Page 48 of Drift
Chance’s fists flexed, the tendons in his forearms standing out in sharp relief. “You think I care about proof?”
“You should,” Kane replied evenly. “Save your anger until we tell you everything so we can make a plan.”
Kane’s warning applied to me too, because my initial spike of fear bled into something fiercer—fury. The invasion made Ethan’s obsession real again, something I couldn’t pretend was just paranoia or bad luck. He’d been inside my home. Destroyed my things.
I swallowed hard, my throat thick. “He’s not going to stop, is he?”
Chance’s answer came low and rough. “Not unless I make him.”
Kane shot him a look but didn’t argue.
Chance drew in a breath, then buried his face in my hair for a moment, grounding himself. The heat of his skin and the sound of the ocean outside steadied me.
When he finally looked up again, the rage was still there, but it was caged now. Waiting.
Kane was the one who finally broke the silence. “Time to lay it out.”
Jaxton set a laptop on the table and turned the screen toward us. Lines of data, emails, and login records scrolled past in rapidsuccession, the cursor blinking like a pulse. “With Alanna a target for the ring, I made it my priority.”
“Sorry for interrupting your honeymoon.” I grimaced. “I hope Lark isn’t too upset with me.”
Chance squeezed me. “None of this is your fault.”
My brother’s gaze shot up to me. “Lark isn’t even a little bit mad. She’d be pissed at me if we hadn’t come back to help. You’re her little sister now too, Alanna.”
“Aww.” I sniffled. “That’s so sweet.”
“Family bonding is great, especially after punches are thrown.” Kane’s lips curved into a smirk. “But we have important shit going down.”
Jaxton rolled his eyes, but then he explained, “Turns out the ring Ethan’s a part of is working through a shell company.”
He clicked through another window, and a new list appeared. Company names, aliases, and encrypted transfer logs scrolled by in quick succession. “We traced the funding chain. It runs through offshore accounts before looping back into a parent firm in DC that doesn’t technically exist.”
I frowned, struggling to keep up. “So he’s just…an employee?”
Kane shook his head. “More like a proxy. These people recruit or manipulate others into doing their dirty work. Ethan was one of their go-betweens—recruiting targets with access to sensitive research networks. They’ve been expanding fast, and their whole model’s built on leverage.”
“Leverage?” I echoed.
“They build dossiers.” Jaxton’s tone was grim. “On promising grad students, postdocs, young professors—anyone tied to a federal research program. They start by using them, then blackmail them into continued cooperation once they’ve got something compromising. A few fake receipts, altered data logs, the right rumor—it’s enough to ruin a career.”
“That’s why that little fucker was stalking her?” Chance growled.
A muscle jumped in my brother’s jaw. “Hard to blackmail someone if you can’t search their home for shit they’re trying to hide.”
“Fuck,” Chance bit out.
“But you got to her in time,” Kane pointed out.
“’Cause they fucked up when targeting Alanna, missed her connection to me.” Jaxton shot a dirty look at Chance. “That she was protected by the Redline Kings. Untouchable.”
“Stop,” I hissed. “You already punched him. It’s over. I’m with Chance, and you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“Need you guys to focus,” Kane reminded us again, his tone droll.
Jaxton huffed a breath out through his nose, his nostrils flaring. “We need your help, Alanna. Ethan is in the wind. You spent more time around him than anyone else. Anything you remember—when he called, where he liked to meet, the times he acted off—it all matters.”
I straightened a little, my pulse kicking up again. “You think I can help?”
