block radius. And sweep this entire penthouse. I want eyes on every angle.”
Marcus nodded without a word and left.
Elena watched him go. “He’s like a ghost.”
Lucas rubbed his jaw. “He used to work for an intelligence firm. I hired him after a competitor bugged my conference rooms three years ago.”
She crossed her arms, but it wasn’t about modesty anymore it was a shield against the chill creeping into her bones. “Why would anyone do this? Why watch us like that?”
“I don’t know. Yet.” Lucas stepped closer, gently touching her arm. “But I swear to you, I’ll protect you. This… this was never supposed to touch you.”
Elena turned her face toward his chest. “But it already has.”
Later that morning, they sat at the massive glass dining table, untouched plates of food between them. The city bustled beyond the windows, normal and unaware.
“I keep thinking,” Elena said quietly, “maybe we should lay low for a while. Disappear.”
Lucas looked up from his phone. “You want to run?”
“I want to live. I want us to figure this out without the world watching or someone threatening to rip us apart.”
He considered her words. Then stood, walked to a cabinet, and pulled out a small leather folder. From it, he handed her two plane tickets.
“Montauk. A private house near the coast. No one but my pilot and Marcus know it exists. We can leave this afternoon.”
Elena blinked. “You already planned this?”
“I’ve had it ready since the first anonymous message.”
She felt her breath catch not from fear this time, but from the strange, aching tenderness behind his paranoia. He wasn’t just protecting her. He was preparing to lose her again. And it terrified him.
She took his hand. “Then let’s go.”
They left the city by helicopter just before noon. Elena watched the skyline shrink behind them, the steel towers and dirty glamour fading into clouds. She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until Lucas’s hand wrapped around hers again.
The coastal house was nestled between tall dunes, facing a stretch of beach that looked untouched by time. It was beautiful—simple, warm, with wide glass doors and the scent of sea air drifting through linen curtains.
“Wow,” Elena murmured, walking into the open living room. “It’s… peaceful.”
Lucas set their bags down. “I haven’t been here in years. It used to be where I’d escape after long deals.”
“Or heartbreak?”
He looked at her. “Only once.”
Their eyes met, and for a moment, the silence was louder than the wind outside. Elena stepped into his arms.
“I don’t want to be afraid,” she whispered. “Not of whoever’s watching. Not of what happened before. Not of you.”
His hands found her waist. “Then don’t be. You’re not alone in this.”
She nodded against his chest, her voice barely audible. “Kiss me.”
He did.
The kiss started gentle two souls finding calm in the storm. But it deepened quickly, need pressing against restraint until neither could hold back. He carried her to the sofa, then paused, forehead resting against hers.
“Are you sure?”
She answered by pulling him down, her lips hungry and sure.
Their bodies fit again like they always had, moving with instinct and reverence. Fingers traced familiar lines, lips rediscovered secrets, and every moan was a memory reclaimed. They made love not like people reunited by fate, but like people choosing each other despite fate.
Later, they lay tangled together, the sounds of the waves beyond the glass blending with their soft, uneven breaths.
Lucas spoke first.
“When I lost you, I built a world that couldn’t hurt me.”
She looked at him. “And did it work?”
“No,” he said. “It just got quieter.”
Elena’s fingers trailed across his chest. “I never stopped loving you, you know.”
“I never stopped waiting.”
Just before dusk, Marcus called.
Lucas answered on speaker. “Tell me you have something.”
“I traced the phone number to a dead burner. Whoever sent the message ditched it almost immediately. But there’s more.”
Lucas sat up. “Go on.”
“The photo wasn’t taken from a building across the street. It was taken inside your building. Likely from the rooftop.”
Elena sat up too, panic flickering in her chest. “You mean someone was right there?”
“Closer than we thought,” Marcus confirmed. “And here’s the worst part your security system was disabled manually for exactly seventeen minutes last night. Long enough to sneak in, take the shot, and leave.”
Lucas’s voice turned sharp. “Someone inside helped them.”
Marcus didn’t deny it. “I’m pulling access logs now. But I’ve got a feeling this goes deeper than just a jealous ex.”
Lucas hung up and looked at Elena.
“Someone who works for me betrayed me.”
Elena’s eyes were wide. “And they’re watching us because they want more than just to hurt you. They want to destroy you.”
He nodded slowly. “And they’re using you to do it.”
Elena reached for his hand. “Then let’s find them before they get another chance.”
- Writer
