Page 135 of Override

"I've changed the internet password." The words are almost conversational. "The televisions are being replaced tomorrow."

My pulse stumbles.

"The staff has been instructed to limit conversations to household necessities."

I blink. Surely...Surely I misunderstood.

"My phone..."

"You won't be needing one."

"My laptop?"

"Gone."

"The library..."

"The smart devices have already been disconnected."

One by one. Not in anger. Not impulsively. Methodically. He isn't taking electronics. He's removing every doorway I have left to the outside world.

The realization steals the air from my lungs. I take a step backward. He doesn't follow. Doesn't have to. Because he's already won.

"I don't want to lose you, Maeve." His voice is heartbreakingly gentle. "If that means making the world a little smaller until it's safe again..." He gives me that same soft smile. "...then that's what I'll do."

He turns toward the doorway. "Declan." The head of security appears immediately. "As of tonight, Mrs. Gallagher is not to leave the estate under any circumstances."

My breath catches. Ronan never looks back at me. He doesn't need to. He already knows I'll still be standing exactly where he left me.

The bedroom door closes somewhere upstairs. A guard speaks quietly into his radio.

Footsteps echo through the hallway as the staff begins carrying out new instructions.

And I'm left standing in the middle of a silent room...Finally understanding that prisons don't always have bars.

Chapter 28

Keaton (Skee)

The sixth exploit dies before it has a chance to finish.

Lines of code race down my monitor faster than most people could read them, searching for a weakness that doesn't exist anymore. I watch them anyway, refusing to look away until the familiar message blooms across the center of the screen.

ACCESS DENIED.

I let out a slow breath and lean back in my chair, scrubbing both hands over my face before dropping them into my lap.

"They rebuilt the network." The words barely make it past my lips.

Not patched. Not upgraded. Rebuilt.

Whoever Ronan brought in knew exactly what I'd done.

Every vulnerability I'd spent months quietly creating had disappeared overnight. The hidden access points I'd left behind, the secondary routes, the backup routes for those routes... all of them had been sealed behind an entirely new infrastructure.

I launch another exploit anyway. Because maybe I missed something. Maybe they missed something.

Hope is a dangerous thing in my line of work.