Chapter 6

THE DISTANCE I KEPT

Banjo”Jaxson’s” pov

I had spent four years learning how to watch a woman without letting her know I was watching.Tonight, that distance felt like doing something wrong.The video from space moved unsteadily across the monitors in front of me, turning Byron Bay into a collection of cold images and moving shadows. Streets. Houses. Vehicles. Beachfront properties. Roads disappeared into darkness.And then I saw her.Kirrily.Even from thousands of feet above the ground, I knew the way she moved.She stepped out of a small building near the edge of town, pulled her jacket tighter around herself, and looked over her shoulder.

My fingers stopped above the keyboard.She did that when she was nervous.Three years ago, she used to take a quick look over her shoulder twice.Now she has done it four times.Something had changed.I leaned closer to the screen.“Come on,” I whispered.Kirrily stood below a streetlight, her face was too small to make out clearly. A vehicle passed behind her. She waited until it disappeared before crossing the road.She was alone.At least, that's what the footage showed.But I had learned a long time ago that being alone and being safe were two very different things.I switched cameras.Another angle.Still nothing.I became angry.

For four years, I had made sure I stayed far enough away from her,so that she could never connect me to the things happening around her.No calls,no messages,no unexpected appearances,no excuses to cross her path.I had watched her from hotel rooms, parked vehicles, rented offices, and places she would never think to look.I had watched her laugh.I had watched her cry.I had watched her leave flowers at her sister's grave on the anniversary of the disappearance.And every time, I had told myself the same lie.Distance was protection.Tonight, I wasn't sure I believed it anymore.I pulled up the file I had spent years refusing to open.

KIRRILY  ACTIVE PROTECTION Below her name was another,her sister.I suddenly felt nervous and worried.The cartel hadn't forgotten.People like them didn't forget.They waited.Four years ago, Kirrily's sister had crossed the wrong person, discovered something she wasn't supposed to discover, and disappeared completely before she could expose it. Everyone thought she was dead.Everyone except me.I had never found a body.That was the problem.Dead people were easier to protect than missing ones.

Because when there was no body, there was always the possibility that someone was still breathing.And if Kirrily's sister was alive, then Kirrily wasn't just a witness.She was leverage.I stared at the screen again.Kirrily had started walking toward the parking area.Then she stopped.My heart gave one hard beat.Someone was standing across the street.A man,black jacket,dark cap too still,too deliberate.I moved in,the image was not clear.“Who the hell are you?”The man turned a little not enough to identify by their face.But enough for me to notice the tattoo on the side of his neck.I suddenly felt so shocked.I knew that mark.I had seen it four years ago on a photograph taken outside a warehouse in Melbourne.One of the cartel's enforcers.A man who had disappeared after the secret carried out by the group fell.A man who was supposed to be dead.I pushed away from the desk so quickly my chair struck the wall.“No.”The word came out barely above a whisper.I replayed the footage.Again.And again.The tattoo remained.The man was real.Which meant the past had finally found its way back to her.I grabbed my phone.

For four years, I had kept one number saved under a name that wasn't really a name.Emergency.I had never used it.Until now.My thumb stayed over the screen.One call.One mistake.And Kirrily would know I had been lying to her all these years.She would know I had been watching.She would know that every time she thought she was alone, someone had been making sure she survived.And worse,she would know who I was.I closed my eyes.Her face appeared in my mind.Not the face on the satellite footage.The real one.The woman who once looked at me like she could see through every wall I had built.The woman I had walked away from because staying close to her would have gotten her killed.I remembered the last time I had seen her.She had been standing in the rain,angry,confused and hurt.“You don't get to decide what happens to me, Jaxson.”Her voice had followed me for four years.I had wanted to tell her the truth.God, I had wanted to.

But the truth wasn't something I could handle to her without handing her a death sentence too.So I had left.And she had hated me for it.Maybe that was easier.Maybe hatred was safer than love.I opened my eyes.On the screen, the man had started moving.He wasn't following Kirrily anymore.He was following someone else.I switched cameras.I suddenly froze in shocked.A second vehicle had pulled onto the street.A black SUV.It moved slowly past Kirrily's location before disappearing around the corner.I pulled up the license plate.My system processed it.Nothing.False registration.Of course.I grabbed my jacket.The room suddenly felt too small.“Stay where you are,” I spoke to the screen, as though she could hear me.But she kept walking.She reached her car.Opened the door.Paused.Then looked behind her.That same quick look showing fear.Four times.

My hand tightened around my phone.She sensed something.She knew,maybe not who,maybe not why.But something had finally reached her.I was already moving toward the door when my secure phone rang.I stopped.Nobody had that number.Nobody except three people.Two were dead.The third had disappeared six months ago.The phone rang again.I answered.“Jaxson.”Silence.Then a changed voice spoke.“You've been very careful.”Every muscle in my body locked.I said nothing.The voice laughed softly.“Four years is a long time to hide behind a woman who doesn't even know you exist.”My grip held the phone.“Who is this?”“You already know.”

I looked at the  footage.The man with the tattoo was gone.Kirrily was gone too.The screen showed an empty street.My heart was beating very fast.“What do you want?”The voice became colder.“We don't want anything from you.”A pause.“We want her.”My stomach dropped.“You stay away from her.”“I think you've misunderstood.”The voice lowered.“We're not coming for Kirrily because of what she knows.”I froze.“Then why?”A quiet laugh came through the speaker.“Because her sister is alive.”The call ended.For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.Her sister alive.Impossible.

I turned slowly toward the monitors.Every camera around Kirrily's location had gone black.Not one.All of them.Someone had broke through my system.Someone had known exactly where to look.And then one final screen moved back to life.It wasn't satellite footage.It was a live camera.Kirrily was standing in a dark room.Her face was pale.Her hands were shaking.And behind her stood a woman I hadn't seen in four years.A woman I had spent four years believing was dead.Kirrily turned around.The woman stepped into the light.And I heard Kirrily whisper a single word.“Sis?”My blood ran cold.Because the woman wasn't looking at Kirrily.She was looking directly into the camera.Directly at me.

Then she smiled.