?Chapter 909:


    The figure stood taller than most men, easily past six feet, with a body that carried strength and bnce in equal measure. Though his face remained hidden, a build like his suggested a man who would be striking if his features were even average.


    Every part of him was dressed in ck: coat, trousers, polished shoes, wide-brimmed hat, mask, gloves. He left nothing of himself exposed.


    His steps carried a subtle downward tilt of the head, the brim of his hat perfectly angled to deny the cameras a clear look. Beyond his outline, the footage revealed no more.


    Dressed entirely in ck, he carried an air of quiet mystery and cool detachment, yet his steps were calm and deliberate. There was a refined grace in the way he moved, the kind that spoke of a thoughtful, well-educated man. Elliana reached that conclusion silently.


    Then, at 7:30 p.m., the door to 1306 flew open, and Carlos strode out. Gone was theposed figure from before; in his ce was a man in a rush, his pace edged with panic.


    Elliana nced at the timestamp and felt a jolt. The moment matched exactly with the end of her conversation with him. His decision to flee the hotel right after their call, and then erase every trace of himself, left no doubt. He had figured out that she was on his tail.


    To Elliana, the message was clear. Carlos wasn’t only careful; he had instincts sharp enough to sense danger before it struck.


    On the screen, she saw him cutting across the lobby and pushing through the ss doors in a rush. The next camera caught him sliding into a taxi, and within seconds, the car was gone. From that moment forward, the hotel’s cameras lost himpletely.


    Many investigators would have stopped there, unable to follow the trail. Elliana, however, wasn’t about to quit. She switched to the city’s public cameras and started stitching together the taxi’s route.


    Your imagination thrives at  punt


    Roadside angles gave her only scattered glimpses, so she patched into a satellite feed to pick up the trail in real time. Atst, the feed revealed the taxi pulling up to a dock where Carlos stepped out and walked onto a waiting yacht.


    Not long after, the vessel eased away from the pier and slipped into the ck water beyond.


    By then, the digital path was gone. All she had left to work with was the yacht itself.


    Elliana paused the feed, captured a still image of the vessel, and forwarded it to Matthew. “Matthew, I need the owner of this yacht identified.”


    “Consider it done,” Matthew replied.


    The clock showed one in the morning, yet sleep wasn’t even a thought in Elliana’s mind.


    The past twenty-four hours had kept her nerves on fire, and her body was still running on adrenaline. She pushed aside any notion of rest. Her next stop had to be the Henderson estate. She needed to know if the man chasing her had any ties to the Henderson family.


    Once resolved, she made her way downstairs.


    Damian was stationed in the living room, keeping watch.


    Elliana tossed a key and a folded slip of paper to Damian as she moved past him toward the exit. “Go get my motorcycle back.”


    The night before, she had left her motorcycle behind on the roadside after rushing to pull Cole out of danger.


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