Page 147 of Reckless

“No…” The whisper barely leaves my lips.

The photographs slide through suddenly numb fingers, spreading across my desk one after another until they cover the paperwork Ghost and I had spent half the night putting together.

They have been watching us.

Not just me, but Ghost, Piper, and the club.

Anyone close enough to matter.

The realization settles like ice in my veins.

This isn’t surveillance. It is a promise.

We know where you sleep.

We know where you work.

We know who you love.

And we’re close enough to touch all of it.

There’s no note tucked inside the packaging. There doesn’t need to be one. The message is the photographs themselves, and I understand it the moment I see my sister’s face staring back at me from someone else’s goddamn camera.

The photographs are back inside the box before I realize I’m the one who put them there.

I don’t remember doing it.

I just need them out of sight.

Out of reach.

Out of my hands.

My chair scrapes sharply across the floor as I stand, the sound making me flinch. The office suddenly feels too small, the walls pressing in around me, every conversation drifting through the hallway outside somehow impossibly loud.

I can’t stay here.

I scoop the box up against my chest and leave my office before I can think myself out of it.

Someone calls my name as I pass reception. I don’t answer.

The elevator takes forever, and every second it refuses to arrive feels like another second those photographs exist inside the building with me. By the time the doors finally slide open, my pulse is hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.

The afternoon sun hits me the moment I step outside, warm against my skin, completely at odds with the cold spreading through my chest.

I make it to my car, climb inside, lock the doors, then sit there. I hear a gentle knock on my window, and I glance up to see Liam smiling at me, but I ignore him, turning back to the passenger side of the car.

The parcel rests on the passenger seat, its flaps still folded back. I can see the corner of one glossy photograph peeking out from inside.

I don’t even have to pull it back out to know which one it is—Piper. The thought of someone standing close enough to photograph her while she searched her handbag for her keys twists something deep inside me.

She never even knew they were there.

“Sage, can you open the door?” Liam calls out, tapping on my window again.

My hands shake as I reach for my phone, and Ghost answers before the first ring finishes. “Hey, bab—”

“They’ve been following us for weeks!” The words come out before he has a chance to finish. “They have photographs, Ghost.” My fingers tighten around the steering wheel until my knuckles ache. “Of me. You. Piper.”