The alarm goes off at 9:14 in the morning.
Clipper the Ripper’s gravelly voice sounds from the monitors as I race into the living room.
Server instability.
Line 2A.
External manipulation suspected.
Silas curses under his breath, already on his feet, typing furiously. “Same node as last time? Are you fucking serious?”
“It’s someone internal.” Kieran scans the logs, jaw tight. “Has to be. The signature’s almost identical.”
“Or someone is copying it,” I add, already snatching up my laptop and heading toward the garage door. “Which means they’ve seen the data.”
Silence settles like a rock sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
Callie.
She’s been quiet since we told her to get the fuck out.
Too quiet.
I’m still chewing on the idea as Eris comes down the hall, hair wet from her shower. Her slouchy ripped tee and dark jeans short circuit my thoughts. I swear it’s like she doesn’t know the kind of damage she does just by existing. Like she hasn’t unraveled all three of us in under four days and fit right into our home as if we built it just for her.
“It can’t be fixed from here,” she guesses, stopping in front of me. “You’re going in?”
“Security pinged the anomaly five minutes ago. We’ve got eyes on everything, but…” I shrug. “We want to be sure.”
“I’m coming.”
Silas doesn’t even look up. “No.”
She arches a challenging brow. “If you’re going to try ruining my day, at least look at me while you make the attempt.”
I can’t help the grin that tugs at my mouth. “Let her come.”
Silas finally glances up. “Why? We’ll be occupied, and she’ll have nothing to do.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior, sir,” Eris smarts with more animation in her voice than I’ve heard from her. “Just put me in the corner with a deck of cards, or a bag of candy, or?—”
“This is your fault,” Silas tells me, pointing at her.
“If it’s Callie…” I say evenly, ignoring the way he clearly wants to argue with Eris, and she’s happily instigating him. “She’s going to want to see who goes in and who’s left here. There’s nothing she can do if we all go in.”
Kieran exhales slowly, then nods. “Fine. But you stay close to Jace or me. Leave Silas to his tasks, or he’ll bite our heads off.”
“Not exactly a hardship.” Eris rolls her eyes. “What kind of trouble could I possibly get into?”
That earns a low huff of a laugh from Kieran and a sharp look from Silas that says,Don’t encourage her.
I step closer to her, lowering my voice. “Are you sure you want to come? We could be hours.”
Her gaze lifts to mine, unbothered in a way that makes me uneasy and stupidly proud at the same time. “I don’t like being kept in the dark.”
“Neither do we.”
“Then we’re aligned.”
