Reese’s jaw tightens. “You don’t know that.”
“I know him,” I counter. “He’s not impulsive. He’s calculated. If he makes a move, it’s going to mean something. It’s going to be a part of something bigger. Not whatever you’re imagining right now.”
“I’m not imagining anything. I’m planning for it.”
“Yeah, well, I’m planning on not living in a constant state of paranoia.”
“You should be.”
I roll my eyes, unable to stop the faint grin from tipping up the corner of my lips. “You’re exhausting.”
“And you’re reckless.”
“I thought about legally changing my middle name to that actually.”
He exhales slowly, like he’s trying very hard not to throw me over his shoulder again and drag me back inside. Honestly, fifty-fifty chance he’s considering it.
“I’m not shutting it down,” he says finally.
I blink. “What?”
“The resistance,” he clarifies. “I’m not dismantling it. I know I told Malcolm I would, but I’m not.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, not surprised. “I figured.”
“That means…” He takes a step closer this time, his gaze locking onto mine, intense and unyielding. “I just made you a target.”
“Pretty sure I already was one.”
“Not like this. You hated being leverage before, but now that’s exactly what you are. More than ever. Now you’re pressure. Now you’re the easiest way for him to get to me.”
I open my mouth to argue, then close it again.
Okay. Fair.
“I’ll be fine for one day,” I tell him, softer this time but no less firm. “I’m not going off-grid. I’m going to my apartment, which you still have a fucking camera in, by the way. I’m going to figure out how to dump everything I pulled out of those servers, and then I’ll come back.”
“You have no idea what he’s planning.”
“Neither do you,” I shoot back. “Which is exactly why you should stay here and figure that out instead of babysitting me. You said that something felt off. If Malcolm is setting something up, you and Baz are the ones most likely to see it coming with how long you two have been fighting against him.”
His expression shifts. Not fully convinced, but…considering.
“This is the quickest way for us to figure out exactly what Malcolm is up to. You stay here and work with your people while I go do what I do best. That’s your lane, Reese. Not hovering over me while I try to download my brain into a hard drive.”
A beat passes. Then another.
“Felix.” I’m not above playing my last card. “I’ve been gone for two days. I asked the neighbor to feed him, but he’s still probably plotting my murder.”
That gets the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth, and he mutters, “Traitor.”
“Absolutely,” I confirm. “But he’s my traitor, and I’d like to keep him alive.”
Reese studies me for a long second, weighing something I can’t quite see. Then, finally, he exhales. “One day.”
“Look at that,” I say with a grin. “Growth.”
“One day,” he repeats, sharper. “You check in. You don’t disappear. And if anything feels off—anything—you leave immediately and call me.”
