Malachi’s claim over Elior was the first thing I fully intended to break.
My next step never landed.
A buzz—short, insistent, and luckily fucking quiet—vibrated against my ankle.
For a second, I didn’t even recognize the sensation. I’d buried the damn phone so deeply into the back of my mind that the vibration felt foreign, almost intrusive.
Then it buzzed again.
Shit.
I swallowed my irritation and darted a glance around the hall entrance. No one was nearby. Good. I pivoted smoothly and strode toward the dormitory building, each vibration against my boot making my molars grind.
The hallway was empty. I slipped inside my room, shut the door quietly, and knelt to dig the phone out of my boot.
It buzzed a third time, and I punched the answer button without even checking the ID.
“What?!”
There was a second of silence, just long enough for me to realize how raw that had sounded.
Then Patel’s voice came through. “Well, good to hear you’re alive.”
I stiffened. “I—”
“We were about a minute away from sending a goddamn tactical team through the front gates,” Patel continued,uncharacteristically harsh. “You missed your scheduled call, Agbayani.”
A cold jolt shot through me.
My scheduled call.
Fuck.
“Agent—” I started.
“I already ignored protocol once,” he snapped. “I held them off because I figured maybe you were in a situation where answering would blow your cover. I told them to give you five minutes to call back in. But I can’t do that again. The SAC is going to have my throat.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead, eyes squeezing shut.
Jesus Christ.
I hadn’t thought about the op.
Not once.
Not in… hours.
This place was making me lose my mind.
“Understood,” I said quickly. “It won’t happen again.”
“No,” he said tightly. “It really won’t.” Patel took a breath, then added more quietly, “Jace… I stuck my neck out for you today. If they’d gone in, your whole cover would’ve been blown. You need to stay focused.”
Focus.
Right.
I’d been focused, just not on the mission.
