Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
But the spy didn't know that. The spy thought their messages were getting through. And that made them even more dangerous.
"They sent the message from where?" The question came out sharper than I’d intended.
Reo's jaw clenched. "This time. . .the spy sent the message from inside the mansion."
The world tilted. The sunlight over the sand lost its warmth. Every shadow in my home turned suspect.
Not the East near the villas.
Not the outer perimeter of the mansion.
Not some guard station at the edge of the compound.
But right inside my fucking home.
"The location?"
“Inside Nyomi’s office.”
The words carved through me.
That room wasn’t just her workspace—it was her refuge. The place where she wrote, researched, recorded her thoughts. I’d given her this space so her brilliant mind’s desires could be protected and supported.
This son of a bitch had gone through it.
Touched her things.
Rifled through her notes and drafts like a scavenger picking at a saint’s bones.
This wasn’t just spying. This was trying to understand her, dissect her, weaponize her words against me.
My vision darkened at the thought.
I fisted my hands and spoke through clenched teeth, “And the footage on who went in there?”
“Erased.”
“Who was monitoring the cameras?”
Reo’s expression hardened. “When I arrived at the security room, all three men were already dead.”
The words hit like a blade sliding under my ribs. “Dead?”
“Execution style. No struggle. Whoever did it knew what they were doing—one bullet each, straight through the eye, and the footage wiped clean.”
My mind ran the data automatically.
Whoever sent that message didn’t have time to leave the office, cross the mansion, and kill three armed men while my Fangs, Claws, and Roar were inside.
Something like this had to happen fast, in less than five minutes.
And those three guards—no alarms, no panic. They’d let the killer walk right up to them. Which meant they knew the face that ended them.
To erase footage that fast, they’d need Reo’s clearance level or mine.
Someone had given it to them. How?
The timing and precision meant this was a job for at least two operatives.
My stomach twisted. “The spy isn’t working alone. We’re not dealing with a single snake. There’s a nest.”
Reo’s jaw tightened. “Agreed. One person sent the message. Another erased the proof—and they both knew exactly when you’d be distracted.”
The Dragon stirred under my skin, scales scraping bone.
Ice flooded my veins.
This was a person who lived under my roof and breathed my air.
A person close enough to move through the mansion without raising suspicion.
One I possibly trusted.
"The snake is in the inner circle, main staff, or guards."
"Yes." Reo's hand tightened around his phone. "But there's something else."
I waited, every muscle in my body going rigid.
"The signal patterns suggest even more coordination." His voice was clinical now, detached. The only way he could deliver this news. "I think there could be more than two. Maybe three, but possibly four working together."
Four.
Four people in my organization, feeding information to my father.
Four sets of eyes watching my every move.
Four voices trying to report back to the Fox.
Trying.
Not succeeding.
Because my hackers were intercepting everything.
Thank God the hackers’ existence was only known to Reo, Hiro, Nyomi, and me. Even better, their base was on a nearby secret island.
Reo sighed. "We have to find them all.”
I didn’t even recognize my own voice. "Show me the message."
Reo's thumb moved across his phone screen, and then he turned it toward me.
I looked.
Then the photo loaded, and my heart stopped.
Nyomi.
In the hallway outside her office. Guards flanked her. She was smiling at something, completely relaxed, completely unaware.
The angle was wrong.
Too low.
Too tight.
Shot from around a corner or perhaps through a barely opened door.
Someone was hiding.
Someone was watching.
Someone was hunting my Tiger.
My hands started to shake.
“The spy tried to send that picture to your father, but it doesn’t end there.” Reo swiped to the next photo.
It loaded.
Nyomi leaving the kitchen, the food cart visible behind her with the breakfast trays. She was laughing, probably at something Hiro had said.
Her face was lit up with joy.
The angle on this photo made my stomach turn. I could see the edge of a door in the frame. The spy had been peeking through a crack, watching her, waiting for the perfect moment to capture her face.
This traitor had been in my house this morning. In my kitchen. Watching my Tiger be vulnerable, safe, and completely fucking unaware that she was being hunted.
"Kenji—"
“Any more messages?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.” My voice was barely human. The Dragon was speaking now.
He swiped again.
This next photo was closer. A shot of Nyomi's face, captured mid-laugh. Her eyes crinkled at the corners. Her mouth open.
So beautiful.
So alive.
So exposed.
The caption beneath made my vision tunnel:
Kenji's Tiger. Many are now calling her, the Dragon’s Heart. Right now, this is his biggest weakness.
My breath stopped.
The intimacy of it was a violation that made me want to rip the piece of shit apart with my bare hands.