Page 14 of Chasing After You

Those moments were just for me and him.

I didn’t like what those men might do to him, how they’d twist his mind, fill it with lies, teach him to see me as something monstrous. I’d come too far to let that happen. He needed to see me as his precious little brother.

Josh was… honestly, sort of a pushover. As long as he still had love for me, which I knew he did, he’d forgive some little breaches in privacy.

* * *

I waited until nightfall to check out the house. I parked about a quarter of a mile away and walked the rest of the way, taking a route primarily through the trees surrounding their yard. I’d expected cameras—maybe motion lights.

I hadn’t expected agoddamn fucking fortress.

There were pressure sensors buried along the perimeter, infrared trip beams on the upper windows, and cameras positioned with surgical precision. The place didn’t just have security—it hadlayers of it. This wasn’t normal. This was ex-military grade, possibly from the black market.

My gut twisted.

Who the hell were these people?

They weren’t just rich, or paranoid, or playing house. No normal couple living with their pretty little boyfriend installedprivate surveillance nets and biometric deadbolts unless they were hiding something.

There were no obvious blind spots. Not even the garbage bins were outside the fence. I could maybe get a drone close enough to look in a window, but anything more would be pushing it—and I wasn’t ready to tip my hand just yet.

Fucking fuck.

I exhaled shakily, pressing my back to a tree, out of range of the cameras. My skin crawled.Why did they have this kind of protection? Did Josh know? Why was he always so oblivious?

The thought made my jaw clench.

No. He wasn’t stupid. Just scared. He always had been. He trusted too easily—latched onto anyone who showed him the tiniest kindness. He couldn’t see the danger when it smiled.

But I could.

I didn’t know who those twins really were yet, but I would. I’d dig until I found the cracks, and when I did, I’d pry them open and watch them shatter. I’d peel them out of Josh’s life, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but me.

Then he’d remember.

Then he’d come back to me.

We’d be a family again.

* * *

Over the next two weeks, I didn’t sleep much.

I set up a rotating surveillance loop from a safe distance and stationed small, inconspicuous cameras in the trees along the perimeter of their property.

They never turned off any lights completely. Even the back porch stayed dimly lit through the night. I clockedthree different entrances, all of which were coded—one with fingerprint access.

These weren’t just two dumb rich guys.

And the more I watched, the more I began to feel that they were watching back. Sometimes I’d glance at the feed and get the uncanny sense that someone on the other side of the glassknewI was looking. That’s when I started triple-checking the signal encryption and swapping burner phones hourly.

They were too calm. Too unbothered. As if they’d already anticipated my presence and decided I wasn’t a threat.

That made me furious.

Josh still went to work every day at his cafe; otherwise, I would have gone insane from not being able to see him.

I just had to pull him away long enough to make him remember why he left with my name in his mouth; why he used to come tomewhen the world got too heavy.