“How the fuck could you let this happen?”

I glared at Cox, anger swelling through me. I couldn’t believe security had been so goddamn lax, and that Emily was the one to stumble across that fucking head.

“Sir, I checked the logs. The tapes have been destroyed. I don’t know how this happened.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” I knew I was lashing out at Cox because I had nobody else to blame, but fuck, it was his job to keep the mansion safe.

As soon as I heard Emily scream, I was out into the hall running as fast as I could. I found her standing over the dog head, her eyes wide in horror, and I quickly pulled her away from it. I signaled to security with my phone while I took her back to her room.

She was visibly shaken up, but I thought she was going to be okay. I left her there alone and sent a message to Evelyn to make sure she was fine. She got back to me immediately and said she’d check in on Emily once she understood the situation.

Back in the hallway, Cox and his team had secured the area and were carting off the dog head. I ordered them to stop before they could get too far.

I walked over to the head and turned it over in my hands. It felt heavy, surprisingly heavy. I dug my thumbs into the skin and fur on the back of the skull, making one of the security guys gag. I found what I was looking for and slowly peeled the skin away.

Revealing a robotic cage and circuitry.

“It’s fake?” Cox asked, surprised.

“Fake,” I confirmed. “I recognized it right away. We’ve been working on animal robot prototypes, and this was meant to be our mascot’s robot. I guess we’ll have to rebuild it.”

Cox shook his head, clearly surprised.

Valor Tech’s logo included a little dog and always had, even back when I first started the company. Whoever did this was sending me a message, and it was clear: Valor was going to be destroyed.

After chewing out Cox, I took the head back into the lab. I couldn’t find any signs of someone having broken in, but I did find the prototype robot’s body sitting in its case, headless as I suspected. The “blood” was actually ketchup, water, and some more food dye to darken it a bit. Pretty ingenious, actually, and the exact same formula we used in the lab.

There were some very dark implications around the severed robot head as I left the lab, locking it down. I changed the passcode to something only I knew, and although there were going to be some annoyed scientists in the morning, they could wait. We were going to have to screen and vet each and every one of them all over again, anyway, until we found the culprit.

I went down the hall and over toward Emily’s section of the house. I stopped outside of her door and knocked. A minute later, Evelyn answered.

“How’s she doing?” I asked her.

“She’s okay,” she said. “A little shaken up.”

“I think I can help with that.”

She frowned at me. “Black roses, Carter?”

I grinned and shrugged. “Friendly gesture.”

She sighed, shook her head, and let me inside. “I’ll be back later,” she said pointedly as she left.

I waved at her as I walked into Emily’s apartment. I found her sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and watching The Office. She paused it when I came in.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “That really freaked me out.”

“Well. Would it make you feel any better if what you saw wasn’t a real dog?”

She blinked. “What was it then?”

“A robot prototype, stolen from my lab.” I took out my phone and showed her some pictures I took. “Whoever did this stole it, cut it up, and used fake blood to set the scene.”

“Jesus,” she said, shaking her head. “It looked so real.”

“Thank you,” I answered, grinning.

“That does make me feel better, though. But it begs a bunch of other questions.”

“Like who did this?”

“And why.”

I nodded. “We’re working on it.”

“They knew where you were, Carter. They left that head there for you to find.”

“I know.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t expect me to be around.”

“Probably not.”

“But that means someone is watching. Someone very close.”

“Also true.” I frowned, not liking where she was going with this, but it was a place I had already gone myself.

“All of that means we need to stay away from each other.”

I didn’t answer, just looked at her. She was so gorgeous and earnest, and I hated the idea that some asshole could push me away from having her.

“No more kissing,” she continued. “No more pranks. No more pictures or roses or lingerie. No more coming to the rescue. You’re married to my mother and that’s all there is between us.”

“That’s not all between us.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “If we get caught? It would destroy everything.”

“I know,” I said softly. She was absolutely right, but I hated it. “If that’s what you want.”

She nodded, her face drawn and serious. “It is.”

“Okay then. I can’t argue.”

She looked away, down at her feet, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. It was obvious that this wasn’t what she wanted, but we both knew this thing between us was fucked up and dangerous. I was technically her stepfather, for starters, and the media would go ape-shit over that if it ever came out. My position within the company and with the media was tenuous at best at the moment, and I couldn’t afford any screw-ups.

More than that, she was just a normal person who got thrust into this situation. She was young and had her whole life ahead of her. She didn’t deserve to have some scandal fuck shit up for her already.

I sighed and walked over to her kitchen cabinets. It took me a minute, but I found a bottle of whisky. I poured myself a drink, knocked it back, and placed the glass down on the countertop.

“Listen,” I said after a minute. “There’s this charity event thing coming up. You should come.”

She looked up at me. “What kind of event?”

“Fancy,” I said. “I’m going with your mother, but it would look good if you showed up as well. Try and pretend like we’re a family or some shit.”

She nodded. “Okay, sure.”

“Good. I’ll let your mom know.”

She nodded again but didn’t answer. Her wide gorgeous eyes were so fucking sexy, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave. I poured another drink, knocked it back, and then grinned at her.

“I’ve had worse dates, you know,” I said.

She cracked a small smile. “Really? I pretended that I had to use the bathroom to get away from you and then I found a severed dog’s head in the hallway. You’ve had worse?”

“Sure,” I admitted. “One time my date stole my wallet and bought a boat on my card.”

“No way.”

“True story. That one never made it to the media.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “A whole boat?”

“A whole boat. It was actually pretty nice so I kept it.”

“You’re crazy.”

I grinned at her then nodded. “See you later, stepdaughter.”

She sighed, but the smile didn’t leave her face. I turned and left her apartment, feeling a weird chasm in my stomach.

We had to back off. She knew it and I knew it, and this whole thing just made it that much clearer.

Still, I fucking wanted her, and no amount of robot dog heads would change that fact.