I give him a small, sympathetic smile, taking his hand again. This time, he turns his palm and threads his fingers through mine and squeezes. When I look up into his face, my breath catches at the bald emotion in his glacial eyes. Compassion, heartache, and something else that I don’t quite recognize. Understanding? Trust?
“The water’s gettin’ cold. Let’s get you out and dried off before you catch cold,” he says, smiling slightly.
“You know that’s just a myth, right?” I reply with a small smile.
“Not according to my Memaw,” he counters, not missing a beat.
I giggle, lips pulling up into a wider smile, rolling my eyes. Phantom joins me, laughing as he helps me from the bathtub.
It only occurs to me later, after I’ve been dried and dressed, swaddled in a blanket, and tucked against his chest, that I’ve smiled more in the last few minutes than I have since leaving the facility. And, when minutes pass and no one comes to interrupt, I finally let go of the tension lingering in my gut and fully relax into an alpha’s embrace for the first time in nearly a year.
Chapter thirty-three
FollowingSirenbackintothe house, we head for the loft, trudging up the narrow steps single file. At the top, Bones has to duck to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling, but we all head toward the security room. It’s small, but it only serves one purpose. The door is already open, so we all cram into the small room to review the footage.
Siren throws themselves down into the rolling chair in front of the bank of screens and monitors set up along one wall, all nine of them flickering to life to show a different camera angle, two from inside the house and the rest covering the perimeter of thehouse and barn.
“Did you manage to catch the fucker who left that package?” Joker asks in a low growl.
I glance at him, finding him shifting from one foot to the other restlessly, his gaze shifting back toward the stairs every few seconds. I put a soothing hand on his arm, which pulls his attention to me for long enough to give him a gentle smile. He sighs and shakes his head, but he at least stops fidgeting.
“Yeah, but it’s weird. Let me pull it up,” Siren says, words a little distant as they focus on the screens.
It takes a few minutes for Siren to rewind to the point they’re looking for, all the screens moving at the same time. Animals flick onto the screen, their eyes glowing white in the infrared night vision gaze of the security system. Deer, raccoons, foxes, and even Darla, the local bear, make appearances until right before dawn. Siren stops the footage suddenly, sitting up straight.
“There you fucking are,” they mutter under their breath, hitting the play button.
All of us lean toward the screens, looking for what Siren is talking about. It takes a few seconds, but I spot the movement in the trees in the camera pointing down the driveway away from the house.
“There,” I say, lifting a finger to point to the screen, and the human shape I can see moving through the darkness of the trees toward the house.
“Male, judging by the height. Not much else, though,” Bones mutters, almost to himself.
“Just give it a second,” Siren replies, pointing to another screen.
A few seconds later, the figure appears along the tree line close to the house, emerging along the north side of the house, where the bedroom hallway terminates, and more specifically, where Delilah’s room is. It’s hard to say if the intruder knew about that, or if his movements were just a coincidence, but I’m suddenly very thankful that there are no windows in the storage room. Heaven knows what would have happened if this guy had actually seen her.
“Well, he’s either stupid as fuck, or woefully underestimating who he’s fucking with. Didn’t even bother to hide his face,” Joker sneers.
I follow his gaze, watching as the prowler almost casually saunters along the side of the house, in full view of multiple cameras, the package tucked under onearm like he’s a postman, just stopping by to make a delivery. No rush, no worry, just bold arrogance. Siren pauses the video once he enters the small circle of light near the front porch, and we get our first good look at the bastard.
By most standards, he would be considered conventionally attractive. Square jaw, neatly trimmed blond hair, a strong brow, proportional features. It’s hard to tell his eye color from these angles, but my guess would be brown. He’s wearing baggy clothes, so we can’t see what his actual build is, but he doesn’t look like he’s overly muscular. Truly, he looks average, ordinary.
“These are clear enough that we should be able to run his face through some recognition software, see if there are any hits,” Siren says into the silence.
“I have a feeling that nothing is going to come up,” I mutter, frowning slightly.
“What makes you say that?” Bones asks, not aggressive but still firm.
“He’s too…casual about this. If he could be found that easily, you think he’d hide his face a little bit,” I reply thoughtfully.
“Or, like I said earlier, he could be a stupid cunt and not know what the fuck he’s doing,” Joker throws back.
I shoot him a half-glare, not appreciating his tone. I know why he’s on edge, but acting on emotions isn’t going to help us right now.
“I’m not saying we don’t try, but I’m also not going to be surprised if nothing comes back,” I say, settling on diplomacy for now rather than picking a fight.
“We could ask Delilah if she recognizes this guy,” Siren suggests.