Chapter 10 · The Six-Hour Order

"You gave me the server key, and now you're telling me I can't use it?"

Gabriel's hand closed around my wrist before I could slap the access card against the reader.

His grip wasn't tight enough to bruise. It didn't need to be. The blackstone contract around my throat pulsed once, hot against my skin, answering the command in his fingers.

"I gave you limited access," he said. "Not permission to tear through military files."

"Your server has been routing commands through my family's mining network. Those aren't military files. They're evidence."

"They're classified."

"So is the reason you dragged me here."

His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second.

I noticed. He knew I noticed. Neither of us moved.

The server room door stood open behind him. Cold white lights burned over the racks. Fans whined inside the steel cabinets, pushing hot air across the room. The noise filled the space between us, but it didn't cover the beat of his pulse under my fingertips.

I twisted my wrist.

"Let go."

"Say please."

"Go to hell."

His thumb pressed against the inside of my wrist. One slow stroke. Possessive. Testing.

"That wasn't please.