Page 13

Ethan

My body tensed as I locked on the shadow moving across the monitor screen. The conversation with Mel evaporated instantly, replaced by cold focus.

“Fuck.”

I grabbed my earpiece from the desk and slid it in with practiced precision. “All stations, all stations, we have an intruder on property. East perimeter, moving toward the main house. Lock down the primary. I’m maneuvering to intercept.”

Logan’s voice came through immediately. “Copy that. Moving to reinforce the perimeter.”

“I’ve got Nova,” Ty confirmed. “Securing her now.”

Jace was already punching commands into the system from where he was, bringing up additional camera angles. “Got him on camera three. He’s heading toward the east wing, looks like he’s checking windows.”

I yanked open the drawer, grabbed my sidearm and a spare radio, turning to Mel. Her eyes had widened, but there was no panic in them—just alert readiness. I handed her the radio.

“Lock this door behind me,” I instructed, holding her gaze for just a beat longer than necessary. “Take this radio and tell me where he goes if he changes direction.”

“Got it.” Her voice was steady, no hint of hysteria.

I moved toward the door, pausing to glance back. “Stay put until I give the all clear.”

She nodded once, gripping the radio. As I slipped into the hallway, I heard the click of the lock behind me.

The estate corridors were silent as I moved through them with practiced efficiency. No wasted motion. No hesitation. My breathing remained controlled, my heartbeat only slightly elevated—not from fear, but from the familiar surge of adrenaline warming my muscles for what was to come.

I kept the pressure of my footfalls light as I reached the side entrance near the east wing. Slipping outside, I pressed my back against the wall, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness.

“Ethan, he changed direction,” Mel’s voice came through the radio, calm and informative. “He’s moving along the pool side, toward Nova’s balcony.”

“Copy that,” I responded quietly. “Moving to intercept.”

I circled wide, using the landscaping for cover. The night air was cool against my skin, carrying the scent of freshly cut grass and something else—cologne, too strong and too cheap. Whoever our visitor was, subtlety wasn’t his strong suit.

“He’s stopped,” Mel updated. “Below Nova’s balcony now, looking up.”

I moved closer, keeping to the shadows. Twenty yards away, a figure in dark clothing stood with his neck craned back, staring up at Nova’s balcony with unsettling intensity. Male, medium build, nothing particularly remarkable about him except the fact that he shouldn’t be here.

“I have visual,” I whispered into the radio. “Approaching. ”

Drawing my weapon, I closed the distance with silent precision. The intruder remained fixated on the balcony, oblivious to my approach. I stopped ten feet behind him, gun raised but angled slightly down—ready but not eager to use it.

“Don’t move.” My voice was ice-cold, pitched just loud enough to reach him without carrying further. “Hands where I can see them.”

His body went rigid. For one second, he froze completely—then he bolted.

“Suspect is running!” I barked into the radio, already in pursuit. “Heading north toward the perimeter fence!”

The guy was fast—or terrified—probably both. He darted between trees, zigzagging across the lawn with the desperation of a cornered animal. But fear made people sloppy. He stumbled over a decorative rock, his rhythm faltering just enough for me to close some of the gap.

“Logan,” I said between controlled breaths as I ran, “cut him off at the north fence line.”

“On it,” came the terse reply.

The intruder glanced back, his eyes widening when he saw how close I’d gotten. He veered left, making for a cluster of trees near the property line. Bad move. The uneven ground slowed him down further.

Fifty yards to the fence. Forty. Thirty.

I pushed harder, my legs burning with effort. The gap narrowed to fifteen feet, then ten. I could hear his panicked breathing now, see the sweat glistening on the back of his neck in the moonlight.

He reached the fence and frantically began to climb. I closed the final distance with a burst of speed, grabbed a fistful of his jacket collar, and yanked hard. He tumbled backward with a startled yelp, hitting the ground flat on his back.

I was on him before he could scramble up, one knee pressed into his sternum, my weapon trained on his face .

“Move, and you’ll regret it.” The words came out in a dangerous whisper.

His eyes were wild with fear, darting from my face to the gun and back again. “Don’t shoot! Please!”

Logan sprinted up beside us, his own weapon drawn. “Need help, boss?”

“Get the son of a bitch’s hands,” I instructed, keeping my weight on the man’s chest.

Logan holstered his weapon and efficiently pulled the intruder’s arms behind his back, securing them with flexicuffs. Once he was restrained, I got to my feet but kept my gun trained on him.

