Page 30 of Duty Unbound

“Not until Ethan calls back,” I insisted.

My phone rang less than a minute later. “It’s the real police,” Ethan confirmed. “Two officers, Ramirez and Wilson. You can let them in.”

Relief flooded through me as I moved the chair and unlocked the door. Two uniformed officers stood in Nova’s bedroom, their expressions shifting from professional concern to barely concealed excitement as they recognized her.

“Ms. Rivers,” the taller one said, his eyes widening. “Are you all right?”

Nova immediately shifted into celebrity mode. “It’s been so traumatic,” she said, patting her hair into place.

While Nova recounted her version of events to the increasingly starstruck officers, I slipped out to the hallway where more police were arriving. The scene felt eerily familiar to the night with the roses—too many strangers in our house, all talking at once, most of them more interested in Nova than in doing their jobs.

My phone buzzed with a text from Ethan:

I’m outside. Police have the perimeter secured.

I’ll tell them to let you in.

Five minutes later, Ethan strode through the front door, his presence immediately commanding attention. He shook hands with a couple of officers he clearly knew, their expressions shifting from starstruck to professional in his presence.

Our eyes met across the foyer. “Are you okay?” he mouthed silently.

I nodded, though “okay” felt like a distant concept at the moment.

Nova spotted him from the top of the stairs where she was speaking with a detective. “Ethan!” she called out, her voice carrying through the house. “Everyone, this is Ethan Cross, my head of security. Please direct all questions to him.”

I watched as Ethan’s eyebrows rose slightly before his expression settled into professional neutrality. Nova flounced down the stairs, linking her arm through his.

“I’m so glad we hired you,” she announced loudly. “Clearly, we need Citadel Solutions more than ever.”

The irony wasn’t lost on me. An hour ago, she’d been ready to dismiss the idea entirely. Now, with cameras rolling and police filling our house, Ethan Cross had been elevated from unwanted intrusion to essential protector.

But as I watched him take charge—directing officers, asking pointed questions, answering other questions about weak points in security—I couldn’t find it in myself to be annoyed by Nova’s about-face.

All that mattered was that Ethan was here. He’d walked us through those terrifying minutes in the bathroom with calm authority. And he had taken over this chaos now.

Ethan Cross was on the job, and it was easy to see why he was considered to be the best. Whatever came next, I wouldn’t face it alone.

Chapter 10

Ethan

We descended on the Rivers estate like a tactical unit less than twenty-four hours later, despite not being contracted to start for three more days. My team had arrived this morning, as always ready to shift plans when the situation arose.

This place was a security train wreck, and there was no way I was leaving Mel or Nova alone one more night with it that way.

The footprints we’d found outside Nova’s French doors last night had told us nothing useful—just standard men’s athletic shoes, size eleven, probably the most common footwear in America. But the fact that someone had been filming Nova while she changed clothes—and had still been there when Mel walked into the room—had moved up the Citadel Security timeline dramatically.

I still couldn’t shake the memory of Mel’s voice on the phone, breathless with fear. She’d called me by accident, but I’d never been more grateful for a misdial in my life. The way myheart had hammered against my ribs during that twenty-minute drive to her house had caught me off guard. I’d been in firefights that hadn’t spiked my adrenaline that high.

It wasn’t professional. Not at all. But I’d been genuinely scared for her, knowing the shape this place was in, security-wise.

“We’re locking this down hard,” I told my team, shaking Jace’s and Logan’s hands after their SUV rolled to a stop in the circular driveway.

Jace immediately started scanning the perimeter fencing, his analytical gaze assessing every vulnerability. Logan already had his tablet out, fingers flying as he hacked into the existing system to transfer control to us.

Ty stretched beside me, muscles flexing under his tactical shirt. “Where do you want me?”

I jerked my chin toward the far end of the property. “Run another full sweep. Check for any weak points we might have missed during our initial survey.”

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