Page 12 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

She reached for her leather bag on one of the empty chairs and rummaged through before pulling out a small pouch and unzipping it. She retrieved the thumb drive from inside and handed it to me.

“It had all the police files from the Shadow Stalker case on it.” She threw Emersyn a concerned look.

I stared at the small black device, my thoughts racing.

“Brandon is trustworthy,” Emersyn insisted. “Do you really think the thumb drive could’ve messed up the computer?”

I met her eyes. “Maybe.”

Skye put her hands flat on the tabletop, her expression hardened, but she looked like she was trying to steady herself. “Fox.”

The sound of my name on her tongue sent an ache reverberating through me. It was the first time I’d heard her say it since she’d come back.

“You need to explain what you’re thinking. Are you trying to insinuate there’s some kind of…virus on my computer?”

I clenched my jaw, making every effort not to let it show how much she still affected me. “Something like that,” I said with forced calm. “It almost looks as if someone planted some hardware. I’m not sure the extent of it, but it’s enough to concern me.”

Skye’s face paled. “Why is it concerning?”

“Unknown hardware is always concerning.” I pulled my external diagnostic drive from my pocket and plugged it into her laptop. “Give me a bit more time, and I might have specific answers for you. ”

My fingers flew across the keyboard as I started to dig into system logs and network activity. The girls waited quietly as I worked. Their gazes were heavy on me, but I tried to ignore them and focus on what I needed to find.

Fifteen minutes later, my stomach dropped. Remote access pings. A program running silently in the background with logs dating back a few days.

This was deliberate. Not an accident or misunderstanding. Someone had been in her machine.

I cursed under my breath.

“What?” Skye asked, alarm rising in her tone.

“Someone installed spyware,” I snapped.

Skye froze. “What does that mean?”

My gaze cut to hers. “This is looking like a full system monitor—giving someone complete visibility of what you’re doing on your device and unfettered control.

I’m assuming someone was manually deleting or corrupting the files you’re missing, but they can also see what you’re doing, and can even have access to your mic or camera. ”

“Oh, my God,” Emersyn said, looking horrified.

“My files,” Skye said hoarsely. “All my work. All my interviews, the footage…can we get them back?”

Of course she was only concerned about her work, not her own privacy or safety.

“I’ll try to recover what I can.” I stood. I needed to get her computer back to my office and see what else I could uncover. “But I can’t make any promises.”

“That’s everything .” Skye sounded devastated. “That’s weeks of work. Hours of planning. It was all there. ”

I stared at her, studying her expression, her body language as best as I knew how. After all these years, Skye should be a stranger to me, but that wasn’t true. Her body spoke to me in the same old language it used to. She was scared. Terrified—a fear too deep for just a professional loss.

“Skye,” I said slowly. “Tell me what’s going on with you.”

She looked up sharply, eyes wide and glossy.

The table stood between us, Emersyn lingering near her side, but it suddenly felt like it was only me and her.

“I’m working really hard on this project.” Her voice wobbled. “And now all my hard work is ruined.”

“No,” I said, voice low, yearning to step closer. “It’s more than that. You’ve been here less than two weeks. Losing that work sucks, but the Skye I knew wouldn’t panic about that. She’d be diving back in already, trying to catch up.”

She flinched.

My hand twitched at my side, wanting to reach for her. I wasn’t sure what was making me say these things. Maybe it was the panic I sensed in her, or the exhaustion weighing down her slight frame.

I stared over at her, at the woman who used to know me better than anyone.

“Tell me the truth,” I said quietly. “Did something else happen?” The night she met with Detective Whize at the brewery flashed through my mind. She seemed off even then, and that was days ago. “Something more than your computer being tampered with?”

Skye’s lips parted, and for a long second, I thought she might not say anything. She glanced over at Emersyn, who gave her an encouraging nod .

“I—” Her voice cracked. She looked back at me, her throat working as though it hurt to say the words. “I think I found my mom.”

I blinked, not sure I’d heard her right. “What?”

“In the files Brandon gave me—there was a folder with suspected victims. One of them was a Jane Doe from over twenty years ago. She wasn’t identified. Her face was too…damaged.” Her voice faltered. “But I saw something in one of the photos. A bracelet. One I made for my mom when I was a kid.”

I stared at her, trying to process what she was saying.

“I thought your mom…” I paused, knowing her mother was a sensitive subject. “I thought she left. That she walked out on you and your brother.”

Skye had always given the impression that she was angry at her mom for leaving them. It was only in the quiet and stillness of night, when it was only me and her, that she ever admitted how much she truly missed her mother.

“So did I.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “That’s what I was always told.

But the bracelet—it looked handmade. Braided string, and a little silver bird charm.

I made her one exactly like that shortly before she disappeared.

” She pulled in a deep breath as if she were suddenly winded. “Ash remembered it too.”

The air went still.

“You talked to Ash?” I wasn’t sure why that surprised me. Her relationship with her brother wasn’t my business, but I knew she hadn’t been in contact with him for years after she first left.

She nodded, looking away again, but not before I caught a glimpse of the guilt she tried to hide. “Yeah. I needed confirmation that it looked similar. ”

I hadn’t talked to Ash in years. He was one of the few people I actively avoided in this town.

After Skye left, I used to check in on him, more out of guilt than anything. He was just a kid then, left with a father who was nothing but a bad cop and an abusive bastard.

Ash had it hard when Skye got out. He had started getting into trouble. Underground fights. Drinking. Vandalism. If it wasn’t for his father being law enforcement, he probably would’ve spent some real time in jail.

I had thought I could help the kid, but I was barely keeping myself together at the time. The only thing I accomplished was almost getting brought down with him.

“And…where does your father fit in all this?” I asked carefully. “Have you seen him, too?”

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she shook her head. “No. I don’t know where he is.”

I frowned. “You don’t?”

“Ash didn’t want to talk about him, and honestly, neither did I. He wasn’t around when I talked to my brother.”

That was strange. I made a mental note to figure out what old Charles Adler was up to these days.

“Fox…” Skye’s voice drew my attention back to her. “That Jane Doe file is gone. Half the footage I took the other day? Gone.”

A slow burn built in my chest.

“You think someone’s targeting you because of what you found?” Emersyn said.

I’d almost forgotten she was there, even though she still stood right next to Skye .

Skye glanced at her. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense, though. If Jane Doe is my mom, why would anyone care?”

A silence settled over us. It wasn’t making sense, but that wasn’t the immediate issue. The issue was that someone was watching Skye. Someone was deleting her work. As far as I was concerned, putting spyware on someone’s personal computer was a threat.

Something shifted in me, then. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it simply happened. I suddenly didn’t care how much it hurt to be near her. I didn’t care that she left me, or how much I hated the way she still made my heart ache.

When I looked at her, I saw past the fear and to the woman who had once meant everything to me.

“I don’t really care why someone is watching you. All that matters is that you’re safe,” I said, voice low but firm. “From now on, you don’t do this alone.”

Skye blinked at me. “What?”

I stepped closer, every nerve on high alert, every protective instinct snapping into place.

“I’ll help you,” I added, softer. “With the documentary, with your tech, whatever. You need someone watching your back while you’re in town.”

Her mouth parted, her expression trembling between shock and relief.

If someone was coming for Skye, threatening her safety, they’d have to go through me first.

No amount of time spent apart could change that.