Page 106 of She Belongs to Me

The draw to her was powerful. I brushed a strand of hair from her face. “You look incredible.”

“Your sister is… uncontrollable.”

I laughed. “Tell me something I don’t know. Did you enjoy dinner?”

“I did.”

There was commotion behind me, two soldiers pushing into the room. “Sophia insisted on seeing you,” one of them said.

I turned immediately. Sophia never came to the house. She understood the rules. There was no need, her usual method of contacting me via email or text. She was my lead computer expert and the look on her face made my anger immediately rise to the surface.

A bad feeling turned into one that was indescribable. “What is going on?”

She was panting as if she’d been running. “The cameras are out.”

“What?”

Her nod was followed by a gasping breath. “And there was a breach. It took me a little while to figure out how and which computer.”

I closed the distance, Domino right there by my side. “What the fuck?”

“You have another laptop here? Not one of yours?” Sophia asked.

It took me a few seconds to realize which one she could be talking about. “Alexandra’s. Fuck.”

“I scanned what I could and there was a warning. No name, but it has to be the person responsible for all of this.” Sophia was adamant.

“A warning?” Domino asked.

Sophia nodded again. “Sent to the owner of the laptop.”

An icy feeling shifted all the way down my spine. I slowly turned my head toward Alexandra. We locked eyes and I knew it was the truth. I’d not even given Alexandra’s laptop a thought.

“It was nothing,” she said. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

I was furious, but right now, I couldn’t deal with what she had or had not done. “Get the goddamn computers back online. Shut down that breach. And find out where it came from.”

“Yes, sir. I have the entire team working on it right now.”

The realization you’d been sabotaged was one of the most disturbing feelings in the world. All it had taken was one mistake, a laptop that I’d forgotten all about. I turned toward Alexandra, trying to curtail my anger. It wasn’t going to do any good at this point.

As I walked closer, I noticed she was ignoring me. I wanted to laugh and spew off angry words. But my hackles rose again. What the fuck?

She seemed to be concentrating on something outside the set of doors.

“Is something wrong?”

She opened the door and stepped out onto the patio, moving closer to the railing. “What is that bright orange ball?”

It took me a few seconds to realize what she was looking at. The moment of horror had me slightly frozen. “Listen to me. Stay right here. There’s a fire in the orchard.”

“A fire? Isn’t that close to the stable?”

“Yes. I’ll take care of it.”

“No. No! The horses. They must be saved.”

Her natural instinct to save and protect kicked in, the woman removing her heels and taking off running. “No!”

---