---

Fuck.

Fuckity fuck.

Fuck queen and country. Fuck a duck.

The alarms were still blaring. The watch on my wrist vibrated over and over again, and I was helpless to stop the cyberattack that was happening.

And Isabella was still crying.

Multiple denial-of-service code attacks were happening at once and I wasn’t fast enough to kill them all. It was as if whoever had tried to break in before had learned their lesson and had come back with multiple friends who were pissed off because I’d insulted their mother, or in this case, their father.

I shut down one attack, only to have another one pop up on another server. I rolled my seat around backward and forward, killing off attempts to hack into my system. All around me alarms blared when the cameras went down. Jesus Christ. I’d poked a hornet’s nest all right. The power went out and the generators went on. But even though the generators had come on, an alarm went off in the elevator, which meant it was still stuck.

Fuck me. Stay calm. Deal with one problem at a time. That’s all you have to do… one step at a time.

My phone rang and kept ringing. Noah. I put it on speaker. “I’m a little busy right now.”

“Yeah, I figured, considering that Lucia and I are still stuck in the elevator.”

And then all the alarms flashed red on my monitor, letting me know that all exterior doors were locked and interior ones too. Shit. That meant that anyone in the conference room, the gym, and maybe the bedrooms was going to be locked in for the time being. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Everything okay? How serious is it?”

Do not tell him. You can handle this. “I’m working on it. I’ve got it handled.”

“It’s fine. I just want to make sure Izzy’s okay.”

“I’ll bring her in here with me while I’m working on this. She’ll be fine. I’ll find Rafe, too. I know he’s around here somewhere.”

Noah was silent for a moment. “Matthias, what the fuck is going on, kid?”

“Not the time for questions Noah. I’ll get Izzy.” I hung up on my mentor, knowing that I’d probably pay the price for that one later. But right now, I had other fish to fry.

I pushed up out of my chair, and then jogged out of my room to Izzy’s. The generators powered the lights lining the hallways, so at least I wasn’t running in the dark. As I approached Izzy’s bedroom, the screeching got louder. My heart hammered as I leaned over and scooped up the baby.

“Hey, love. That’s a good darling. That’s a good girl. Uncle Matthias is here. No need to cry.”

She blinked teary gray eyes up at me, and then a chubby hand reached up to smack my face. “Baba?”

It was as if she was asking me where her papa was. Fuck, I didn’t speak baby. “Your mum and dad are coming, I promise. You just have to stay nice and calm for Uncle Matthias, okay? We had a little emergency.” I kept my voice calm and cooing, and it seemed to do the trick because the tears cleared quickly and she started to coo and giggle at me, clapping her hands and starting to point at things. She was just on the cusp of talking.

“Mata,” she babbled and patted me on the cheek then proceeded to babble a string of nonsensical words.

I could only imagine what that was going to be like in the future. She would probably go nonstop. Between the baby and JJ, I might need to find some earplugs. I found her little walking-stroller-type thing, the one with all the bells on top of it, settled her inside and strapped her in.

It looked like a stroller, but this one encouraged her to keep walking, which was just fine by me because I needed her occupied while I dealt with whoever the hell was trying to break into my systems. When I pushed her into the hallway, I called out. “Rafe? Are you here? I need you to watch Izzy.”

But there was no answer. I did a quick mental calculation on where everyone was supposed to be. Rafe was in the penthouse somewhere, which made it odd that he hadn’t come to investigate what was going on yet. Noah and Lucia were in the elevator. Ryan was on a gig. Dylan had his day off. Jonas and JJ were on their honeymoon. The new recruit was on a training op with some friend of Noah’s who ran a bodyguard agency, and Oskar was in the living room which was on lockdown. So everyone was accounted for. All I had to do was find Rafe and Diana. But as soon as I walked down the hall toward the living room and past the gym on the left, I froze.

Well, you found him.

Rafe stared at him from the other side of the glass in the gym, hands on his hips looking pissed the hell off. Diana was lifting weights, as if the blaring alarms and the power going out hadn’t impeded her desire for a workout.

Rafe motioned to the door, but I shook my head. With a series of pantomimes, I tried to explain to him that something had happened and our power was off … that I couldn’t open the doors until I got the system fixed. Rafe’s gaze slid down to where Izzy was happily playing with the balls in front of her, and his lips set into a firm line.

I scowled at him. Did the bastard really think I couldn’t look after the baby? The guy didn’t look pleased that I was the one that was left with her. “Yeah, well, not my choice either.” I cared about Isabella. She was innocent and deserved protection and love. I couldn’t offer love, but protection… That was in my wheelhouse. I’d die before I let anything happen to the baby.

Isabella looked up and waved one of her balls around, tossing it at me. I caught it then gently let it come back to her in its tether. She giggled then threw one to her uncle. When Rafe didn’t catch that one (because, hello, barrier), Izzy scrunched her face. I knew right away that there were going to be tears, and I bent down. “No, no, no, no. Listen to Uncle Matthias’s voice. You’re fine. Look, I got your ball for you. No need to cry.”

The last thing I wanted was a crying baby on top of all the noise and the alarm going off on my wrist again. God damn it. I needed to get back into the room. Well, Rafe wasn’t available, so Izzy would have to come with me. I just hoped she didn’t touch anything. The walker would only keep her occupied for so long.

I glanced back up at Rafe and tried a pantomime that I was going to take the baby and go back to my room to try and fix what was going on. Rafe frowned for a moment as if not understanding, then nodded. Isabella waved to her uncle and patted one of her chubby hands on the glass. Rafe bent down on his haunches and put his hand up too.

Rafe’s hand was huge, much larger than Izzy’s head even. She looked as if she was trying to measure her palm against his. Rafe seemed to say something to her, but no sound came out because the glass in the gym was soundproof. When Rafe stood, he nodded at me as if to say, ‘Go do your thing, kid.’

I took hold of the handle at the back of the walker. “Okay princess, I’m going to see if I can fix this mess and get your mummy and daddy out. Whoever is doing this are a bunch of meanies.”

Izzy answered by blowing a raspberry.

Her full cheeks and bright eyes had a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. “Yeah, sometimes I feel that way about people too.” Just as I turned to push her back toward the bedroom and my monitors, I saw a shadow behind me. Immediately, I whipped around and shoved Isabella’s walker so she rolled forward into the darker corner next to the gym.

I caught Rafe’s look of horror as I was turning, and then I saw that I hadn’t been imagining it. That was no shadow. Once again, the penthouse had been breached.

Sin, releases on 5/29/18.