Page 69 of Override

Coffee receipts. Fake errands. Security reroutes. Possible witnesses.

I’m already reaching for my jacket before I consciously decide to move.

The realization hits halfway through shoving my arms into the sleeves.

I’m leaving the office. For her. Not because the operation requires it.

Because I physically cannot sit still knowing she might walk back into that house and pay for this.

The thought alone makes my stomach turn.

I grab my keys off the desk.

Then stop long enough to glance once more toward the surveillance feed.

Maeve’s vehicle disappears beneath the trees leading toward her father’s estate.

Safe. For now. But not protected. Not really.

Something cold settles firmly into place beneath my ribs.

No one will hurt her again.

****

An hour later, I’ve committed at least seven felonies. Possibly nine.

Honestly the exact number stopped mattering around the third traffic camera.

Chicago blurs past outside the windshield while I drive one-handed through downtown, laptop open across the passenger seat and surveillance feeds bouncing rapidly across the screen.

Coffee shops. Traffic lights. Parking structures. Storefront cameras.

Everywhere Maeve’s vehicle could have reasonably passed gets wiped clean one system at a time.

Not erased completely. That would look suspicious. No, this is cleaner.

Looped footage. Timestamp corruption. Tiny glitches no one will question unless they already know exactly what they’re searching for.

Which they won’t.

Because Ronan Gallagher will look for recklessness. Defiance. A mistake.

Not a ghost quietly guiding his wife through the city.

My fingers move rapidly across the keyboard while another security feed dissolves beneath a clean overwrite.

There. Now if someone tracks her route, it’ll look like she spent the morning drifting through downtown Chicago. Normal.

Not secretly escaping her own house because she couldn’t breathe there anymore.

The thought lands heavier than I want it to.

My phone rings through the speakers.

Matt. Of course.

I answer through the car system without looking away from traffic.