The lead investigator gestures to the screen. “Your anomaly detection caught the irregular traffic almost immediately. The honeytrap was…impressive.”
I nod once.
They explain how, once flagged, they fed him controlled busy work—sandbox environments, dummy files—while tracing every move he made. Watching. Logging. Letting him think he was clever.
The damage is minimal. No data loss. Everything ultimately contained.
And yet I’m still wound so tight.
Since I got back, something hasn't settled within me—it's as if I left more than just a place behind. I’m more acutely alert now, waiting for the next blow. I can't tell if this is the fallout from the breach, or simply the absence of the one place I truly felt at peace.
Then the door opens.
Reese is escorted in, still wearing that harmless look he perfected. He stops short when he sees me and very serious men in suits.
Good.
I stand before anyone can tell me not to.
“Sit,” I say sharply, pointing to the chair.
He hesitates.
I don’t blink.
He sits.
“We trusted you. I trusted you,” I say, my voice steady and loud enough for the room. “You exploited that. You tried to steal work that represents years of my life and the livelihoods of everyone in this company.”
He opens his mouth.
“No,” I cut in. “You don’t get to explain. You don’t get to spin this, shit face.”
“Good one!” Timantha chants.
I turn to her and wink. “I thought so too.”
Then I turn back to Reese. “You thought you were smarter than me. You weren’t. You thought I wouldn’t notice. I did. And you thought—”
I lean forward, hands flat on the table, voice sharp enough to cut.
“—you could flirt with me, distract me, get in my head, and walk away with work you didn’t earn. That I’d be too nice to blow your life up over it. Well, let me make something very clear, you ignorant ass hat—”
The lead investigator clears his throat. “Uh. Miss. We’ll take it from here.”
I hear them begin to Mirandize him as they escort him out. He doesn’t look back.
I sit down slowly, the adrenaline finally burning off and leaving exhaustion in its wake. Timantha’s voice cuts through first, then Anastasia’s, then others around the table—praise, relief, a few quiet cheers that feel almost surreal. Someone slides a fresh cup of coffee toward me without a word. Someone else thanks me. Another mutters that this could’ve been catastrophic.
And as the meeting adjourns and everyone begins to filter out of the room, one thought cuts through everything else—I haven’t rested all week.
I want to go back to Eli.
I pick up my phone to look back at the last message he sent me and smile.
Bear:I know we had our rules, but you know we broke those a thousand times over. You can admit you fell in love, Mama. I won’t hold it against you.
I didn’t respond to it. We were going back and forth about who was more stubborn and who was more sprung between the two of us.
