Page 67 of Lost in the Light

“What are you thinking?” Asher asked when he arrived back in the conference room a while later.

“I don’t know. I’m still worried for Addy,” I sighed.

“I’m not ready to drop the additional security on her either, not until we know for certain, but it does make sense. If that explosion were meant to get to Addy, surely they’d have blown part of the house and not just the separate building at the back of the property?”

“I guess. I just think we should keep our guards up. Something’s not adding up. If your father was the leader of the trafficking ring, how was he running it all from New York, and why run it out in Vegas? Surely he could have set it all up closer to home? And if he was running it, why would he target his own daughter? Yes the man was sick, but his own daughter? Something’s not making sense, Ash.”

“My FBI contact will keep me updated on what they discover, and, as I said, security stays tight on Addy and Eli, but for now I think we should try and put it behind us. Addy and Eli need the peace of believing it’s all over, and I need to see them feel at ease. Let’s just give them that and hope it’s the truth,” Asher sighed.

“Yeah, okay. I can do that,” I nodded, knowing it would set Addy at ease to know she was no longer a target. “But I think security needs to be a priority. Even if this threat is over, Addy is even more of a target than Eli for a ransom kidnap. She needs to realize that, and except security is part of her life moving forward,” I argued.

“I agree. Whatever she and Eli need to be safe, I’m happy with.”

I opened my mouth to discuss a new security system I wanted to install at the house, but stopped and shot to my feet at the sound of thunderous banging outside.

My heart sped up as thoughts of Addy getting hurt raced through my mind. Fuck, how long had it been since I felt panic like that? I had run into warzones with not even a fraction of the panic I felt in that moment that Addy’s life may be at risk.

“Addy? Eli?” Asher yelled, getting out of the conference room just ahead of me.

“Eli’s office!” I yelled as I ran out right behind him. “Go!”

Asher nodded and shot across the reception area to Eli’s office. I pulled the gun from my shoulder holster and started around the corner slowly and methodically, clearing the space around me as I moved toward the continuous banging.

As I got closer I realized the banging was against the glass of the entrance doors to the executive suite, which meant someone was trying to get in. They weren’t in yet. I moved faster at thatrealization, pissed by how slow my panic for Addy had made me think rationally. When I reached the doors I looked around the corner and cursed when I saw what awaited.

Zara was stood behind the doors, unable to enter because I had secured the floor. She was dressed in a dark purple dress, so tight I had no idea how she got into it. She had huge stiletto heals on and her usual mask of makeup, but she was looking a little wild and feral, as she held a large planter, that I knew was usually outside the elevators, and slammed it against the glass again and again, clearly hoping to break in. Little did she know that she stood no chance against the reinforced, bulletproof glass I’d had fitted.

“KANE!” She screamed as she threw down the huge planter angrily and scowled at me. I could see the plant that had been in the pot, and all of the earth from inside it, thrown all over the floor behind her. “Open this door, right now!” The glass muffled the sound but I saw her mouth move enough to figure out she’d said my name and was clearly irate at being locked out. I smirked, delighted to see the spiteful woman looking so irritated and unkempt, then turned and strode away from her, leaving her locked out.

“What’s going on?” Asher asked me from where he was stood outside the closed door of Eli’s office with a Glock in his hand, hanging at his side.

“Where’d you get that? I didn’t think you carried anymore?” I asked. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, since we’d all gone to the office building just to clear out his and Eli’s offices. With the gun in hand, and his face tense, waiting for a battle, he looked so much like the SEAL I’d known and worked with overseas. Gone was the suit and the mask of indifference he’dworn since he took his bullshit role atLyle. Now he was in protector mode and he was the man I knew him to be again.

“I don’t, but I keep a piece in my office here, and several in the house, just in case,” he explained. “Everything good?”

“It is for me,” I smirked. “Not so much for you.”

“What? Why?”

“Zara’s trying to get in, and she is losing her shit,” I laughed.

“Fuck! She wasn’t supposed to return to the office. I already paid her a hugely generous severance package, and had all of her belonging sent to her home. What does she want?”

“What do you think?” I asked with a raise of my eyebrows. There was only one thing Zara had ever wanted since the day she met Asher, and she had been working every second of every day since to get her claws into him. Now, to know she had failed, it had to be the reason she was looking positively rabid at the doors.

“Fuck! Take this. I’ll handle it,” Asher cursed as he handed me the Glock and stormed past me.

“You sure you don’t need the gun?” I asked mockingly. He turned just enough to flip me off, then he was gone. I was only glad I didn’t have to deal with Zara’s wrath.

I was still laughing as I opened the door of Eli’s office. Eli and Addy were working together to wrap up the artwork from the walls while Jordan packed it into huge boxes.

“Everything okay?” Jordan asked the second I stepped in.

“All good. It’s just Zara here to throw a hissy fit in one last bid to get Asher’s attention,” I shrugged.

“What did Harris and the guys say?” Addy worried as she stood from where she’d been knelt on the floor and looked to me with hesitation.

“Nothing bad. They finished what they were working on. They handed everything they have to the feds, and they couldn’t find any threat against you,” I explained.

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