“Pat him down.”

Logan’s hands moved expertly over the man’s clothing, emptying his pockets. “Wallet. Phone. Small bottle of—” Logan squinted at the label “—Jergens?” His expression twisted with disgust. “And…what the hell?” He held up a pair of bright-pink socks with unicorns on them.

I raised an eyebrow. “Those look familiar.”

“They’re Nova’s,” Logan confirmed. “I’ve seen her wearing them in those behind-the-scenes videos she posts.”

“Jesus Christ.” I holstered my weapon, already knowing what kind of creep we were dealing with. I grabbed the wallet Logan had set aside and flipped it open. The driver’s license photo matched our gasping intruder. “Roger Harrison.”

“Did you say Roger Harrison?” Jace asked through comms.

“Yeah. What about him?”

“We’ve got a file on him. A big one. Dude is creepy-mccrawly.”

I’d seen the file. I crouched down to Roger’s eye level. “You’ve been hanging around Nova’s events. Sending her letters. Waiting outside venues. And now breaking in to private property in the middle of the night. ”

“I wasn’t breaking in,” he protested weakly. “I just wanted to see her.”

“Were you invited?”

“Well, no. But?—”

“Then you were breaking in.”

Roger wet his lips nervously. “It wasn’t a problem before. They always let me hang around.”

I exchanged a loaded glance with Logan. That explained how comfortable he seemed on the property. This wasn’t his first uninvited visit.

“You’ve been here before?”

He nodded eagerly. “Lots of times. I leave samples.”

“Samples of what exactly?”

“Just left…little pieces of me.”

Logan and I exchanged another look, and he pointed to the bottle of Jergens.

Samples. Jesus fucking Christ.

Great. Lawn sanitation just got added to the damned security budget.

I leaned in closer. “You never left anything else? Flowers, maybe?”

Roger’s face lit up with interest. “Does Nova want flowers? I can get her flowers. What kind?”

Not the answer I wanted. If this guy was our flower-leaving intruder, he’d have reacted differently—with jealousy or, at least, recognition. His curiosity seemed genuine. Which meant he might be a creep, but probably not our death-threat stalker.

“Jace is on his way,” Logan informed me, checking his phone. “Dallas PD has been notified too.”

I nodded, turning my attention back to Roger. “We’ll need to check your phone.”

His eyes widened. “No, you can’t?—”

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” I cut him off. “The easy way is you give us your passcode. The hard way is we tell the police exactly how many times you’ve trespassed and what we found in your pockets.”

Roger’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Before he could answer, Jace jogged up, slightly out of breath. “Got here as fast as I could.”

“We need to check this fucker’s phone,” I said. “He’s not being cooperative with the passcode.”

Jace’s mouth curved into a small, dangerous smile. “Not a problem.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a small device. “Phone?”

Logan handed him Roger’s phone. Jace connected it to his device with a cable, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

“What are you doing?” Roger demanded, struggling against his restraints.

“Insurance,” I replied coolly. “In case you’ve been taking pictures you shouldn’t be taking. In case you decide you want to put those on the internet.”

In case I’m wrong and you are a fucking psycho rather than just a pervert.

Jace worked silently for several minutes, eyes fixed on his screen. Finally, he unplugged the device. “Got it. I’ll analyze this back at the command center.”

The distant wail of police sirens reached us, growing steadily louder. Roger’s face crumpled as he realized the severity of his situation.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” he whimpered. “I just wanted to be close to Nova. I love her.”

“You can explain that to the police,” I said, straightening up as the flashing lights became visible through the trees.

Two patrol cars pulled up to the security gate. I nodded to Logan. “Let them in. I’ll wait here with our friend.”

As Logan jogged toward the gate, I kept my eyes on Roger. He’d gone quiet, staring at the ground with an expression of defeat. Pathetic. Men like him never seemed to understand the line between admiration and violation.

The gate swung open, and the patrol cars rolled onto the property. Among the officers stepping out, I recognized the salt-and-pepper hair of Detective Corey Hollis. Good. Having someone familiar with the case would make this easier.

“Got your late-night visitor, I see,” Hollis said as he approached, nodding to Roger.

“Roger Harrison,” I confirmed. “Caught him prowling around Nova’s balcony.”

Hollis crouched down to Roger’s level. “Mr. Harrison. We’ve had reports about you before, haven’t we?”

Roger didn’t answer, just kept staring at the ground.

