Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 13

Burn Target.

I’d broken every rule. And now? Conner was the noose…but it was too late to go back now. I’d have to let him in further…if only to save his life and

apologise for putting it on the line.

I did what I could to pull all the encrypted and hidden files from Conner’s systems and accounts, scraping beneath the surface until my eyes burned from reading sublayer code. I’d cracked open some deep cracks in his firewall without tripping alarms, dropping everything I found into Nico’s lap like breadcrumbs from a ghost. I wanted to do more, needed to do more. I wanted to hand him the rat on a silver platter, tied in a bow and bleeding. But my mark was important. And I was no use to Conner dead. That’s exactly what I’d be if I didn’t get this bastard before the week was up. This wasn’t some two- bit sellout looking for a payout. No. This guy was trained. Efficient. A ghost, not unlike me, only messier. Paranoid. And just barely arrogant enough to leave a trail if I dug deep enough. So I dug. It took days to even get close. The bastard had more digital traps than a government agency. His cabin, if you could even call it that, was nestled in the middle of nowhere, buried in dense trees and natural rock formations that screwed with satellites. I couldn’t drive all the way in. I’d found his truck first, well-hidden under camo tarps and shrub brush, tucked beside a bend in the dirt track. He hadn’t used it in days. Smart. Paranoid. I didn’t follow the road from there. Too obvious. Instead, I tracked the shallow grooves of ATV tires through mud and pine needles, weaving through terrain that would break a civilian ankle in thirty seconds flat. Eventually, it led me to the cabin. Remote. Covered in dull grey panels to reflect nothing. Windows sealed. Chimney stone-cold. Surveillance was tight, one system above ground, another buried just beneath. But I was better. And patient. I watched from the trees. Sat crouched on a thick branch twenty feet above the forest floor, still as death for hours. Long enough that my legs ached and my hands went numb. My body knew this rhythm. Wait. Watch. Wait some more. He finally left just before sunset. Didn’t lock the door. That told me everything I needed to know. This guy was cocky. He thought he was untouchable. He thought no one could find him. He’d never met me. I slipped down from the tree and crossed the clearing with silent steps, checking for traps. Pressure sensors. Trip lines. Infrared beams. I found two and disabled them within seconds. The third was hidden in a loose plank on the porch, barely perceptible. I bypassed it. Inside smelled like steel and stale coffee. Everything was cold, utilitarian. Weapons in the corner, cleaned but loaded. Papers everywhere, but the kind meant to mislead. There were no real documents out in the open. Only setups. I ignored them and went for the crawlspace I’d seen from the exterior thermal scan. Kicked in the panel with the hilt of my blade and dropped down into a second room, one not on any blueprint. Bingo. A server hummed faintly, shielded with basic but thick encryption. I took out my portable drive, connected into the system, and started copying data, fast, silent, efficient. Every minute I stayed increased the odds of being caught. I checked the time. I had ten minutes before he made the loop back. Maybe less. Still… I took one moment, just one to skim the folder labels. 327. O’Neill. Handler – Tier 3. Burn List. Burn list? My stomach clenched. Then I saw it. Project: Specter My codename. A file with my name in it. And Conner’s. “Shit,” I whispered. No time. I yanked the drive mid-transfer and wiped my connection trail before crawling back up and resetting everything I’d touched. No sign I’d been there. No trace. Not unless he looked very close. I disappeared into the trees again just as the sun dipped and his ATV grumbled back down the path. He didn’t even know how close he’d come to dying tonight…but I needed more time. I needed to figure out if I would torture him for information first. I had to get back to my shitty hotel and sort through these files. If I’m correct, which I usually am, someone has been keeping tabs on me. Someone high up…and they knew about my obsession with Conner…and I’ve just put him in the fucking firing line with me. The one thing I never wanted, the whole reason I had kept my distance. Fuck.

I shoved open the door of the hotel room, dropped the flash drive onto the desk, and yanked the blackout curtains closed. The place reeked of stale carpet and bad decisions, but it was anonymous. Cheap enough not to raise eyebrows, but isolated enough that no one should’ve been watching. I checked the room again anyway. Bathroom mirror, air vents, lamp, swept it all for bugs. Nothing pinged. Still didn’t settle the buzzing under my skin. I slid the drive into my secure rig, hands shaking harder than I’d ever admit. Not from fear. No, this was rage. Rage that someone had breached my world. Rage that Conner had become part of this mess because of me. He was supposed to be untouched by all this, far away from the rot that built people like me. But they knew. Someone knew.

The files loaded. Encrypted directories. Classified access codes.

Codename: Project: Specter.

Alias: Sage.

Status: Burn Target – Level Red.

Secondary: Conner O’Neill – Compromised Asset – Level Yellow.

I stared at the screen, bile rising in my throat. They’d been watching me long before I thought…Almost four months after I started my obsession with him. Documenting every hit. Every close call. And Conner? He wasn’t just a casualty in my shadow. They were monitoring him because of me. Because I cared. They were going to use him to get to me. I shoved back from the desk, pacing. This wasn’t a warning. This was a setup. A fucking countdown. They were waiting for me to break protocol. To get too close. And tonight? I’d just blown every self-imposed line to hell.

“Goddammit,” I muttered, running a hand down my face.

The camera feed. The voice. Darling. I might as well have painted a target on his chest myself. I stared down at my hands. Bloodied knuckles, from where I’d punched the wall of that cabin on the way out. From holding myself back. From not putting a bullet in that bastard while I had the chance. But this wasn’t about the mark anymore. This was bigger. A warning echoed in my mind, one I’d heard years ago when I first entered the compound.

“Emotion gets you killed. Attachment is leverage. Love is the rope they’ll hang you with.”