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The knock came again, followed by Angelica's voice. "Code? You alive in there?"

I dragged myself to the door and opened it. Angelica stood there with red and white checkered bags from Down Home Diner, her expression shifting from cheerful to concerned the moment she saw my face.

"Jesus, Code. You look like hell."

"Thanks." I stepped back to let her in.

She breezed past me and started unpacking food on the dining table, carefully avoiding my monitors. Her eyes caught on the pillow and blanket still on the couch, then flicked to me with a knowing look. "Please tell me you slept at least a little."

"Some." Not enough. Never enough.

Katherine's bedroom door opened. She emerged in jeans and a sweater, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, no makeup. She looked soft and rumpled from sleep, and my chest tightened remembering last night. The kiss. Her hands in my hair. The way she'd called me out for being scared.

She was right. I was terrified.

"Morning." Her eyes met mine, searching. Pink colored her cheeks—she was remembering too.

"Morning."

Angelica looked between us, taking in the couch, our careful distance, the way neither of us could quite hold eye contact. A knowing smile spread across her face. "So. Did you two⁠—"

"Do either of you recognize this man?" I pulled up a driver's license photo. "Russell Dunlap. Former Google employee. Lives in Burbank. Ever heard of that name? Seen his face?"

They both studied the screen. Angelica shook her head immediately.

Katherine stared longer, her brow furrowed. "Russell. Russ. Rusty." She closed her eyes, clearly searching her memory. "No. Nothing."

"Which means the connection is buried deeper than we thought." I leaned against the table. "Family member of someone you know. Old roommate. Could be anything."

Katherine's face lit up. "But you found him. Code, that's amazing! When can we⁠—"

"He's gone."

The hope died in her eyes.

"What do you mean, gone?" Angelica set down the container of eggs she'd been unpacking.

I moved to my monitors and pulled up Russell's information. "Found his name around three-thirty this morning. Had Simon's contact check his apartment immediately. Place is abandoned. Dishes in the sink, but all his computer equipment is gone. Four days of newspapers outside.”

"Four days?" Katherine's eyes widened. "You've been investigating for six days.”

"Yeah." My jaw tightened. "He's monitoring for pursuit. Probably has alerts set up for anyone digging into his identity or operation. The second he detected someone getting close, he ran."

"So, he knows you're coming," Angelica said quietly.

"He knows someone's coming. But he left in a hurry—didn't have time to clean up properly. That means we rattled him. Got closer than he expected, faster than he planned for."

Another knock at the door. This time I recognized Jase's pattern. Two sharp raps, pause, one more.

Angelica opened the door. Jase stood there with Bonnie beside him, a basket covered with a blue cloth in her hands. Behind them, Amber and Lachlan bounced with barely contained energy.

"Aunt Angelica!" Lachlan pushed past his parents. "We're going to pick apples!"

"At Aunt Millie's orchard!" Amber followed her brother. "She said we can climb the trees if we're careful."

Bonnie held up the basket. "I brought brownies. Fresh this morning."

My stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear. Bonnie raised an eyebrow.