Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 34

Just A Nap.

Sage

He was eating and not just out of necessity, Conner was sitting at the counter, still sleep ruffled, devouring the pancakes like they were the first real meal he’d had in weeks. I stood there pretending to focus on the next batch, but I watched him through the corner of my eye like a damn sap. There was something indescribably satisfying about watching a man like that, fierce, brutal, revered, eating something I’d made with my own hands. Not a calculated move. Not part of a mission. Just… breakfast. My breakfast. A warmth coiled in my chest as he caught me looking. He didn’t speak, just smiled at me around a mouthful of syrupy pancake like I’d already won. And for once, I let myself feel it, pride. Peace. Maybe even the tiniest flash of domestic delusion before reality inevitably came crashing back in.

“I’m heading in there,” I said, tilting my head toward the door just off the kitchen that led to the surveillance room.

Nico perked up instantly. “You serious? Now?”

He practically tripped over himself to open the door for me like I was royalty, or a bomb he couldn’t wait to see detonate. The room was impressive for someone without my background. Rows of monitors, server towers humming quietly, a network I could feel humming just under my fingertips. He’d done a good job. Not great, but good.

“You mind if I…?” I asked, already sliding into the chair.

“Take it. All yours,” Nico said, stepping back but hovering behind me like a kid on Christmas morning.

I cracked my knuckles, leaned forward, and went to work. The interface was clean enough, but the firewall was like paper. I bypassed it, restructured his backdoor redundancies, then rerouted his packet filters just for fun. I could feel his stare on me.

“Is that… are you patching the offshore relay loop?” Nico asked, barely breathing.

“Mm-hmm,” I murmured, already inside the Russian satellite link. “Mirov’s been using dummy nodes to route internal footage. Clever. Sloppy, but clever.”

The cameras near Mirov’s compound came online with a flick of my wrist. Infrared. Perimeter heat signatures. Facial recognition still mapping.

“Holy shit,” Nico whispered, stepping closer. “You’re casing Mirov already?”

I nodded absently, voice low and focused. “It’s time I finish what I started.”

The corner camera picked up movement, a tall figure pacing behind frosted glass. Couldn’t get a clear face, but I didn’t need to, I’d know the devil’s shadow anywhere,

Nico let out a low whistle. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

“Noted,” I said, smirking as my fingers danced over the keyboard.

Because this? This was my battlefield and Mirov had just been marked I barely registered the footsteps behind me, soft at first, but famihar. Conner. Then heavier ones trailing beland, with the telltale shuffle of someone who never cared about walking quietly. Liam.

“Ghost,” Conner said softly, stopping in the doorway. “Thought you were meant to be resting.”

“I did rest,” I replied without taking my eyes off the screen. I fell asleep, remember? Wrapped around you like a weighted blanket.”

“She was koala ed to him,” Liam added helpfully from across the room.

Conner grunted. “Still. Normal people rest longer than that. You nearly died.”

I glanced over my shoulder with a smirk. “Says the man who got shot last year and was out of bed within three hours to break a guy’s arm in the driveway.”

“That’s different.”

1/3

8:05 pm P PDD.

Just A Nap.

“Was it?”

He said nothing

“She’s got a point,” Liam chimed in, leaning against the doorway with a grin. “Also, can we talk about how creepy this is? just… stalkin’ the guy like some true-crime podcast villain?”

“Oh sure,” Nico muttered without looking up from the screen he was patching. “Like keeping a climate-controlled closet full of severed hands as souvenirs isn’t creepy.”

“They’re gifts,” Conner said, deadpan. “Not souvenirs.”

“You kept them?” I turned in my chair to face him fully. “Did you really keep them all?”

His jaw flexed, and I caught the shift in his eyes, conflicted, but soft. He rubbed the back of his neck, a little sheepish now.

“I didn’t know what to do with them. Seemed wrong to toss ’em. And… you sent them.”

My heart did this strange, impossible flutter. I stood slowly, padding across the room until I was in front of him. “Even the one I accidentally mislabeled and you thought was a threat instead of a thank-you?”

“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “Still got it. Kept ’em all in that little locked freezer in the back room, next to the good whiskey.”

“Jesus Christ,” Liam muttered behind us.

But I wasn’t listening to him anymore. I reached up, brushing my fingers over the stubble along Conner’s jaw, and smiled.

“I really missed you,” I said softly.

He caught my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles, eyes steady on mine.

“I know,” he murmured. “I missed you too, little ghost.”

Behind us, Nico groaned. “Okay, this is sweet and all, but can we focus? You just pulled up three blind spots inside Mirov’s compound and I need to know what the hell that blinking dot is…”

“It’s a transmitter,” I said, turning back to the monitors. “And it’s not his.”

The room went still and just like that, the moment passed, but something new settled in its place. Connection. A shared war.

I pulled the chair closer to the desk, typing rapidly as I zoomed in on the blinking signal. It flickered between shadows, weaving along the southeast perimeter of Mirov’s compound an erratic pattern that screamed one thing:

“Whoever’s carrying that transmitter isn’t part of his crew,’ I said, my voice low. They re avoiding cameras, not patrolling.”

Conner leaned in over my shoulder, bis scent grounding me instantly, coffee, leather, steel, and now me, faintly on his skin. I swallowed,

“Could be an asset Nico said from the corner. “Or bait.”

I didn’t answer, fingers dancing across keys, rerouting a few signal loops until I caught a clearer image. Fuzzy. Then sharper, Male. Early thirties. Unarmed, but fast. Calculated. My brow furrowed

‘I’ve seen that face before, I muttered.

‘One of yours?’ Conner asked.

‘No. One of Mirov’s former soldiers. Defected a year ago. Dead, supposedly

2/3

8:06 pm P p DD.

Just A Nap.

Liam crossed his arms. “What are the chances he just came back to deliver cookies?”

Conner snorted, but his eyes didn’t leave the screen. “Looks like a ghost to me.”

That word made my heart skip again. Not the same way as before. Now, it was colder.

“We should find out why he’s back,” Nico said, pulling up a thermal scan. “Or who brought him in.”

I nodded, refocusing. “Give me twenty minutes, I can track his last seventy-two hours. If he made contact with anyone in our circle, I’ll know.”

“You ever get tired of being a badass?” Liam asked, clearly trying to lighten the room.

“Only on days ending in never,” I said, smirking.

Conner’s hand came to rest on my shoulder, warm, grounding. “Don’t burn out, ghost.”

I tilted my head up toward him. “I’m not the fragile one here.”

“You were literally in a coma.”

“I took a nap.”

Chapter Comments

Sara Hart

1 days ago

not on a vent.. not dieing…lol just resting your eyes…

18

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8:06 pm P P DD

Her Obsession