Kane nodded once. Decision made. “Why don’t you head in with Monica?” he said. “I’m going to take a run around the property.”
He glanced down at Knox. “Is he any good at tracking?”
“Son, that dog will do whatever you ask him to do,” Theo informed him as he headed toward Monica’s.
Kane headed toward the tree line with Knox at his side. The air grew quieter, heavier, as they moved farther from the yard, as if the woods went silent at their approach. Even the birds stopped singing. Knox stayed close, his ears up.
Theo’s words kept replaying in his head, low and unsettling. Someone had been too damn close, and that knowledge sent him into a slow-burning rage.
Knox moved ahead of him, nose low to the ground, tail stiff—not playful, but alert.
“You find something, boy?” Kane murmured, already crouching beside him. The prints were right there in the damp earth. Fresh. Too damn fresh. And way too close to Monica’s house.
A slow, cold burn lit up his spine.
“Find,” he ordered, not totally sure the dog would understand the command, but Knox dipped his head and followed the faint trail like he’d been trained for it. Kane fell into step behind him, every instinct he had switching into combat mode. His hearing sharpened until every crack of a branch and rustle of leaves hit him like a warning.
His jaw flexed hard. The footprints disappeared in the wet leaves. Whoever had been there was long gone, but that didn’t calm shit inside him. Kane scanned the woods one more time, the threat crawling under his skin.
“Come on, Knox,” he said, turning back toward the house after doing one last scan of the area.
Kane didn’t walk the last stretch to the house—he stalked it, the dominant, lethal part of him fully awake now. Whoever had crept around Monica’s home had crossed a damn line, and every part of him was ready to tear someone apart for it.
As the house came into view, Kane slowed, gaze sweeping every window, every shadow, and every angle a threat could hidein. Nothing moved. There was no sound except Knox’s panting beside him.
Reaching the back of the house, Kane stopped and turned, staring at the tree line with his hands curled into fists. How many times had someone stood out here, watching her home? Watching her? Once was too damn many.
He forced himself to move, circling around to the front. She needed better protection when this was over—real protection, not just Knox. The dog was great, but she needed a system with cameras, sensors, the whole works. He needed to talk to Duncan about making this place more secure.
His hand closed around the doorknob, but he froze when her laughter floated through the door. He’d never heard her laugh like that, and it hit him dead center in the chest with an unfamiliar pull that made him grit his teeth.
“I am seriously fucked,” Kane muttered. Knox snorted beside him as if he agreed. Kane glared down at him. “Shut up.”
He opened the door, and the rich, mouthwatering smell hit him first. Then his eyes landed on Monica, holding a steaming dish like she’d been made to be a wife waiting for her husband to come in from a long day. That smile she shot him… punched him straight in the gut.
She’d make someone an unbelievable wife. The thought blindsided him, and a low growl rolled out of his chest before he could stop it. Knox bolted past him into the house like he wanted no part of whatever the hell that growl was about.
“You’re right on time. Dinner’s ready,” she said, completely unaware of the mental warfare happening inside him. “Hope you’re a meat-and-potatoes guy.”
“Yeah,” he managed, because apparently his brain had decided to take the night off.
“Good.” She nodded toward an empty chair. “Have a seat. I’ll get the rolls.”
He walked to the table, eyes glued to her as she moved. It wasn’t until a chuckle cut through the fog in his head that he tore his gaze away.
Theo sat there, grinning like he knew every damn thing Kane wasn’t saying.
“What?” Kane snapped, narrowing his eyes.
“Oh, nothing,” Theo said, barely containing another laugh. “I always wondered what my face looked like when I first met my Sally. Now I know.”
“You have no clue what you’re talking about,” Kane grumbled and reached for his water. His mouth was so dry it felt like dust had settled on his tongue. What in the hell was happening to him?
“If you say so,” Theo said, but the smirk said otherwise.
Monica returned with a bowl of rolls. She frowned when she looked at their empty plates. “Why are your plates still empty?”
“I never touched the food Sally cooked for us until she was sitting next to me,” Theo said warmly.