Page 15 of The Scout

As I closed my eyes and let sleep take me, it wasn’t Will’s words that echoed in my mind. It was Ryker’s.Call it whatever you want. But I’m not the kind of person who walks away when there’s a job to do.

The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

6

RYKER

Ishouldn’t have been watching.

The screen cast a dim glow in the dark, the grainy black-and-white feed flickering with the quiet rise and fall of her breathing. Isabel was curled on her side, one arm tucked under her cheek, the other resting lightly against her stomach. Soft. Unaware. The pale sheets tangled around her legs, the strap of her tank top slipping down one shoulder, exposing smooth skin to the glow of the bedside lamp she’d left on.

She slept with the light on.

Something about that made my chest tighten.

The camera was one of three I’d installed earlier that day, tucked away in places she wouldn’t think to look. Not because I wanted to invade her privacy. Not because I wanted to see her like this—vulnerable, breathing in slow, even pulls, lips parted like she’d been in the middle of a dream before rolling onto her side.

No. This wasn’t about want.

It was my job.

That’s what I told myself as I took another slow sipof whiskey. Will trusted me to keep her safe. He’d asked me to step in, to handle things while he was overseas, and I didn’t take that kind of responsibility lightly. If something happened to her, it would be on me.

But that wasn’t why I was still watching.

I leaned back in the chair, exhaling slowly as I dragged a hand over my jaw. The feed cycled between the different angles—the front door, the fire escape outside her bedroom, the small entryway where she dropped her keys every night after work. All clear. All quiet.

No threats.

No excuses to keep watching.

And yet, I did.

I should have turned it off. I should have shut the laptop, finished my drink, and gotten some damn sleep. But the longer I sat there, the harder it became to look away.

She shifted, the sheets rustling. One leg slid deeper beneath the blanket, her body curling inward like she was protecting something fragile inside herself. I wondered if she still had nightmares.

Will had mentioned them once—something about their father’s death hitting her harder than she let on. I hadn’t asked questions. It wasn’t my place.

It still wasn’t.

I exhaled through my nose, setting the glass down with a quiet thud. This wasn’t good. I’d spent years keeping my distance, letting her exist on the fringes of my awareness. Just Will’s kid sister. The one with the sharp tongue and the soft edges. The one who didn’t belong in my world.

The one I wasn’t supposed to notice.

But I’d noticed her at Dominion Hall. I’d noticed theway she looked up at me, chin tipped in defiance even as her fingers trembled around the stem of her wine glass. I’d noticed the way she squared her shoulders when she was nervous, the way she held herself like she had something to prove.

And now, here I was, breaking my own fucking rules.

A movement near her bedside table caught my attention. Her phone lit up, vibrating softly against the wood. She stirred, murmured something unintelligible, but didn’t wake. The screen dimmed again, casting the room back into shadows.

I glanced at the time.

2:47 AM.

Who the fuck was calling her at this hour?

A muscle ticked in my jaw as I reached for my phone, already pulling up the security logs for her apartment. No visitors. No unusual activity. But that didn’t mean anything.

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