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Chapter 10: The Warning Window
The first thing she noticed when she got home was the light.
It was on.
She never left it on.
Rina's keys trembled in her hand as she stepped into the apartment. Everything looked untouched. But something was wrong. Air too still. Silence too heavy.
Her laptop sat open on the kitchen counter.
She hadn't left it there.
The screen flashed a message:
> "Nice find. Next time, we won't knock."
Her breath caught. She backed out of the room—and slammed into a wall of warmth.
Eliot.
His hands gripped her shoulders before she could scream. "It's me."
"You followed me?" she hissed.
"I watched you. That's different."
"That's creepy!"
"That's survival," he snapped.
He held up her mail—opened, fingerprints smudged. "They've been here. And not just tonight."
She stared at him, furious and afraid.
"I didn't ask you to protect me."
"I didn't ask to care," he said quietly.
Something cracked between them—emotion and fury folding into confusion. The kind that comes when two storms collide.
A long beat.
"I'm going to find out what's on that drive," she said finally. "With or without you."
"You won't last a day alone in this."
"Then stay," she whispered. "But no more lies."
Eliot didn't move. His silence was answer enough.
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