Page 73 of Punish Me, Daddy

Sloane Kingsley was a beautiful problem.

Ivan was already at the center console, sleeves rolled up, two black coffees sitting untouched next to him. He didn’t look up when I entered. He never did when he was deep in the system.

“She checked the perimeter hall at 2:41,” he relayed. “Stayed by the elevator panel a little too long. Just long enough to think she wasn’t being watched.”

“Phone?”

“I’ve still got the shadow trace running.”

“Ghost?”

“Dormant. No pings from her account to his. But we know the handle. We know where he listens.”

I nodded slowly, stepping closer, arms crossed. The air in here always felt cooler, like the blood ran colder in this space because it had to.

“She’s smart,” Ivan continued. “Smarter than she lets on. She doesn’t act rashly. Shewatches. Plans. Probably taught herself how to move in shadows just so she wouldn’t ever have to rely on anyone ever in her life.”

He finally turned in his chair and looked at me.

“She’s not going to scream or run out the front door. She’s going to vanish, the second she thinks she can.”

I didn’t say anything at first. Just rested one hand on the back of his chair and watched the live feed cycle through the top floor.

She was in the library now. Browsing books like she was killing time. Calm on the surface, but her posture was all tension. A coiled spring, waiting for the right trigger to let loose.

She didn’t realize the cage was already closed.

“I want full surveillance synced to my phone,” I ordered, voice quiet. “If she opens a browser window, blinks at a keypad too long, I want to know.”

Ivan nodded.

“And if she reaches out?”

“She won’t,” I replied. “Not yet. But she’s thinking about it.”

“Do you want me to make it harder?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“No. Make it easy.”

He paused, brows pulling together. “Why?”

“Because I want to watch her try.” I told him as I straightened, adjusting the cuff of my sleeve. “She thinks she’s going to find away out, that she can smile, play her part, and slip through the cracks.”

Ivan leaned back in his chair, arms folding. “And when she learns she can’t?”

I smiled slowly, eyes still fixed on her figure moving between the shelves upstairs.

“She’ll understand what it really means to belong to me.”

CHAPTER 24

Sloane

By the time the sun started to sink behind the skyline, I had searched every corner of this penthouse.

Twice.

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