Page 253 of Heart of Frost and Scars

“This isn’t going to wrap up in a day. I’ll be there for a while, working long shifts and taking naps when I can. Promise me you’ll all stay here.” She looks each of us in the eye. “Don’t go into town and risk getting sick.”

Monty stares at her, silent for a moment before nodding stiffly. “We’ll stay. But you need to promise to stay safe, too.”

“I promise.” She kisses him then Leo. Then turns to me.

“I’ll walk you out.” I shove my feet into Monty’s sliders.

With a small smile, she heads to the door.

“Frankie.” Monty grabs her phone where she left it on the bed. “Forgetting something?”

“Shit.” She spins back and takes it from him.

“This is a new phone,” he says.

“It is?” She stares at it, eyebrows pinched. “Looks the same.”

“Same model. After you left, I spent a lot of time thinking. How does the stalker know so much about you? It’s like they can hear your conversations and see where you are.”

Her eyes widen.

“I’ve been monitoring your phone for five months.” He rests his hands on his hips. “I scan it for bugs and dig for hidden software constantly. But I’m not a forensics analyst. So while you were gone, I bought a new phone.” He nods at the one in her hand.

“And you sent my other one to your forensics team?”

He nods.

“When?” she asks.

“The day after you returned. I swapped them out and shipped off the old one.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was waiting until the analysis came back. Didn’t want to worry you. But you’re leaving with it and need to know. I manually installed everything on that one and might’ve missed something. I didn’t want you to freak out if I didn’t set it up correctly.”

“This one has the GPS tracker, too?”

“Of course.” He strokes his thumb across her cheekbone. “Come back to us, darling.”

“I will.”

I follow her out.

A perpetual drizzle mists our rainforest island in a fine sheen, clinging to my skin.

Our island.

Monty has spent the past three days pounding the concept of all in into our heads. Everything that belonged to him is now ours.

Frankie is ours.

I walk her to her cruiser, my heart heavy. She’s going back into danger, and I fucking hate it.

Up ahead, the guards are already assembled on the dock.

“Your shoe is untied.” I stop her with a hand on her back.

As she bends at the waist to lace the strings, I can’t help it. I crouch behind her and shove my nose between her legs.

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