Page 59 of Stalker
I walked down the hall to my office, fighting the urge to look out the gigantic windows across the grand living room below that lookeddirectly at her guest house because I didn’t know what I’d do if I actually saw her. Thankfully, she was probably asleep, given that it was after three in the morning.
As I neared the locked door to my office, an alarm from inside piqued my ears and I froze, trying to get my sleep deprived brain to place that particular tone as I pushed my finger to the biometric scanner on the knob.
And then it clicked.
Perimeter Breech Alarm.
I ripped the door open and looked at the chaos of alarms going off on my screens as I tried to make sense of what they all were.
Perimeter Breech Alarm- South Quadrant- four minutes ago.
“Fuck.” I scanned to the next one, trying to assess who was fucking stupid enough to cross my property line. Four minutes was a long time, they could already be—.
Guest House Alarm- Forced Entry- Main Entrance- one minute ago.
“No!” I roared, grabbing two firearms and tearing out of my office at a dead sprint for Peyton. “Fuck!”
As I jumped down the five steps to the concrete patio, a shrill scream pierced the air and my heart seized completely in my chest as I fought through the fear and fatigue in my brain and focused my thoughts into that deadly calm space I found before a kill.
Because I was going to kill whoever dared to touch my girl.
The locked side door off the pool deck was no match for my kick, as I sent it splintering out of the jamb. Barefoot, I entered the house,hardly noticing the pain. Another scream ripped through the air, followed by a crash of something glass from her bedroom.
“Peyton!” I roared, and lifted my guns as a dark figure came out of her room, backing up with his arms over his face as another large object flew through the air and hit him in the head.
“Fucking hell, woman!” The intruder cursed exactly one millisecond before I pulled the trigger on both guns aimed directly at his head.
“Tamen?” I paused as Peyton’s voice carried through the dark house.
“Get the fuck out of my house!”
“You belong in an insane asylum!” Tamen yelled back, turning around and stopping short when he saw both guns aimed at him. “Oh, heishome.”
“Lincoln?” Peyton’s shaken voice floated seconds before her head popped out of the doorway that Tamen had thankfully moved away from. “Oh, my god.” She dropped her arms, lowering the footrest she clutched as a weapon as her wild eyes locked onto mine.
I could hardly fucking breathe seeing those green irises again after three days away. “Are you hurt?” I asked her, finally lowering my guns from my brother’s face. She quickly shook her head and wrapped her arms around her indecent body. Because, of course, she wore only a light blue nightgown that hugged every single inch of her lush curves to perfection. I looked away from her and glared at my stupid idiot brother, directing him to the door with one pistol still clutched in my hand. “Get the fuck out!”
He raised his brows at me and smirked, “Who am I speaking with right now?” He squinted his eyes, “Lincoln or—”
“GET OUT!” I roared, taking a step at him, herding him toward the door so I was between him andPeyton.
“Definitely not Lincoln.” He mused and glanced behind me to where I felt Peyton still cowering at the entrance to her bedroom. “Interesting.”
I fired a shot, aiming directly over his right ear and hitting the wall behind him as he flinched slightly with an amused look on his face. Peyton’s scream of fear cut through the gunpowder before my vision even cleared. “I said get out.” I repeated in a lethal voice I didn’t even recognize.
He held his hands up in surrender, after quickly dabbing at the blood dripping down from the graze I gave him on the top of his ear. “I’ll be in your office.” He looked over my shoulder once more to where Peyton was, “My apologies, Ms. Everett.”
His use of her name only made me want to pull the trigger all over again, this time aiming at his heart. He was my only blood relative left on Earth, but I would put him six feet into it if he even dared to come near Peyton.
When he was out of the house completely, I lowered my gun and forced myself to turn around to look into the eyes that had haunted me since I left her in the maze. “Peyton.”
“You shot him?” Her eyes were as wide as saucers and she still cowered behind the door frame into her bedroom.
“I should have done far worse for him invading your space, like he did.” I slid the guns into my waistband, careful not to let her see my ink under my shirt, and scrubbed my hand over my face.
“Who is he?” She carefully stepped around the broken remnants of the lamps she used as projectiles and came out into the living room, flicking a switch and bathing the room in warm light.
I glossed over her question, fighting every urge to pull her against my body.She doesn’t want you, Linc.“Are you okay?”