Page 15 of The Devil's Daughter

“You have a progress report?” I ask, pulling out the chair at the end of the table and sitting down to face the small screen filled with Baz’s face.

“I found at least a dozen cameras—bedrooms, bathrooms, gym. Even your closet and wine cooler. There are at least three aimed at the pool. Whoever put these in didn’t want to miss a second. I’m trying to trace the source. I got as far as a cloud server where the recordings are stored, but that’s it. No idea who owns it, but I’ll keep looking.

“That other lead you gave me didn’t pan out—they covered their tracks too well. But I managed to piggyback a trojan horse virus onto the files, so whenever they log in to download them, I’m hoping to nail down their location, which I can do from the boat once I get there. You want me to get Karl Thomas up here to sweep the place now that I’m done tracing the camera feeds?”

“Not until we track the person down. I want them to keep thinking their identity is safe.”

“Fair enough. In which case, I’m more than ready to get the hell out of here. The only roomnotbeing watched is the rear stairwell, where I’m making this call from. This stairwell is probably how they gained access, which means it’s probably someone on your security staff. Once we identify them, we’ll do a purge and hire new people.”

He flips the view so we see the stark concrete and painted steel rails of my rear stairwell.

“You’ll want to check former staff too,” I say. “Your predecessor, Curtis Hagler, left rather abruptly. Not sure if this is related, but Curt would have had access. We’ll talk about it more when you get here. Take care. Make sure Chef feeds you—we left quite a bit of food behind.”

“Trust me, I was on that the second you guys left. Thanks for not letting me go hungry! I will see you three tomorrow, first thing. Let me talk to Ben a sec before you hang up.”

Ben reaches for the phone and taps the screen to kill the video and the speaker, then stands and walks toward the afterdeck with the phone to his ear.

“The cameras in your apartment… that wouldn’t have anything to do with your, um,thing… would they?” Elle asks.

“Mything?” I ask, one eyebrow lifted.

Her cheeks darken, but she doesn’t respond, because the yacht’s chef sets a long board with a trio of gourmet flatbread pizzas down in the center of the table in front of us. My stomach growls when the aroma of fresh cheese and basil hits my nostrils.

Her gaze follows him as he disappears back through the door toward the kitchen. Then she leans closer. “You like to watch, evidently even when I’m justworking.”

The secretive smile she gives me suggests she’s pleased by this development, and it occurs to me that if I want to keep her from digging deeper into my secrets, I need to keep her hooked on something I can actually control. But I still need to set the record straight.

“I told you, I wasn’t watchingyou, just a mirror of your laptop screen. If you’d been playing solitaire, that’s all I would’ve seen. All I cared about was seeing your progress with the auditing software, Elle. I promise. It’s…” I let out an amused snort. “Therapeutic, I guess? To watch you work. It isn’t about a kink. You’re pretty brilliant, you know.”

“But the video was more than therapeutic, wasn’t it?”

I give a slight head shake as I reach for a slice of pizza, picking up her plate to serve her first, then filling my own. “It was unexpected. A rather pleasant distraction, despite the circumstances. Which is why I want to repeat the experience in a more controlled setting. Make sure you were on board with the idea.”

“Do you always approach your fetishes soformally?” she asks.

I frown at my plate, stomach too tangled with a confusion of feelings to remember being hungry. She’s far too astute for her own good, and I’m not quite sure how to respond, but I’ve already shared this particular secret with her, so I need to offersomeexplanation.

“Elle… this isn’t something I’m proud of wanting. It’s a complicated desire, and if I let down my guard, it can get out of hand. I have to set rules to make sure that doesn’t happen, one of which is that you willalwaysknow when I’m watching you. Hell, I won’t even fantasize about you unless I know you’d like being the object of those fantasies.”

“How do the rules not apply to watching me work?” she asks, peeling a layer of cheese off her pizza and nibbling at it.

“I already apologized for that. I let down my guard, let myself give into an urge thinking it was different. I’m sorry for that.”

“It’s okay, now that I know. I kind of like the idea. So, do you have any requests? For later, I mean.”

My mind immediately goes to the striptease from earlier, but I shake my head. “Whatever feels natural.”

Heavy footsteps tread back and Ben approaches, scowling with his phone still to his ear. He’s shaking his head. “Leave it alone,hermano. I don’t need your goddamn help.” Then he jabs at his screen and tosses the phone to the table before sitting down with a huff. He’s the volatile twin, which my sore face can attest to, but his temper is every bit as intriguing to me as Elle’s.

“Everything okay?” she asks.

“Just Baz being Baz. He’s not used to being alone. Pussy’s afraid of the dark.” He smirks and darts a look at me before reaching to load his plate up with food. I narrow my eyes, sensing a bit of projection through the bravado, because his excuse doesn’t jive with the bit of conversation I overheard.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I slide my chair back to check it. There’s a text from Baz:Call me on the DL. Need to talk about Ben.

Okay, that’s odd. I slip the phone back into my pocket and finish eating, then excuse myself, too curious to wait any longer. “I need to go make a call.”

I head out to the afterdeck and lean against the rail, facing Ben and Elle. I’m far enough that they can’t overhear before I dial. Baz picks up on the first ring.

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