Page 33 of No Mistakes
“And there were some of Eva… from the time she was in the hospital. After Marco and his men found her.”
The room falls silent once again, no one daring to say anything. Eva’s head lifts quickly, like she wasn’t expecting me to say it. Her eyes meet mine for half a second. Wide, raw and wounded. The contact doesn’t last for long before she drops her gaze to the floor like it physically hurts her to hold it.
A muscle in Flynn’s jaw ticks. “What kind of photos?”
Mandy answers before I get the chance. “Not medical ones. They were taken personally, at close range.”
“Intimate,” Eva whispers. “Like someone was standing in the goddamn room watching me.”
Carter lets out a low curse under his breath, pushing off the wall. “They were watching her recover? That’s next-level sick.”
Gunnar’s face hardens. “First of all, we were all in the hospital. How the fuck did they get past us? And secondly, could the person who left this be the one who took them?”
He asks a good question: how did they get past all of us and into Eva’s room? Someone was in there at all times unless the doctors asked us to leave, and even then, it was only once or twice.
“We don’t know,” I say, because I fucking hate guessing games. “All we know is that the person left this behind, and the timing’s too fucking convenient. Either they wanted us to find it, or they were running, and it was a parting gift.”
Ant types something quickly on his phone, then shows me the screen. It’s the background search he pulled on Adam whenwe first saw him with Eva in the car park, before she left for Providence. The file was clean on the surface, but something didn’t sit right. No one's file iseverthat perfect.
Mandy glances towards Eva. “We were going to dig into the rest of the USB together, but we knew we needed backup.”
Eva finally lifts her head. Her expression was colder than I’ve seen since she stepped foot back in my world. “And now?”
“Now we all dig,” I say, keeping my voice low while staring at her. “Together.”
I look around the room. Every face. My brothers, Mandy, Eva’s… Every face is hard with the same realisation.
We’re not dealing with shadows anymore. We’re dealing with people who watched us bleed and didn’t blink. Who stood in the rooms we thought were safe? Who photographed her pain like it was fucking art, and now, they’ve made it personal.
The second I feel Eva’s breath hitch beside me, I step closer. My body reacts before my mind does, angling towards her, boxing her in just in case so she knows I’m there, shielding her without making her feel caged.
“You’re safe,” I say, low enough that only she hears it. My voice is steel-wrapped velvet, rough with promise. “I won’t let them near you again.”
She doesn’t look at me, but her pulse jumps at her throat as her chest rises quicker. “They already got close once,” she whispers, her voice ice and fire all at once. “You gonna promise me they won’t again?”
I lower my head until my lips nearly graze the shell of her ear. “No. I’m gonnamakesure they don’t.”
Her breath shudders out. She hates needing me. She hates that part of her still trusts me to keep her alive.
I can feel it in the way her body leans the slightest bit into mine, like gravity’s cheating for us. Like it wants her to fall back into me, even if her pride is dragging its heels.
My eyes cut to the rest of the room. My brothers are already moving, the air charged with a readiness that only comes before war.
I wrap my fingers lightly around Eva’s wrist, making sure to leave enough space for her to pull away if she wanted to, but just enough pressure to remind her that I’m here.
“They came for my family,” I say. “They watched. They waited. Now they’re going to learn exactly what kind of mistake that was.”
And they will.
Because I’ve killed for less. Because Eva’s not just someone I protect. She’s the reason I’m going to fuckingendthis once and for all.
CHAPTER 16
MANDY
The living roomis a damn war zone of half-empty coffee cups, scribbled notes, and tired men in sweatpants who look like they haven’t slept in days. Ant is still at the table, his fingers flying across the keyboard like he’s hacking into the Pentagon, while the others linger in a half circle around the whiteboard.
It’s 3 AM, and my body is begging for sleep, but adrenaline and coffee are running a joint dictatorship in my veins.
