Page 69 of Forbidden Access

The thought weighed on her, but she pushed it aside. At least they didn’t have this threat hanging over them anymore. Damian was safe. Or as safe as he could be under the circumstances.

Markov would be on the run, scrambling to cover his tracks. There was no point in sending more thugs after Damian. They just had to bide their time, and then they could be together. Somehow, they’d make it work.

CHAPTER 31

Three weeks later…

Thorn’s flight touched down at San Francisco International Airport just after 8:30 PM. The skies over California were pitch black, the sun long set, and the crisp evening air was a stark contrast to the Miami humidity she’d left behind.

As she stepped off the plane, a knot of anxiety tightened in her chest, making it hard to breathe. She hadn’t seen Damian in three weeks. Apart from a few rushed phone calls, they’d barely spoken.

Would it still be the same between them?

Would that magnetic pull still be there, drawing her in like before?

After clearing customs, she caught a cab to Damian’s place in the hills. He’d spent the last few weeks in custody at FBI headquarters, helping their analysts dig through the mountain of data they’d pulled from Lydian’s servers.

Damian was a key asset in their efforts to unmask Lydian’s criminal users, and his knowledge was invaluable. But even knowing that, she couldn’t shake the unease gnawing at her insides. What if things had changed while he was away? What if he’d had time to rethink everything—to rethink them?

The taxi dropped her off outside the gate of Damian’s property. The driveway was dark, no paparazzi in sight. The media frenzy had died down, the news cycle having shifted away from his spontaneous wedding to the bombshell he’d dropped at the conference in Miami. But the security shack was still there, standing guard at the entrance like a silent sentinel, though it was empty now.

She stood for a long moment, trying to figure out her next move.

Should she call him? Or just go to the door?

She’d rehearsed this moment in her head a hundred times, but now that she was here, every plan seemed inadequate.

“This is ridiculous,” she huffed, pulling out her phone. “Just call him, for God’s sake.”

She dialed his number and held her breath.

No answer. After a few rings, it went to voicemail.

That was strange. Wasn’t he home? Had she come at a bad time?

She hesitated, then hung up. What she had to say was too important for a message.

Damn.

She felt like a teenager on a first date, sitting there in the dark, unsure of her next move.

She got out of the car and pressed the buzzer on the gate. She heard it ringing in the shack and cursed under her breath. They must have redirected the circuit, so the shack controlled who got in. Damian wouldn’t even hear her ringing from inside the house.

What now?

She scanned the perimeter, her eyes locking on the six-foot electric fence surrounding the property. Was it still live? She tossed a bit of grass against it and saw a spark.

Yep. It was live, alright.

She was glad Damian had it activated, but the fact that he was home alone with no real protection made her uneasy.

What if Markov held a grudge? What if he wasn’t as far away as they thought?

The immediate threat appeared to be over—Markov had reportedly fled to Central America. But still… her mind raced, imagining all the worst-case scenarios.

She scrutinized the gate and the fence. The gate was lower than the surrounding fence, making it the most feasible entry point. And it wasn’t electrified. A glaring weakness in the security setup now that no one was manning it. If Thorn could figure that out, then so could someone with far more malicious intent.

Parking the car off to the side, she climbed over the gate, careful not to catch herself on the jagged spikes at the top. She dropped down silently on the other side and headed up the driveway. The cameras were trained on the gate, but since the feed was directed to the shack, Damian would have no clue she was there. They really need to fix that security loophole.

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