“Found these in his pocket,” I said, handing over the socks. “Along with this.” I passed him the bottle of Jergens.

Hollis grimaced. “Nasty piece of work, aren’t you, Roger?” He stood up, gesturing to the uniforms. “Get him in the car. We’ll sort this out at the station.”

As the officers hauled Roger to his feet, I caught movement from the corner of my eye. Mel was walking across the lawn toward us, her arms wrapped around herself against the night chill. Even in the dim light, I could see the tension in her shoulders, the worry etched into her features.

Hollis followed my gaze. “Ms. Rivers,” he greeted her. “Sorry about the disturbance.”

“Detective.” She nodded to him before turning to me. “Nova’s asking questions. I told her we caught someone, but I didn’t give details.” Her eyes drifted to Roger being loaded into the patrol car. “Is he the one who left the flowers?”

“I don’t think so,” I replied, keeping my voice low. “Different MO entirely. This one’s more of a…collector.”

Her brow furrowed. “Collector?”

“Found some of Nova’s socks in his pocket. ”

“Oh God.” She pressed a hand to her mouth, disgust flashing across her face. “That’s…revolting.”

“He’ll be facing charges,” Hollis assured her. “Trespassing at minimum, possibly stalking if we find evidence on his phone.”

I turned to Mel, noting the slight tremor in her hands despite her composed expression. “You did good work. The radio updates were exactly what we needed.”

A small smile touched her lips. “I was in manager mode. It’s all about clear communication.”

“Well, it helped,” I said, meaning it. “Thank you.”

Our eyes locked for a moment, and I felt the echo of that connection we’d shared in the control room before the interruption. Then she glanced away, wrapping her arms tighter around herself.

“I should check on Nova,” she said. “She’ll be working herself into a state by now.”

I nodded reluctantly. “Of course.”

She hesitated, then added, “Will you…let me know what you find out?”

“As soon as we know anything.”

She thanked me with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, then turned to walk back toward the house.

After the police left with Roger in custody, I gathered my team in the command center. Jace had his laptop open, scrolling through the data he’d extracted from Roger’s phone.

“What have we got?” I asked, leaning against the desk.

Jace grimaced. “Exactly what you’d expect from a creep like that. Hundreds of photos of Nova—all taken from a distance. At concerts, through windows, leaving buildings. Nothing particularly incriminating, legally speaking, but definitely stalker territory.”

“Any of the photos from inside the house?” Logan asked.

“No,” Jace replied. “All exterior shots. Though there are several of her bedroom windows, mostly at night when she has the lights on.”

“Video?”

“Some. Mostly Nova getting in and out of cars, walking into venues. Standard paparazzi-style stuff, but creepier because it’s just one obsessed guy.” Jace scrolled further. “He’s got a whole folder of her sleeping.”

My jaw tightened. “From her balcony?”

“Yeah. Long-distance shots, probably using a zoom lens. Poor quality, but definitely her.”

“Anything about flowers? Notes? Any indication he was the one who broke in that night?”

Jace shook his head. “Nothing. No mentions in his notes, no photos of flowers or the kitchen that night. In fact, based on his location data, he wasn’t anywhere near the estate that evening.”

I frowned, thinking. “So we’ve got one stalker in custody, but probably not the one who left the dead roses.”

“Not likely,” Logan agreed. “Different MO, like you said.”

“Which means our main threat is still out there.” I straightened up, rubbing a hand over my face. “We can’t let our guard down.”

“Something else worth noting,” Jace added, still scrolling through Roger’s phone. “Roger’s active on several Nova Rivers fan forums. In some of his posts, he mentions other dedicated fans who share information about Nova’s whereabouts.”

“You think there are more like him?” Logan asked.

“Possibly.” Jace looked up at me. “I’ll dig deeper, see if I can identify any of these other fans. Could be our flower-sender is part of the same community.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Good work tonight, everyone. We caught one creep, but let’s not celebrate too hard. The real threat is still out there, and now the tour starts in a week.”

The team dispersed, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I replayed the events of the night in my mind—not the chase or the capture, but the moments before. Sitting with Mel in the soft glow of the monitors. The way she’d looked with her hair down, in comfortable clothes. The genuine connection I’d felt forming between us.

I’d promised myself I wouldn’t get personally involved, that I’d maintain professional distance. But as I stood there in the empty command center, I knew I was already failing at that promise.

Because protecting Mel Rivers had become more than just a job.

And that realization scared me far more than any intruder ever could.