Page 115 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 2

Camera 16: the driveway again, different angle. Backup coverage in case Camera 1 failed. Redundancy was survival.

I closed the camera app and opened the security system controls. The lakehouse was wired with more than just cameras. Motion sensors on every door and window. Pressure plates on the front and back steps. Glass-break detectors in case someone tried to come through a window instead of a door. Infrared beams along the tree line that would trigger if anything larger than a deer crossed the perimeter.

I activated all of it.

The system beeped softly, confirming each sensor was online. Green lights across the board. I set the alerts to priority—any breach would send an immediate notification to my phone with a live feed of the triggered camera. I’d know within seconds if someone approached. I’d know within seconds if she was in danger.

I walked through the house one more time, checking locks manually, even though the system had already confirmed they were secure. The front door: deadbolt engaged, chain in place. The back door: same. The side door leading to the utility room: locked from the inside, key in my pocket.

Every window latched. Every entry point sealed.

I moved back to the living room and stood in the doorway, watching Truth sleep. The fire had nearly died, just a faint glow now, but I didn’t add more wood. She’d be fine. The house was insulated, the temperature controlled. She wouldn’t get cold.

I thought about waking her. Telling her I was leaving. But that would require explanations I wasn’t ready to give.Questions I couldn’t answer without lying more than I already planned to.

Better to let her sleep. Better to let her wake up in a few hours, warm and safe, with no idea where I’d been or what I’d done.

I pulled the throw blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over her carefully, making sure it covered her shoulders and legs. She stirred slightly but didn’t wake. Her breathing stayed steady, her face relaxed.

I crouched beside her for a moment, studying the curve of her jaw, the fullness of her lips, the way her lashes rested against her cheeks. She looked peaceful. Untouched by the violence that was about to unfold because of her.

Because of me, I corrected.

This wasn’t her fault. None of this was her fault. She’d been a surrogate. A contract. A transaction that should have been clean and simple.

But Kaisen had touched her. Violated her. Put his hands on what was mine before I’d even known it was mine.

And now he was going to pay for that.

I stood and checked my phone one more time. All cameras green. All sensors active. Perimeter secure.

I sent a quick text to Priest.

Leaving the lake house. Keep your phone on. If anything triggers, you move.

His response came within seconds:Got it. She’s covered.

A different kind of sinister had been unleashed the moment I went inside her. The moment I felt her surrender completely. She wasn’t just a contract anymore. She wasn’t just the mother of my child.

She was family.

And family was protected at any cost.

I thought about what I was about to do to Kaisen. What I was about to do to anyone who looked at her wrong, who thought they had a claim on her, who believed they could violate what was mine.

The ruthlessness didn’t feel cold anymore. It felt necessary. Righteous.

I pocketed my phone and grabbed my keys from the kitchen counter. My gun was already in the car—a Glock 19, suppressor in the glove box, extra magazine in the center console. I wouldn’t need it for Kaisen. What I had planned for him didn’t require bullets.

It required time. Isolation. The kind of suffering that couldn’t be ended with a trigger pull.

I walked to the front door and paused with my hand on the knob, looking back toward the living room one last time. I couldn’t see her from this angle, but I knew she was there. Sleeping. Safe. Depending on me to keep her that way.

“I got you,” I murmured.

I thought about the man I’d been an hour ago—the man who’d kissed her slowly, who’d worshiped her body, who’d promised her she wasn’t alone. That man had been real. Genuine. As close to human as I’d been in years.

But that man was a luxury I could only afford when the perimeter was secure. When the threats were neutralized. When the people who thought they could take what was mine understood the cost of that mistake.